The annual PSNI Supersummit is an opportunity for affiliated integrators, manufacturer partners, and industry guests to network, share ideas, and learn about critical issues and new business practices. This year’s event in Dallas featured a strong line-up of keynote speakers including:
- Theresa Payton, cybersecurity expert and star of CBS TV series “Hunted”
- Brian Beaulieu, CEO of ITR Economics and author of “Prosperity in the Age of Decline”
- JB Woods, CEO of TSIA (Technology Services Industry Associate) and author of “Technology-as-a-Service Playbook”
- Steven M. R. Covey, co-founder and CEO of CoveyLink and best-selling author of “The Speed of Trust”
These informative topics were supplemented by panel discussions on cybersecurity; coopetition between manufacturers, consultants, and integrators; and marketing and the media—all moderated by Tim Albright from AVNation.
Getting Social at the Summit
Attendees were exposed to so much excellent information, it was hard to capture every new idea and inspirational speaker quotes—social media to the rescue. #PSNI2017 makes it easy to relive event highlights like the Synnex commercial and Tracker Payton’s quote, “If you’re on the Internet, you live in a bad neighborhood.”
Our PSNI Supersummit group was very social. We had 84 attendees put up over 500 posts. The combined reach of this group was 312,322 individuals. By the last day of the summit, we had achieved 1,302,923 impressions for our posts. Now that’s social sharing!
Videos That Stunned, Shocked or Just Made Us Laugh
A now 6-year tradition, PSNI’s preferred vendor partners were well represented throughout the event displaying videos geared specifically toward attendees. This year’s videos went above and beyond with product announcements, brand recognition, customer appreciation messages and downright comedy for the attendees.
Introducing New Services and Committees
Supersummit is more than information sharing. It’s also full of practical, grow-your-business advice and offerings. This year we launched AVNOC, PSNI’s white-label Managed Services Solutions that affiliated integrators can use to expand or initiate managed services in their business. This is an exciting program because services are becoming increasingly important to an integrator’s revenue mix. It’s not easy to build a managed services program from the ground up. AVNOC solves many of the time-intensive and cost-intensive issues associated with adding managed services to an integration business.
PSNI also introduced a Marketing Committee and an HR Committee comprised of representatives from select member companies. These committees are responsible for initiating and executing programs that will help the marketing and HR teams at each affiliate level, implement best practices, access training and resources, and learn from the group. Access to the combined experience and expertise found in a network of 31 AV affiliates is one of the strongest benefits PSNI membership provides.
Recapping Our Favorite Moments
This two-and-a-half-day event was filled with so many great moments, it’s hard to single out just a few. But we’ll try.
Cybersecurity: The former White House CIO, Theresa “Tracker” Payton shared her perspective on why best practices were the worst thing to happen to cybersecurity. When everything on your network can be monetized by criminals, you can’t be complacent. Thinking best practices will protect you is dangerous. Her advice? “Admit all security is defeatable.” The conversation on cybersecurity in the AV industry is just heating up. Watch for more. #hackersgonnahack
B4B: Where Tech is Headed. JB Woods presented a fascinating look at what is happening to IT suppliers. 71% of hardware manufacturers have fading product revenues. Solution complexity is decreasing. Price per unit is falling. Software is eating hardware. Cloud is eating on premise. Services are eating products. And business buyers are eating the IT budget. So where does this leave us? We need to sell outcome services to the business user. “B4B is an age where a supplier achieves an outcome FOR a business customer.”
The Speed of Trust. Steven M. R. Covey shared the story of how Taco Bell and Doritos collaborated on a new product, the Doritos Locos Tacos. This product was launched on a verbal agreement. Now that’s trust. Had they delayed the launch to work out a contract, they would have lost the opportunity to make millions of dollars. The stakes for our companies may not be that high but the idea is the same and that’s what Covey calls the Trust Tax. When trust is high, speed goes up and costs go down. When trust is low, speed goes down and costs go up. But the good news is that trust can be learned.
Want to Go Next Year?
To learn more about becoming a PSNI affiliate, visit our About page. You can check out the great work our affiliates do in the Project Showcase.
