This inaugural Dell event held October 12-14, 2011 in Austin, Texas was a stellar success and proved to be Dell’s “launch party” as a solutions company, showcasing our place in the industry as a full enterprise solutions provider and a committed partner.
Dell World had over 1,400 attendees, including 200 Channel Partners from the Americas. Attendees participated in 20 breakout sessions, 60 solutions pods, 10 keynotes, a solutions showcase and 10 webinars. Dell World created quite a bit of buzz, with more than 100 Dell World stories featured across various media outlets that reached 89.6 million people. Additionally, social media captured more than 12 million Twitter followers, numerous photos on Flickr and 5,400 blog posts!
Michael Dell conveyed during his keynote presentation “the Channel is Key to Dell’s success”. Dell’s focus and commitment to the Channel Business was entrenched in presentations and panel discussions throughout the conference. Attendees commented on Dell’s commitment to the success of its Partners and customers, and to providing a complete line of products and solutions.
As Dell World was largely targeted towards customers, the PartnerDirect team hosted several exclusive events for Channel Partners where they had the opportunity to network with Dell PartnerDirect sales and marketing representatives. On Thursday, the team hosted a Channel Solutions Lounge featuring subject matter experts and content stations covering a number of areas including: U.S. & Global Channel Marketing, Partner Portal & Social Media, Operations, Sales, Dell Financial Services, Federal & SPA Marketing, Enterprise Solutions, Client Solutions, Services and Imaging.
Michael Dell joined Greg Davis to host a special invite-only lunch session with 200 executives from our top Channel Partners. Michael discussed Dell’s commitment to the Channel as well as Dell’s long-term strategy and the Force10 acquisition. He concluded the lunch by taking questions from the Partner attendees. Several Partners noted their appreciation for Michael taking time out of his schedule to meet with them in an exclusive, invite-only setting.
Thursday evening, Dell PartnerDirect and Microsoft hosted a networking reception for all Channel Partners. This was an exciting evening of networking and collaboration between Channel Partners, Dell executives and numerous other Dell sales and marketing experts.
Dell World concluded with a PartnerDirect Panel Discussion on “The State and Future of the Channel”. Panelists included: Greg Davis, VP-GM, GCC; Paul Shaffer, Executive Director, Global Marketing and Operations; Jeff Hine, Channel Analyst, Enterprise Strategy Group; Dave Cantu, COO and Co-founder, Redapt and Paul Wallace, Director of Business Development, SHI, Inc.
If you were unable to attend, be sure to check out the coverage recap and view all the sights and sounds from Dell World 2011.
Be on the look-out for an upcoming announcement to save the date for the not-to-be-missed Dell World 2012 event.