GTDC Spotlights Emerging Vendor Opportunities to Accelerate Success with Distribution Partnerships

ST. PETERSBURG, FL--(Marketwired - May 17, 2017) - The Global Technology Distribution Council (GTDC) announced today that it is shining a spotlight on partnership opportunities between emerging services vendors and GTDC members -- the world's leading IT distributors, driving more than $130 billion in annual sales -- at the 2017 GTDC Summit, Sept. 6-7, in San Francisco.

The GTDC is inviting emerging vendors selling cloud, telecom, mobile and other next-generation services to attend an exclusive education and networking session, "Channel to the Top," at 3:45-5:30 p.m., Wednesday, Sept. 6, during the 2017 Summit.

This dedicated session will give emerging services vendors the opportunity to:

• Meet the executives driving emerging services initiatives and programs at leading distributors
• Ask questions about how to partner with these leading distributors
• Engage 1:1 with distribution executives during an exclusive networking session

"It's not only a great opportunity to meet distribution decision-makers; it's a means of getting key questions addressed, followed by deeper dives during the rest of our Summit conference," said GTDC CEO Tim Curran.

This is the second special session for emerging vendors hosted by GTDC. The interest generated by the first one, held at the 2016 GTDC Summit, prompted the organization to not only reprise the program but to add it to the Summit's main agenda, highlighting the importance of emerging services to the future of distribution.

"Distributors are rapidly evolving their service offerings in many new directions, from addressing developments in cloud and managed services to mobility and hyper-converged infrastructure, for example," Curran pointed out. "Multivendor solutions have always been a hallmark of distribution, and that reality will continue to strengthen in the digital era, reinforced by the fact that approximately 600 new vendors are added by GTDC members every two years. We're now embarking on helping newcomers better understand what it takes to be successful with them and in the channel."

Daniel Pfeiffer, vice president of marketing and partnerships for OrionVM, was one of the emerging vendor executives who attended last year's Summit. "As an emerging vendor, our company was provided a unique opportunity at the GTDC's Emerging Vendor breakout session to educate the IT community about the benefits of wholesale cloud and the tech innovations that make the business model possible," said Pfeiffer. "We participated in many meaningful discussions that help both vendors and channel partners address the challenge of a rapidly changing IT landscape. The 1:1 networking with top distributors has directly led to new partnerships and clients, and we are thrilled to see this event taking place again this year."

The GTDC is identifying emerging vendors to invite to the "Channel to the Top" networking session. Emerging vendors interested in attending can request additional information by contacting Andrea Salanco at info@gtdc.org.

About The Global Technology Distribution Council
The Global Technology Distribution Council is the industry consortium representing the world's leading tech distributors. GTDC members drive more than $130 billion in annual worldwide sales of products, services and solutions through diverse business channels. GTDC conferences support the development and expansion of strategic supply-chain partnerships that continually address the fast-changing marketplace needs of vendors, end customers and distributors. GTDC members include AB S.A (WSE: ABPL), ABC Data, Arrow Electronics (NYSE: ARW), Computer Gross Italia (SES: MI), D&H Distributing, ELKO Group, Exclusive Networks, Ingram Micro (NYSE: IM), Intcomex, Logicom (CSE: LOG), Pinnacle, SiS Technologies (HKSE: 0529), ScanSource (NASDAQ: SCSC), SYNNEX (NYSE: SNX), Tarsus, Tech Data (NASDAQ: TECD), TIM AG and Westcon-Comstor.