VISION: Looking Forward

Kicking off in style, our Chairman Perry Ashby welcomed the Group to the (virtual) room with NG business updates. We were straight into a panel session facilitated by MD David Tulip, we were joined by Greg Jones of Datto, Paul Ffelan of Ingram Micro, Phyl Morgan of Pax8, and Ben Jenkins of Threatlocker. ‘Outlook for 2022’ was the topic, with discussions around threats and opportunities, a look back at the last year, and some ‘metaverse’ thrown in for good measure.

After lunch, our Inspire partners led their workshops. With Datto hosting a ‘fireside chat’ with deputy CISO Dan Garcia, Pax8 covering how to capitalise on cloud transformation, Ingram Micro did a deep-dive on the new Microsoft NCE changes, and Threatlocker discussing how to prevent ransomware with zero trust. Hugely valuable content was shared which NG members can catch up on - recordings available in the event Slack channel.

NG Commercial Director, and Sweethaven CEO Mel Rambridge was joined by Sweethaven CTO Martin Byrne for an introduction to the education market, the threats and opportunities, and how to get started in the sector.

As has become a highlight of the Network Group virtual events, we held our evening team activity – fuelled by some cheese & wine from the NG EventBoxes. Teams AppRiver, Egnyte,Datto, Inbay, Liongard, Invarosoft, Ingram Micro Cloud, Pax8, Mesh, Terra Computer, and ThreatLocker joined us in a battle of knowledge to lead their teams to victory! Congratulations to team Datto on their win.

Heading into Day 2, NG Exec Mark Matthews leads NG Welcome with an overview on First Aid for Mental Health, going over why it's crucial and how NG can help.

Partners AppRiver, Egnyte, Exclaime,r Liongard, Terra Computer, and WatchGuard joined us for the first session of the day, in a quick-fire round of table hopping. A new twist on the NG classic ‘speed dating’ style interaction, allowing our partners to present to the whole Group in small groups for a short period.

After lunch we were into our mini-sessions, starting with Terry Cheesman of Haines Watts sharing his knowledge on R&D Tax Credits, how members can identify R&D activities, capturing expenditure, preparing a claim, and developing a strategy.

We once again welcomed Matt Hodkinson of Total Growth Ownership into the room, Matt shared how differentiating was key to dominating in 2022 and how members can take back market share and smash business pipeline goals.  

Finishing up the event was Robert Wilburn of N-Able and David Wilkeson of MSP Advisor, who went in depth on  key business transformation challenges they see, particularly with regards to top-line growth and operations, and the ways companies are addressing them. They also shared an innovative new benchmarking program to help MSPs drive their businesses forward which NG members can get involved with.

Thankyou to all of our members and partners who joined us over the two days and made yet another successful NG virtual event. We’re looking forward to being back in person with you again at the Roadshow in Newcastle on 27th April.