Laval, Que. – Some 700 vendors, resellers, and solution providers attended the annual convention put on by Millenium Micro Group, Canada’s largest IT buying group.
The event was held at the Sheraton Hotel in central Laval, Que. and featured presentations and training sessions on sales strategies, managed services and from partners such as CompTIA, workshops on cloud servers and Windows 10, a trade show, and even an acrobatics show.
Click next to check out photos from the showroom.
Chris Melanson (left) and Carl Paquin of Millenium Micro
Two major announcements came out of this year’s conference, namely that the company has finally achieved presence in every province and territory in Canada, a national objective that the group has worked on for about a decade.
The second announcement was that, as a response, the company was launching a national program that would see it managing its members, pushing for high-level competencies certifications in order to go after verticals including government, healthcare, education, and businesses of all sizes.
Read more: Canada’s largest IT buying group has achieved the national presence it sought for a decade
The showroom, which took up the good part of Saturday, featured some 96 manufacturers, product vendors, resellers and distributors, according to Chris Melanson, Millenium Micro’s director of Ontario & Western Canada.
Among them was Cesium, a distributor of high-end mobile accessories based in Montreal. According to its account director, Massimo Bono, the company looks for certifications like Apple or Android Approved when selecting products.
For Bono, the Millenium Micro show differs from other ones it attends, often those of telecoms and carriers, in that it opens up a different market.
Interad, a Toronto-based toner, media storage and lighting products distributor said that as a smaller player, the company has gotten much more attention after joining Millenium and, as a collective had more influence over big suppliers.
Next was D-Link, which was showing off smart home products. Rather than compete with Google’s Nest with a smart thermostat, however, the company has expanded into surveillance cameras, smart electricity plugs and even a smart water detector for basement floods.
Intel Security was on hand to provide info on its software to show attendees. The security vendor talked about its partnership with Millenium Micro that allows its solution provider members to bundle McAfee software at a discount, while offering recurring revenue.
The biggest players at the show included Lenovo and Microsoft. Lenovo demoed a whole range of laptops and tablets, including its current combat kit.
Francis Martel of LaSalle, Que-based GenPOS demonstrates a point-of-sale machine that accurately measures the amount of alcohol poured in a bar to ensure value for price and to reduce waste. It is also compatible with the sales recording module that has been required of restaurants in Quebec since 2011 in an attempt by the government to curb inaccurate sales reports in cash-heavy industries. According to Martel, other provinces including Ontario and BC are looking into implementing the sales recording module.
Tomauri, a Markham-based company both designs cables and accessories out of a studio in Taiwan, but also distribute partner products. It says that Millenium Micro has helped it reach a lot of customers effectively.
That evening, attendees of the conference were treated to a magic and acrobatics show put on by Myster Act Circus.
