Agenda
Pipeline is a dynamic three-day event filled with insightful sessions, exciting activities, and valuable networking opportunities.
Join Tech Research Asia Co-Founder and Asia Pacific Research Director Trevor Clarke as he unpacks the biggest developments reshaping Australia’s IT channel – and what’s coming next. Drawing on data, research and deep client conversations, Trevor will cut through the hype to unpack where growth lies for MSPs, integrators and consultants. Trevor will lay out:
- Key stories and market shifts in the past 12 months – and why they matter now
- What’s next for traditional growth drivers such as cloud migration and security as they mature and the channel reaches saturation point
- Where the big money in AI is being made – and why it’s not where many partners are looking
- Spending drivers creeping back into channel strategy
- The five predictions every tech partner needs to consider for the year ahead
Expect sharp insights, grounded analysis based on work with end users and the channel, and a realistic take on where tech partners should consider placing their bets next.
Brad Howarth presents a snapshot of techpartner.news' State of the MSP Report, including data from our MSP Index program. The snapshot will cover such aspects as MSP offerings, customer size segments and how MSPs are responding to shifting client needs, navigating operational challenges, and preparing for future growth.
Join us for an engaging session with Rhonda Chandler, ConnectWise's enthusiastic Channel Development Manager, as she introduces the ConnectWise Partner Program. Discover how this program can enhance your sales and marketing efforts. Get ready to explore new opportunities together!
AI is reshaping infrastructure needs of the mid-market and enterprise – particularly for financial services, federal government, retail, universities, heavy industries and transport – but not always in the ways partners expect. In this lightning talk, Astrid Groves, Schneider Electric General Manager for Channels, Alliances and Operations, will challenge the assumption that co-location data centres are where all the action will be for channel partners. The financial case for where partners put IT workloads is changing, according to Astrid. She will make the case for rethinking alliances to meet the complexity of AI-era workloads – from cooling challenges to commercial viability. Featuring Astrid Groves, General Manager - Channel, Alliances and Operations, Schneider Electric.
AI has been sold as a game-changer – but for many businesses, the reality hasn’t lived up to the promise. In this candid fireside chat, SixPivot founder and director Faith Rees unpacks why so many AI proofs of concept stall or fail, even when the ROI looks strong on paper.
We’ll explore what’s driving the disconnect between hype and execution, the challenges partners face in moving from pilot to production, and the differences in how SMEs and enterprises approach AI investment. If you’re navigating AI opportunities with customers, this session will help you separate signal from noise – and avoid the POC graveyard.
Explore how Managed Service Providers (MSPs) can close the profit gap by adopting smarter security practices, operational efficiencies, and scalable solutions. This session will provide actionable insights and tools to help MSPs protect their clients, streamline service delivery, and unlock new growth opportunities. Featuring Shaun Witherden, Senior Vice President of MSP Enablement, Kaseya.
Damien Thomlinson is a decorated Australian veteran whose journey from the elite ranks of the 2nd Commando Regiment to a life-altering explosion in Afghanistan is a testament to resilience. After losing both legs while serving in 2009, he defied all odds, teaching himself to walk with prosthetics and transforming his life into one of purpose and inspiration.
Thomlinson tells his tale touching on resilience and overcoming adversity, the power of teamwork and determination, motivation and goal setting.
Tech firms lose business they could have kept – not because they failed to deliver, but because they failed to re-sell themselves when it mattered most. David Beal, senior advisor at Australian ICT and digital advisory firm IBRS, has overseen numerous procurement processes and says many tech firms fail to make the most of this opportunity.
In this candid session, David will reveal why those bids often fail, the common missteps incumbents make, and how to approach re-engagement with the right mindset. This will be valuable advice for tech partners who want to retain clients during contract renewals – especially in a market where procurement scrutiny is increasing.
- Live Copilot Agent build: Experience a full end-to-end demo of how Copilot Agents are created using natural language prompts, triggers, and M365 integrations.
