Tech Data is a global channel services provider delivering IP solutions, professional and managed services, and sales support to over 50,000 Microsoft partners around the world. As a global partner active in over 45 countries, the ability to consistently bring global and local teams together is crucial for building the joint Microsoft and Tech Data partnership.

Upon the launch of a strategic growth plan two years ago, Tech Data and Microsoft have annually hosted a Quantum Leap (QLP) Summit. The QLP Summit is a multi-day event with over 110 stakeholders dedicated to services transformation, plan innovation, and community development.

This year’s event was scheduled for early March in Madrid, Spain, but with the growing threat of COVID-19, Tech Data made the careful decision to shift their summit from in-person to virtual just one week before the event. After thoughtfully comparing their video conferencing options, Tech Data decided to host their summit on Microsoft Teams.

Why Tech Data chose Microsoft Teams

Tech Data selected Microsoft Teams to host their summit for 7 key reasons.

1. It was fast and easy to set up virtual rooms for each session, saving the event organizers valuable time.
2. Event organizers could run multiple workshops at once and switch between them without causing disruption, helping workshop leaders keep their sessions on track.
3. The easy-to-use chat functionality gave participants multiple ways to speak up and contribute while providing a helpful log of activity, enabling Tech Data to collect live feedback and observe important trends.
4. Automated recordings from every session made it easy for people to catch up on events they missed and access post-event follow-up content.
5. Consistent, high-quality video presence added a human touch to the virtual event, helping the speakers and audience be present and engaged with each other.
6. The meeting participant list and photo icons in every session aided in attendee management and networking opportunities.
7. Integrated surveys and Microsoft Forms made it easy to gather feedback after events and capture fresh thoughts.

Not only was Microsoft Teams the right choice for this summit from a technical perspective, Tech Data also noticed that Teams was helping foster a culture of inclusion throughout the event. The seamless experience of Teams enabled participants to overcome many of the perceived barriers to the virtual event, and the variety of engagement channels allowed the broader audience to participate in the summit in many new and exciting ways.

Adapting the summit for virtual execution

With only one week to transform the QLP Summit from an in-person event to a virtual one, Tech Data knew they would have to get organized and adapt their schedule quickly.

They started by consolidating their agenda to three half-days and preparing Teams meetings for each session. With the logistics tightened up, the key challenge to face was ensuring that each day would be engaging and impactful. To do this, the event team made sure to brief speakers on the virtual delivery mode and how to adjust their content to encourage audience interaction.

By leveraging the in-meeting chat feature, audiences were able to provide feedback, ask questions, and contribute insight with ease, whenever they wanted, without disrupting the session. This made participants feel engaged, provided a helpful record for the organizers, and further reinforced the summit’s culture of inclusion.

All in all, the summit was a huge success. Over 100 attendees joined virtually for each of three days, exchanging over 450 conversations and attending 16 different workshops. Tech Data covered 35 different topics and captured 19 hours of video via Microsoft Teams.

The feedback from participants was overwhelmingly positive, revealing a common theme of pleasant surprise at how well the virtual summit worked. By leaning into the capabilities of Microsoft Teams, Tech Data’s summit generated renewed energy amongst stakeholders and exceptional levels of engagement, leading to immediate post-event impact.

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