On 16 June the ScanSource Europe Partner Tour returns to the UK, with resellers invited to a very special location: PalmerSport, near Bedford.
Located at Bedford Autodrome, just off the M1, PalmerSport is the motorsport venue created by ex-Formula One driver Jonathan Palmer. The venue has been purpose built for speed and space, containing four entirely distinct circuits and over 5 miles of track. But of course, resellers will not only be going to admire the surroundings; in a first for the Partner Tour, attendees will be able to drive some of the worlds greatest high performance cars seriously hard, as expert instructors encourage them to push right to the limit. Its going to be a great day for resellers, said Emma Hibbard, sales manager UK and Ireland, ScanSource Europe. Everyone attending will have the chance to get behind the wheel of two different performance cars and try them out on Palmers tracks. And when I say everyone, I mean everyone. Were aiming to have around 400 people driving in one day. Its never been done before. The people at PalmerSport thought we were crazy at first, but they helped us work out a way to make it happen.
Living in the fast lane
Resellers attending will be split into three groups, who will rotate in turn around three zones: the exhibition area, the presentation room and the driving. Weve got four different types of cars driving on four different tracks, explained Hibbard. Therell be BMW MP GTPs, Porsche 911 JP3s, Palmer Jaguar JP1s and Caterham 7 Superlights. Each attendee will be able to drive a good few laps in both an open car, so the Jaguar or the Caterham, and a closed car: Porsche or BMW. These cars go seriously fast, so its going to be a lot of fun. Hibbard continued: Weve even got Jonathan Palmer himself lined up as a keynote speaker, which will be fascinating. Hes raced in a lot of Grand Prix, commentated for the BBC and built an extremely successful business career for himself. Plus hes a qualified doctor. After Palmers keynote, attendees will hear more about the new tools and services that ScanSource is rolling out to the channel.
Despite all the high-speed fun, the core of the Partner Tour remains very much education, with the top vendors in the channel and a selection of ISVs displaying their latest products. The event also allows for quality networking time, bringing resellers, vendor representatives and ScanSource employees together in one place. What were doing with the Partner Tour is facilitating channel relationships, said Maurice van Rijn, sales director Northern Europe, ScanSource Europe. Resellers can bring their sales teams, technical people and purchasers to meet with local vendor teams, ScanSource executives, business development managers and our complete teams of local account managers. For resellers or vendors to meet with all these different people separately would take a huge investment in time and travel. ScanSource makes it easy to do business.
Ease of doing business
And ease of doing business is what ScanSource is all about. The Partner Tour gives resellers the chance to make invaluable new contacts and create opportunities for building up solution offerings and developing business in new areas. As a joint event between ScanSource Europe and ScanSource Communications Europe, the UK Partner Tour will feature vendors from both the auto ID and communications worlds. Brands such as Avaya and ShoreTel will exhibit alongside the likes of Honeywell, Intermec and Motorola.
After the day programme at PalmerSport, the Partner Tour will continue into the evening with a barbecue, the screening of the South Africa-Uruguay World Cup match and other entertainment. ScanSource will also be giving away a team driving day at PalmerSport to two lucky resellers. The Partner Tour welcomed over 1000 visitors across Europe in 2009 and looks set to break that record in 2010. The first two events of this year have been hugely successful, with over 200 people attending the Dutch event in Rotterdam in March. Held on board a recently refurbished cruise ship, the event centred around an exhibition area featuring booths from more than 20 vendors and ISVs.
The Partner Tour gives us the opportunity to get to know the line cards of the different vendors in more depth, said Sam Scheunis, division manager at Belgian reseller Etilux. The better we are informed, the better we can offer the right solution to our customers. This event really provides us with a great overview of all the products that we can purchase from ScanSource Europe. On 22 April, the first ever Partner Tour in Eastern Europe took place, with over 130 attendees turning out at the Novotel Warszawa Centrum in Poland. As it was ScanSources first event in the region, the event focused on educating resellers about the distributors core service offerings, as well as introducing ScanSource personnel to the local vendors and customers. The attendance in Warsaw was extremely encouraging, said van Rijn. Resellers were keen to find out how ScanSource could help them grow their business and as a networking event, many valuable contacts were made.
More information can be found at the Partner Tour website at www.partnertour.eu Resellers can find more information on PalmerSport, check the agenda and of course sign up to attend the event.
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