- Real-world business impact: See how Struber reduced admin time using agents—and the operational gains that followed.
- Channel-ready monetisation opportunities: Learn how partners can monetise Copilot Agents as part of their service offering.
- Scenarios and use cases you can apply now: Walk through practical examples—like onboarding assistants and stakeholder coordinators—that partners can use immediately.
What do organisations really want from their technology partnerships – and what gets in the way? In this session, three senior technology leaders share what works (and what doesn’t) when engaging with vendors, MSPs and MSSPs.
Hear from Stephen Bennett (Domino’s), Andrew Selwood (Neumann Steel) and Chris McLaren (High Impact Academy, formerly Queensland Government) as they explore what drives meaningful engagement, where trust is built or broken, how to approach onboarding and offboarding, and what distinguishes a standout partner from the rest. Expect practical lessons and real-world examples from both sides of the table.
Join Brad Clarke's panel of industry Gurus as they share actionable insights about overcoming profitability challenges, optimising go-to-market strategies, and enhancing business processes for sustained growth.
Discover how Huntress equips and supports businesses/partners to outsmart cyber threats and protect what matters most. From identifying vulnerabilities to deploying actionable defense strategies, we are all about levelling up your security game. Let’s evolve to protect—together! Featuring Jimmy Wang, Sales Manager, Huntress.
Owning and growing an MSP is challenging—and often isolating. You’re making critical decisions, navigating constant change, and wondering if you’re on the right path. The truth is: you don’t know what you don’t know, and you don’t know what good looks like until you see it.
That’s where IT Nation Evolve Peer Groups come in.
In this session, Norm Jefferies, Managing Director of Truis, and Steve Constantinou, Co-Founder of Emerging IT, share how joining IT Nation Evolve has transformed their businesses and lives. From strategic clarity and peer support to personal growth and leadership development, they’ll reveal how being part of a high-performing peer group helped them unlock new possibilities.
Why IT Nation Evolve Peer Groups?
- After 25 years, Evolve knows what a best-in-class MSP looks like—and how to get you there.
- Members experience 26% higher EBITDA and grow revenue 20% faster than non-member MSPs
- The global community includes 650+ MSP companies, 2,000 individual members, and represents 23,000 employees.
- Evolve is more than business—it cares about the one thing we all have: a life.
- Members are held accountable to their goals through structured peer engagement, shared planning, and regular check-ins.
- Membership includes powerful tools to help you plan, benchmark financial performance, and elevate operational maturity.
This session will inspire you with real stories, practical takeaways, and a renewed sense of what’s possible when you surround yourself with the right people—and let them hold you to your highest potential.
Roundtable: Australia's next generation broadband is coming - How can MSPs take advantage? Hosted by Aussie Broadband
Australia's internet speeds are getting a major upgrade – for free. September 14 will mark the biggest uplift in Australia's average bandwidth since the introduction of ADSL, cable internet and the formation of the national broadband network. But how can you and your customers take advantage of one of the biggest disruption events in Australia's internet history? In this talk from Aussie Broadband's Michelle Peter and Kent Plummer, you'll hear about what's changing for wholesalers, what you and your customers will need to do to take advantage of the new multi-gigabit offerings, and what these speed upgrades mean for the future of Enterprise Ethernet.
Aussie Broadband will also take you through the multi-carrier last mile options available to their ABB wholesale customers, including their homegrown Aussie Fibre and the ability to mix Aussie Fibre with nbn connections and 4G/5G backup. Michelle will also take you through some of the tools, promos and features you can access to stay ahead of the game.
Roundtable: Eliminating data theft & ensuring compliance through data-centric security. Hosted by GuardWare
Despite massive investments in cybersecurity, data continues to be the primary target, and remains one of the least protected assets. The high-profile breaches of Medibank, Optus, and Qantas have exposed the limitations of traditional, perimeter-based security models and underscored the urgent need to shift focus toward securing the data itself.
