FD Insights Issue 12 | Page 47

T he fact that IT company annual events and conferences are often massive affairs is not really surprising when you think about it. With technology being such a pervasive and dominant force in today’s modern society, it’s only natural that some of the world’s biggest corporations are in IT and tech field. Add to that just how quickly technology is developing and changing, and it’s clear that annual tech giant conferences are not only going to be spectacularly large in terms of number of attendees and partner activity, but will be packed with news, information, product releases, keynote speeches, roundtable debates, demo stands and anything else technology-related you can think of as well. Often too big to be contained to a single venue, the conferences will sometimes span multiple venues and appear to dominate the cities in which they’re hosted. As such, First Distribution’s vendors host some of the IT industry’s biggest annual events. Always interesting conferences for regional partners to attend, the networking opportunities can be invaluable, with the only drawback being an unfavourable exchange rate for South Africans impacting on the ability for many smaller local ICT businesses to travel overseas and attend. With that in mind, here are some of the biggest and most influential industry conferences hosted by vendors of First Distribution. Partners take note, and start saving! Microsoft Convergence 4-7 April 2016 New Orleans Microsoft’s Convergence conference is mainly for businesses to explore emerging trends and solutions. Attendees are able to see how business leaders are bringing fresh, innovative ideas to market using a combination of busi