Viva la Revolucion

The first ever MSP Revolution is over.

The Revolution was successful.

Your new Glorious Exalted Leader is Amy Luby, with her Minions for Life, Chad and Steve.

The Revolution began after SMB Nation 2005. The September Revolution was led by Amy Luby and Chad Gross, then of MobiTech. By 2006 They had gathered a following of disgruntled workers who were unhappy trading dollars for hours. They saw that the current VAR structure couldn't last.

They saw that a few were doing well, while the masses were starved for information on running a successful service practice.

Amy created and managed the Managed Services Yahoo Group.

The Revolution gathered followers very quickly.

After years of blood, sweat, toil, and tears, the MSP Revolution event was announced. Followers gathered in Chicago with promises that this would not be just another gathering of nerds. By all accounts, the Pre-Day Events were good, and certainly above the category of "entry-level" content.

But on the first full day of the conference, the Revolution was declared a success. The old regime of same-old-same-old conferences was vanquished. The only question was: Would Amy assume the leadership role or leave a vacuum to be filled?

On Saturday and Sunday it was clear that Amy Luby, Spiritual Leader of the Revolution, would be declared dictator for life.

(Just as in every other revolution, "life" means as long as she can stave off all who wish to compete.)

The first-ever MSP revolution was fresh. It was inspiring. It was a great combination of new content, new speakers, and some of the best familiar faces in the industry.

And here's the key to this revolution: They did not present the 100,000th discussion about why you need to do managed services. Or why you need to market. Or why you need a service agreement.

The assumption was that everyone knew about each of these, and all presentations were designed to take the attendees to the next level.

Think about a different analogy: The community of MSP-focused events has been offering 101 and 102 classes for almost three years.

Now the first class of 80 people has completed the first-ever 200-level classes. And they snuck in one intensive senior-course. Of course they snuck it into a eight-hour time slot.

For the first time ever, long-time attendees of the various conferences had the same eager enthusiasm when they left as people have with their first-ever conference.

A handful of people (The most obvious example is Erick Simpson/MSPU) have been delivering higher-end content to individuals and organizations. Now, someone finally figured out how to deliver the next level of content for Managed Service Providers in a conference format.

All hail The Revolution.

Now we pray that Amy will continue to be a benevolent dictator.

Congratulations to Amy, Chad, Steve, Nancy, and everyone who contributed to this event. You've really done something good here.

:-)