Following on from the successful events held earlier in 2009, the Partner Tour will continue into the second half of the year and beyond, with six further dates planned. In October, ScanSource will visit Sweden, France and Spain, before stopping off in Germany and Italy in November. The Partner Tour will reach Poland in March 2010. Registration for all six events is open now and more information can be found online at www.partnertour.eu.
“We’re excited to have the opportunity to visit so many different countries,” said Xavier Cartiaux, Managing Director, ScanSource Europe. “The aim of the Partner Tour is for ScanSource to come to our resellers and give them everything they need – best-of-breed vendors exhibiting the latest solutions, sales training and networking opportunities – in a location near them. For four of the next six dates it will be the first time we’ve done a Partner Tour in that country, so we’re looking forward to engaging with our partners locally and finding out how we can help them grow their business.”
The opening two legs of the 2009 Partner Tour again raised the bar for channel events in the AutoID and EPoS industry. The combination of memorable locations, comprehensive programmes and networking opportunities drew resellers to these local roadshows.
“Once again ScanSource provides an event that adds real value to the partner community,” said Peter Howes, Sales Leader for Honeywell Scanning & Mobility in Europe, Middle East and Africa. “The team clearly show they understand the issues that the channel is facing in these tough economic times and they continue to deliver a high value proposition to assist in driving profitability for their partners.”
The first event of the year, held in Den Bosch, the Netherlands on 12th May for ScanSource’s Dutch-speaking resellers, took place at the Talent Factory, a converted warehouse and was visited by 150 people. 250 people were in attendance at the UK event, which was hosted at Villa Park, Birmingham on 4th June.
Attendees were able to network with ScanSource employees and representatives from the distributor’s vendor partners. In addition, many ISVs were in attendance to showcase their solutions. The Den Bosch event saw 16 vendors exhibiting, while there were 27 in Birmingham.
The UK event also marked the first time that ScanSource Communications Europe were present on the same event as ScanSource Europe, with vendors and resellers from the telecoms world joining the barcoding attendees.
Both events offered a sales training session from Richard Denny, one of the foremost motivational business speakers in the UK. “The motivational talk was good at making one stop and think about strategies that could be put into action, to beneficial effect,” said attendee Kees Spitters of Codeway. “The networking opportunities were really valuable – the Partner Tour gave us the opportunity to meet with a range of vendors and ISVs all within one day.”
Because business doesn’t have to be serious all the time, the two events closed with a networking dinner and entertainment from some of the top stand up comedians in the country.