It was Mikhail Gorbachev, the onetime leader of the former Soviet Union, who once offered the phrase “If you are not moving forward, you are moving backward.” One can’t say old Mikhail wasn’t a man of his word, as evidenced by the crumbling of the Berlin Wall and, later, the Soviet Union itself (we’ll stop there…we know better than to pull on that thread).
Perhaps it was the realization of encountering a crossroads that prompted the line. From a business standpoint, success and failure are generally a product of momentum, and given the events of the past three years, recognizing the value of both momentum and the need to change directions at a crossroads will dictate the destination.
Herein lies the value of the Executive Connection Summit (ECS), and by extension, The Consortium. Both entities are the brainchild of Mike Stramaglio, Hiro Ueda and the tireless team efforts of Stramaglio Consulting that have helped make them a reality. This year’s show went off Jan. 15-18 at the Hotel Valley Ho in Scottsdale, Arizona, in front of an audience of roughly 300 attendees from all walks of life in the office technology sector.
Stramaglio constantly utters the phrase “driving the industry forward” in reference to both ECS and The Consortium. He’s determined to invite as many willing participants to the party as possible, which represents an unprecedented effort to share not only best practices but optimal strategies as well. It’s as if he created a national peer group, without boundaries, a refreshing departure from the “every business for itself” mindset.
ECS covered many of the popular talking points that have dominated our space, with presentations and keynotes that touched on digital transformation, ecommerce, growth opportunities and diversity/female leadership, among others. Dealer and manufacturer panels provided free-wheeling takes on the state of the industry, with granular dives into areas such as cybersecurity insurance, leadership and managing chaos.
What follows is a sampling of takeaways attendees gleaned from the four-day ECS experience:
“Thank you, Mike Stramaglio (and everyone) for putting this together. In the past ECS meetings I’ve attended, I’ve always come back with at least a few connections or product offerings that will help my customers. ECS23 was off the chart. So many great speakers from powerful companies. This year, we’ll introduce e-commerce to Stone’s Office Equipment’s clients looking for this platform from their vendors. We knew about OpenAI before the meeting, but having the ability to speak with Microsoft and Intel directly helped me have a better understanding of how to use it in our business. Lastly, catching up with people we do business with, like ACDI, Sharp, Lexmark, and Great America, was the cherry on top.”
—Sam Stone, president, Stone’s Office Equipment
“This is my second year attending ECS and first full year being a part of The Consortium and I am just blown away at the team that put this conference together. The time, energy and passion that goes into putting this conference together show in every aspect of the four days you are in attendance. From the panel discussions to the presentations to the dinners and social hours to the final day of golf, the efforts pay off as it is one of the best put-together conferences of the year. This year, I was lucky enough to sit on a panel discussion regarding women and diversity in the workplace. I learned that even though the five women on the panel come from different backgrounds and have had different paths that led them to this industry, the one common theme that I gathered was that we all agreed that this industry needs to continue to evolve and make efforts to become more inclusive. The speakers this year were top-notch. The overall industry experience was incredible, and one could take a morsel of information from every presenter and apply it to growth or change in our own lives, both in the workplace and as humans. The consistent theme was diversification and change, whether that be technology, cybersecurity, change in looking at leadership structure in your organization or change that is inventible with a whole new world like AI. I think the ECS conference does a great job of making the few days spent together like a bit of a think tank. Listen, learn, think, question, digest and act are what I got out of the four days I spent at ECS.”
—Stephanie Keating Phillips, director of solutions, Advanced Imaging Solutions
“ECS 2023 was one of the best shows I have ever attended. There was a level of excitement and a desire to learn among the attendees that are rarely found these days. The content of the show provided a great balance of industry veterans and forward-thinking tech companies. Tony Pater and Mike Riordan reminded all of us it’s still about hard work and perseverance to ensure success. Another highlight was Tami Beach, who gave a great presentation on data analytics and AI tools. This is an industry must-attend show!”
—Brett Apold, vice president of sales, ARCOA Group
“I find ECS to be a thought-leading and thought-inspiring event. This event that Mike, Hiro, Gavin, Jenny and many others put together provides an opportunity to share, learn, meet old friends and make new friends. ECS brings the industry together. I always leave here feeling energized!”
—Raj Thadani, president, Ross International, Mars International and Marks Logistics
“After spending four days at the Executive Connection Summit (ECS), I walked away with a lot of content and many questions. How do we leverage cyber Insurance and what do we look for? With ecommerce, how should we look and what are the rewards and challenges? Microsoft’s Chad GHT is revolutionary! I also learned the importance of hiring veterans. Last but not least, my favorite quotes came from my good friends, Tony Pater, when he said “walk fast” and from Mike Riordan, “people don’t care what you know until they know how much you care.” This was a great four days!”
—Barry Simon, president, Datamax
“I have always enjoyed attending the ECS in the past for many reasons. This year, like previous years, had great content that is always cutting and bleeding edge. But the two presentations I enjoyed the most were hearing Tony Pater and Mike Riordan. Both of them reminded us it is still about the people. Technology is always changing and breaking old ways of doing things and that is OK. However, how to build and lead a team doesn’t really change.”
—Greg VanDeWalker, senior vice president, IT channel and services, Collabrance
“I’ve been to every ECS so far. I enjoy the presentations and always come away with good information. Mike Riordan, who’s a legend in our industry, provided lots of training for dealerships. He’s very down to earth and offers great insight on how to build quality organizations. He’s quick to point out that the credit for organization building belongs to the people who do the hard work and execute plans. It’s good advice from someone who has lots of in-the-field experience.
“Another great presentation was the panel on diversity in our industry. Panelists included Jennie Fisher of GreatAmerica Financial Services, Stephanie Keating Phillips from AIS, Melani Patterson of Sharp Electronics, Natalie Cumberbatch of Kyocera, and Patricia Ames of BPO Media. They raised a lot of great points, showing the contributions of women in our industry while illustrating the need to increase their numbers in our workforce.”
—Chip Miceli, CEO, Pulse Technology
“The Executive Connection Summit has become a staple of the industry and sparks thought, innovation, and action across the imaging channel! ECS brings together distribution, development, OEMs and dealers for the sole purpose of growing the industry and inspiring change. This year, ECS focused on three major themes: AI, DX, and cyber and the exclamation mark on it all was its intense diversity in thought. We saw representation from all backgrounds, generations, genders and, more importantly, we witnessed a mutual respect of new and old, software and hardware, and the next steps for this great channel! ConnectWise is honored to be a title sponsor for the second year running and we look forward to next year!”
—Jenna Miner, channel development manager, ConnectWise
“ECS was a tremendous networking event and provided the opportunity to enjoy a little bit of history, with presentations from Tony Pater and Mike Riordan, while giving us lots of food for thought to help us in planning where our futures may be heading. There were also plenty of take-homes to implement today, from leveraging cyber insurance and security law to panels discussing a myriad of issues and solutions specific to our industry. We’ll be back.”
—Kevin McCarthy, president and CEO, Modern Office Methods
“ECS 2023 was a great mix of the past, the present and the future. It was by far the best event I have attended in years. Mike, Hiro and the team brought the future to the present. I’m excited to attend ECS 2024.”
—Frank Cucco, CEO, Impact Networking
