Upstate Upstart: Scenes From the 2011 NY Tech Summit

NY Tech Summit: Chatting It Up

About 300 attendees gathered last month in Verona, N.Y. for the 7th Annual NY Tech Summit, a yearly gathering of IT professionals sponsored by Syracuse-based solution providers CXtec and Teracai. The event has emerged as an important channel networking opportunity, and (left to right) Erick Garcia, director of networking, National Stock Exchange; Kent Goldsmith, engineering manager, CABLEexpress; Josh Taylor, senior product manager, CABLEexpress; and T.J. Tangretti, account executive, CXtec, were among those taking advantage.

Images courtesy of CXtec.

Irrational/Motivational

Nationally renowned speaker Larry Winget, (right), brands himself as "The Pitbull of Personal Development" and "The World's Only Irritational Speaker." Winget's opening keynote covered improving customer service, among other key business topics, and Winget took time to hang with CXtec and Teracai founder and CEO Bill Pomeroy.

Cloud Cover

Networking and infrastructure big guns like Cisco and HP addressed partners throughout the summit. Florence Huban Suraci, regional sales manager, U.S. Commercial Easy Territory, UCS for Cisco delivered a second-day morning keynote looking at Cisco's cloud strategy for partners.

The Rx For Good Business

Health care was another hot topic at the NY Tech Summit, as many solution providers and IT professionals see a gold mine in health care facility infrastructure upgrades. Speaking during the summit on the topic was WIlliam "Buddy" Gillespie, chief technology officer for WellSpan, who previously spoke to CRN about how stimulus funds are creating health care opportunities for VARs.

What Lurks In The Minds of Hackers?

Also dominating the NY Tech Summit discussion were security and compliance issues. Chris Squire, senior technology solutions engineer for distributor Ingram Micro, took up the topics in a discussion called "Inside the Hacker's Mind in 2011."

Smorgasbord

Keynote presentations gave way to round table discussions devoted to topics such as IT management, unified communications, data center, security and desktop virtualization.

Top Of Mind

Mike Fratto, editor at Network Computing Magazine, addressed data center and network infrastructure in several targeted discussions.

Deep Dive

Rick Dallmann, senior data infrastructure engineer for CABLExpress, gets up close and personal during a demonstration.

What's Inside?

Lou Barile, senior systems engineer at Teracai, takes a data center discussion inside-out.

Side Chat

Barbara Ashkin, vice president and COO of CXtec and Teracai (right), chats up Mike Addario, CEO of Norveld Business Systems, an Ithaca, N.Y.-based solution provider, and Andy Arden, also of Norveld.