Canalys is excited that the Canalys Forums, the largest independent pan-regional events for senior channel partners, distributors and vendor management, are finally coming to North America in 2023! The hugely successful, dynamic and prestigious channel events will focus on the 2023 event theme, “Making Waves”, in Barcelona, Palm Springs and Bangkok.

Over the past 16 years, Canalys has hosted 34 forums in 18 cities around the world, attended by tens of thousands of leaders from the partner ecosystem. Last year alone saw more than 2,000 attendees, many of them VP-level and above, join our longstanding Canalys Forum EMEA and APAC events, with well over 2,000 face-to-face meetings held. The events were supported by more than 40 vendor sponsors and distributor partners.

This year, we launch our first-ever North American partner forum. These regional events bring together the brightest minds from the most senior levels of the IT channel, providing an unparalleled opportunity for vendors, channel partners and distributors to network and discuss industry trends, forecasts and strategy. The Canalys Forum North America, like its regional counterparts, will celebrate the channel’s pivotal role in the tech industry and will have partners at its core.

The theme for this year’s event is “Making Waves”. Market currents are tough to swim against and the outlook is difficult to forecast. The Canalys events are vital for the channel community to take time together to plan and navigate. The content and discussions at the Forums will concentrate on discovering ways to grow and improve financial health and stability in a tight market. A key element of that will be how to “make waves” – with new technology, business models and ecosystems. The Canalys Forums 2023 will showcase the power of the partner ecosystem and will provide a platform for the channel to meet, learn, celebrate and share knowledge, and help boost business in 2024 and beyond.

The Canalys Forums provide independent and impartial content from top global and regional Canalys analysts. The Canalys Forums 2023 will cover a variety of hot topics, including cloud, cybersecurity, ESG (environmental, social and governance), managed services and SaaS.

At the heart of the Canalys Forums is the channel. Our senior analysts will give their in-depth and uniquely independent view of the state of the channel, the burgeoning ecosystem model, and how imminent economic and technology trends will affect future business. Participants will identify cloud growth and how partners can support customers in an inflationary era. The events will explore whether cloud marketplaces are the future of distribution and where partner value lies.

We will discuss the next phase of partner programs beyond tiers, recognizing influence partners and managed services maturity within partners. Additionally, the events will cover the outlook for various key markets, categories and verticals. One key discussion topic for the Canalys Forums 2023 will be building repeatable, profitable success frameworks. Across mainstage content, Expert Hubs, workshops and meetings, the events will cover key interest areas, such as MSP models, private equity in the channel, channel marketing and demand generation, and the role of the GSIs. Partners and vendor sponsors will come away with a clear vision of growth expectations and which segments and markets to focus on together with their vendor partners, in turn understanding how to “make waves”.

The 2023 event series will continue to be a valuable and dynamic event for the IT channel. Attendees will discuss critical topics that will help vendors, distributors and channel partners plan to “make waves” in 2024 and beyond. We welcome your feedback as we continue to build and refine our agenda.

Please let us know if you are interested in joining as a channel partner attendee, distributor supporter, media partner or sponsor.

EMEA: 3 – 5 October, Barcelona, Spain | EMEA interest

North America: 13 – 15 November, Palm Springs, California | North America interest

APAC: 5 – 7 December, Bangkok, Thailand | APAC interest