I'm going to go off topic here, but it's my blog and I can do what I want. If you don't like it, I'll refund what you paid me for reading it.

Next week is the ConnectWise Partner Summit. We're in my "three weeks" of partner engagement, as the team around here is looking at it, as I just got back from working with HTG11 in the UK last week, and spend Monday and Tuesday with HTG5 before hitting the HTGALL sessions on Wednesday and CW on Thursday and Friday.
I'm in the middle of my conference prep, and I thought I'd share a little bit of it with the blog.

One of the things I do before attending a show is dig around on the breakout session list, and I find things that interest me and are things I believe I will get value out of or be able to deliver value to.

For CW, I've already gone through the breakout session list and found the things I think that are key for me. This is my list -- yours may vary. I thought you might be interested in how my (admittedly crazy) brain is wired and what I want to learn more about at Summit.

Round 1, Thursday Nov 5, 1:45 - 2:45

A Tribute to Top Gun

This one is too easy. Dan Wensley at Level Platforms has put together one of the best panel lineups I've seen in a while, pulling together the "Top Guns in IT Managed Services.". MSP Mentor, Ziff Davis, IPED, LPI, ConnectWise, Service Leadership, Ingram Micro, Cisco, and MSP Partners all in one spot? That's too good to be true. They're accepting questions before the session too. Everyone on this panel I respect a great deal, and I wouldn't miss this.

Round 2, Thursday Nov 5, 3:00 - 4:00

ConnectWise Blueprints

I think ConnectWise's investment in blueprinting is absolutely incredible. I want to learn more about how to really bake these into my business. The blueprinting is really something else -- I saw the preview on the webcast, and I'm looking to learn more.

Round 3, Thursday Nov 5, 4:15 - 5:15

Monitoring And Managing Your Financial Performance With ConnectWise Financial Benchmark

Paul Dippell makes my list just about every time. I already use the HTG/Service Leadership benchmarking, and I don't know enough about the CW version. My weakness is almost always around financial management, and so I need every bit I can.

Round 4, Friday Nov 6, 12:30 - 1:30

I Want More Than ConnectWise Reports And Dashboards

If you haven't seen what Robert Lindley has done with Pivot Tables and dashboards around CW, you're missing out -- and he GIVES IT AWAY. You can download his entire setup, and instructions for building it yourself for FREE. Robert is one of the most giving people I know in the industry, and I'm very excited to see his latest round of reporting. You'll leave his session with something you can use RIGHT THEN to learn more about your business. MUST SEE. And he does it twice.

Round 5, Friday Nov 6, 1:45 - 2:45

Take Your Sales To The Next Level Using ConnectWise

As a business owner, I have to manage my sales system. I'm not nearly as good at it as I would like, and I'm always looking for ways to do better. I always feel like we don't use enough of CW for this, so I'm going to learn.

Round 6, Friday Nov 6, 1:45 - 2:45

5 Specific Tactics For Driving Growth In Today’s Technology Market

No conference that Ryan Morris speaks at do I miss. Ryan is insightful, smart, and knows his stuff. I'll take the information I got from Paul and Robert and layer Ryan's analysis on top of it, and have my plan for 2010. Period.

This is what I circled my conference agenda. What did you circle on yours?