This breakout session explores how a Data-Centric Security (DCS) approach, which persistently protects data wherever it resides, is reshaping cyber resilience strategies. From securing sensitive files in the cloud to safeguarding data shared with suppliers, DCS offers a cost-effective, compliance-friendly solution that neutralizes the risk of theft, even in the event of a breach.
This is why DCS is a core pillar of the Australian Defence Cyber Strategy, as highlighted by Dr. Paul Robards, Chief Data Integrity Officer, in the Defence Digital Strategy 2.0. As technology partners take on greater responsibility for helping clients navigate growing cybersecurity expectations and regulatory complexity, embedding data resilience into their solutions is more important than ever.
GuardWare, an Australian Defence-backed DCS vendor, will lead this discussion. Its “Data Self-Defence” capability uses persistent encryption in use to secure all data types, from Office documents and PDFs to CAD files, source code, and sensor data. This approach ensures that even if data is stolen, it remains protected.
Roundtable: The future of IT management - Insights from ManageEngine’s AI roadmap. Hosted by ManageEngine.
Get a first-hand look at how ManageEngine’s evolving AI roadmap is creating new opportunities for partners in Australia. This session highlights how AI-powered ManageEngine IT solutions are driving customer value and unlocking scalable growth across the channel ecosystem.
Open forum for channel firm founders and managers with Cymax’s Sean Dendle and HaloPSA
Managing Director of Brisbane-based technology partner Cymax Sean Dendle has decades of experience in the IT industry. At Pipeline, he will lead a HaloPSA-sponsored breakout session designed for founders and managers of channel firms wanting to achieve great growth or scalability. This will be an opportunity to pick the brains of an MSP leader to engage in grounded strategic talk with an experienced peer.
Hear from Anna Furlong, Executive Director at Melbourne-based MSP The Virtual IT Department, as she shares how the business has automated more than 50 workflows and saved 160+ hours per month, freeing up staff to focus on higher-value work; and the firm's bold plans to take this further for customers with AI agents. This is a must-attend for business leaders looking to boost efficiency, reduce overheads and rethink how they deliver managed services.
Autonomous AI agents promise to change how tech partners operate, but what do partners automating their businesses think? In this panel, they tell us what’s working, what’s not, what they’ve learned, and what they think the future of automated tech firms look like and how they’re planning to get there.
Joining the discussion will be Platinum Technolgy founder and director Steve Raw. The company is using automation with the goal of growing revenue to allowing their staff to move into more valuable positions . The firm has gradually automated more services, such as being able to automate all the IT needs for a new hire, including imaging laptops, account creation and licence provisioning. As a result, co-founder and director Steve Raw has been clear with his people that the nature of their roles will change over the next five years.
Whether you’re an MSP or another type of tech services provider, a startup or an established firm, this session is designed to give you real world context to put around automation hype, and challenge you to think about the future of your firm in a highly automated world.
Panelists include Steve Raw, Founder & Director, Platinum Technolg; Anna Furlong, Executive Director, The Virtual IT Department; Shant Soghomonian, Senior Director & General Manager, Channel Sales ANZ, Dell Technologies
Featuring Nate Cochrane, Contributing Editor, techpartner.news.
Tech partners are gearing up for a legal battle they hope never comes, with new ransomware reporting rules and penalty tiers in place, clients assessing risks of cyber contracts, and AI compounding risks. This panel discussion examines how partners can not only protect themselves, but turn risk into profit.
Featuring Kat McCrabb, Founder & Director, Flame Tree Cyber; Steven Hunwicks, Partner, Thomson Geer; Tim Windever, Business Manager, Tech Data (A TD Synnex Company) (Sponsor); and moderated by techpartner.news Contributing Editor Nate Cochrane.
Diversity isn’t a nice-to-have – it’s a business advantage. In this panel, senior leaders unpack how inclusive leadership leads to stronger decisions, broader talent pipelines, and better commercial outcomes.
Hear from Julia Spicer (Engage & Create Consulting), Alex Coates (Interactive) and Nicole Forrester (WWF-Australia) as they explore the tangible benefits of gender diversity, Indigenous inclusion, and rural representation.
