The Citrix Summit schedule in San Francisco this year offered more learning opportunities than ever before. The event packed several weeks’ worth of training into just a few days to maximize the educational value for our partners and prepare them for the huge business potential in this IT marketplace ahead of us.
Keynotes
Powerful keynotes from Citrix President and CEO Mark Templeton as well as other Citrix executives laid the foundation for the journey of mobile workstyles and cloud services. With a focus on solutions-selling, the keynotes prepared Citrix partners to navigate the remainder of the conference and dig deeper into this new solutions approach to selling. As personal, private and public clouds converge, and customers consider workforce mobility programs, desktop virtualization initiatives and the benefits of cloud infrastructures, Citrix partners can play a vital role throughout the lifecycle. And the keynotes were one of many educational moments throughout Summit with announcements around the upcoming version of AppDNA, the new ShareFile and GoToMeeting for Enterprise, the new release of VDI-in-a-box, and more.
Four session tracks on cloud era solutions
Summit delivered an expanded choice of technical and business breakouts to help our partners understand how to enable mobile workstyles and power cloud services for their customers. With over 70 breakout sessions to choose from across four highly focused tracks, partners were educated on solutions for the topics that customers are undoubtedly asking about including: Desktop Virtualization, Mobile Workstyles, Enterprise Cloud Networks and Cloud Convergence.
Intensive, hands-on training to build new skills
Technical education and skills training were a huge focus for Summit this year. The deep-dive, instructor-led Learning Labs and on-demand, self-paced Learning Labs were a huge hit providing attendees a significant opportunity to master specific Citrix technologies that target desktop virtualization, cloud infrastructure, networking and much more.
Tools and tactics for business growth at the Partner Solutions Center
The Partner Solutions Center brought together experts, tools, programs and campaigns to enable partners to get the most out of their Citrix Partner Network membership. Attendees received demos, resources, and one-on-one guidance from subject matter experts empowering them to grow their business, simplify their marketing activities, and reduce their spend.
Partners learned how to lead their customer’s desktop transformation and how to use the Virtual Computing Demo Center to show them what their future could look like. Representatives from key industry suppliers like Microsoft and Cisco were on-hand to talk with partners about how they can leverage these alliances to provide a more complete virtualization solution that will increase their strategic value with customers. Plus, attendees saw first-hand what tools and resources are available to better manage marketing and sales motions with easy-to-use platforms such as Citrix Content Syndication, Citrix Marketing Concierge and the new Partner Dashboard.
The Partner Appreciation Party Kicked It into High Gear
Attendees were cheering until they were hoarse when BUSH, the mega-platinum alternative rock group from the UK, amped up the excitement with an electrifying performance at the Summit Partner Appreciation Party. Our partners danced, dined, and mingled Citrix-style after an intensive day of learning. It was a great way to blow off steam and rev up for the rest of the week.
In short, the Summit 2012 agenda was a comprehensive blend of training, networking, and entertainment that you won’t want to miss in 2013.
