XChange 2024: Infima, Puzzle Shirts And The True Meaning Of ‘Partner’

Infima Cybersecurity raised awareness about autism and honored a top partner during a touching session at XChange March 2024.

For Infima, the maker of a security training platform, raising awareness is its line of business. But this week at XChange March 2024, the company was raising awareness about something different than usual: autism, and the many lives that are touched by it.

During the conference this week in Orlando, Fla., the many attendees wearing colorful, puzzle-decorated jerseys were hard to miss. Infima handed out dozens of the shirts to partners this week and, on Tuesday, used part of its presentation to a crowd of MSPs to explain the shirts and the reason the company is focusing on autism awareness.

Infima Channel Chief Larry Meador noted that the jigsaw puzzle has been a symbol associated with autism for decades. It’s a recognition of the fact that people on the autistic spectrum are “a piece of the overall picture of society—and they’re just trying to figure out, ‘How do I fit in?’” Meador said.

The idea arose to focus on autism awareness to honor Dawn and David Sizer of 3rd Element Consulting, who have a son who is on the autism spectrum.

Infima co-founder and CEO Joel Cahill told CRN that the Sizers have introduced Infima to numerous other MSPs and have been “instrumental in our success in the channel.”

And so, this week at XChange, “we wanted to honor some of the people in the community that have done so much for us,” he said.

In addition to raising awareness about autism this week, Infima will donate a portion of its April invoices to the Special Olympics in honor of the Sizer family, according to Cahill. April 2 is World Autism Awareness Day.

“We love talking about the product. We love talking about what we do. But that’s not the conversation that we’re having here [at XChange],” Cahill said. “The conversations we’re having are much more around this meaningful issue that’s touched so many of our partners in different ways.”

Real Partnership

During the Tuesday session at XChange, hosted by CRN parent The Channel Company, Meador said that each of the colors on the puzzle jersey was chosen intentionally to represent something meaningful to those touched by autism. Blue represents calmness and acceptance; red represents love, as well as the passion and dedication from caregivers; yellow signifies hope and optimism.

“We all need a little bit more of that, no matter what we’ve got going on in our life,” Meador said.

And while Infima is very focused on “creating partnerships, creating a relationship—ultimately, we hope that also turns into a friendship,” he said.

As for the awareness-raising effort this week, “we did this in honor of a very good friend,” Meador said before introducing Dawn Sizer to the audience.

One of the numerous Infima partners who’d donned a puzzle jersey for the session was Art Ocain, vice president of strategic alliances and incident response at Airiam, who said he wanted to show solidarity with what the company is doing and believes the effort is likely to continue post-XChange.

“I have a feeling this is going to spread elsewhere, but this is a good place for it to start,” he said.

Following the session Tuesday, Dawn Sizer was teary-eyed while describing Infima as team that not only has a great product, but is also made up of “good humans.”

“Everybody wants to do business with people that do business the same way that they do,” she said. “And that’s what we found at Infima. So we’re very, very happy to be partners.”