They’ll discuss the investment opportunities in regional Australia, how to build high-performing diverse teams, and why a broad range of voices is more critical than ever in the age of AI.
Breakout Session: Rethinking Cloud Backup — Escape Legacy Pain & Reduce Ransomware Risk. Hosted by Dropsuite.
Legacy backup solutions can hinder MSPs—causing operational pain, complicating compliance, and exposing clients to ransomware risk. Yet many partners feel stuck due to contractual lock-in or the challenge of migrating archive data.
Learn how forward-thinking MSPs are simplifying backup, reducing client risk, and responding faster when Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace go down.
What you’ll walk away with:
- Strategies to overcome backup limitations—licensing, contracts, and outdated models
- How to migrate legacy archives without disruption
- How to plug gaps in incremental email backup that increase client exposure
- Faster recovery paths when M365 is hit by ransomware
- What the NinjaOne + Dropsuite acquisition means for your business
Roundtable: Why Edge Still Matters - Resilience, Performance & Control Beyond the Cloud. Hosted by Vertiv.
Edge is far from dead. In fact, it's gaining serious momentum. With the Edge data centre market forecast to grow from $10.4B in 2023 to $29.6B by 2028 (Markets and Markets, 2024), the question is no longer if Edge matters, but how ready you are to seize the opportunity.
In this fast-paced session, we’ll explore why power protection, resilience and remote monitoring are more critical than ever in today’s distributed environments, where IT systems and physical infrastructure are converging and increasingly interdependent. As more data is processed closer to where it’s generated, performance, visibility and control at the Edge are essential.
Designed for the channel, this session will help partners align growing demand with practical, revenue-generating solutions.
What to expect:
- Why Edge still matters and why now is the time for partners to lean in.
- Portfolio highlights: Vertiv Edge-ready solutions, including UPS, PDU and remote IT management, and how they address today’s biggest Edge challenges.
- Customer story: A case study presented by Think Solution, outlining the challenge, implementation and real-world results.
- Actionable tools: How partners can drive revenue, attach services and position Vertiv Edge solutions in every quote.
- Bonus: Live 3D product models, access to digital tools and post-event resources to extend the value.
Why attend?
Edge is growing fast. Join this session to sharpen your understanding of the trends, the technology and how to lead the conversation with Vertiv Edge solutions.
Roundtable: Mitigating Cybersecurity Weakness with Penetration Testing and Vulnerability Assessment. Hosted by Opentext CyberSecurity
This techpartner.news Pipeline roundtable explores how Australian tech partners are evolving their cybersecurity strategies to help clients identify and mitigate hidden vulnerabilities before they can be exploited. As threat actors become more sophisticated and regulatory pressures intensify, businesses can no longer rely on reactive or perimeter-based defences alone. Proactive security testing has become essential to uncover weak points and reduce exposure.
With a growing shortage of skilled security professionals and increasing complexity across IT environments, many partners are struggling to deliver these services in-house. At the same time, customer expectations around compliance, actionable reporting, and tangible security outcomes are rising.
OpenText Cybersecurity is helping partners meet these demands with advanced penetration testing and vulnerability assessment services. By offering flexible delivery models and deep technical expertise, OpenText Cybersecurity enables partners to scale their security offerings, protect clients more effectively, and capture more margin.
Tech partners will come together to share how they’re responding to increased demand for proactive testing, overcoming delivery roadblocks, and shifting beyond basic scanning tools to deliver more impactful security services. The discussion will explore best practices, service frequency, customer education, and how partners can integrate security assessments into broader transformation conversations.
Test your skills on NinjaOnes basketball arcade game, before Basketball legend Shane Heal takes the stage.
Join us for Shane Heal—championship-winning player, coach and entrepreneur—share his incredible journey. From humble beginnings in Melbourne to global basketball success, Shane overcame being told he was “too short” for the sport, using resilience and determination to excel on and off the court.
