On October 21-22 MSP GLOBAL returns to PortAventura near Barcelona.
This is the third year the event is being held at the theme park on the outskirts of the Catalan capital. ‘Being staged’ might be a better choice of words because, as in previous years, spectacle and entertainment are as important to the event as knowledge-sharing and education.
There will be keynote speeches, presentations, a vendor exhibition and extensive opportunities for the 3,000 MSPs present to conduct business – the meat and drink of any conference – but alongside these core components are other attractions, from a server throwing competition to themed parties, designed to encourage socialising and relationship‑building.
This is all facilitated by the MSP GLOBAL take-over of PortAventura, which gives MSPs the opportunity to escape from quotidian concerns for two days and let their hair down with peers from around the world who face many of the same challenges and opportunities and have a common desire to learn from each other.
Not for nothing does Christian Jaeger, CEO of WHD Event GmbH, which launched MSP GLOBAL in 2023, refer to MSP GLOBAL as a ‘tech festival’.
Identifying a need
The rationale for MSP GLOBAL emerged in 2022 when Jaeger noticed large numbers of MSPs at WHD Event’s foundational show, CloudFest, which started 22 years ago as a forum where Germany’s web hosting providers, largely based around Cologne, could talk about their shared problems and challenges. Since then, CloudFest has grown into a huge international cloud computing and infrastructure event, which this year attracted 200 vendor partners and almost 11,000 attendees from 80 countries.
“Our 2022 data showed that 15% of CloudFest attendees were MSPs. We arranged meetings with those MSPs and asked them why they were at an event that wasn’t really for them. They told us ‘There is no specific event for us, but our industry is moving and changing. The traditional business models don’t seem to be working anymore, or at least won’t for long. We need to change and CloudFest provides the closest match to the information we need’,” explains Jaeger.
One year later, WHD Event launched MSP GLOBAL as a separate event specifically for MSPs but modelled closely on the CloudFest template of international participation, knowledge-sharing and out‑of-the-ordinary locations.
A destination event
MSP GLOBAL was first held at Germany’s legendary Nürburgring racetrack before moving to PortAventura theme park near Barcelona in 2024
“Our intention is to take people out of their usual business environment and beyond the commute distance to their office so they can talk business for two days without the distraction of phone calls and emails. We had around 1,300 people at Nürburgring and realised that we would soon outgrow its capacity, so took the decision to move to PortAventura which has more space, a lot of hotel capacity and a fantastic Convention Centre on a hill in beautiful surroundings near the coast.
It’s not the worst place to be in October,” declares Jaeger.
“We’ve already doubled in size to 3,000 attendees, 70 partners and 120 speakers and have the capacity to grow even further. Our aim is to be that destination event where people invest their time, and we, as an organiser, do everything we can to make sure that time is well spent.”
International reach and learning opportunities A big selling point of MSP GLOBAL from the outset, and a clear differentiator from local MSP events, is its international focus.
“We invite everyone from around the world and that adds so much value,” says Jaeger. “Because the MSP market in Britain is advanced compared to Southern Europe and even Germany, there are things that the market in the UK has already gone through and lessons learned that German,
Italian, Spanish and French MSPs could benefit from. We want to be that facilitator.”
Equally, there are things UK MSPs can learn from the way MSPs in other regions operate, as well as the chance to explore opportunities for expansion into new markets.“Last year we had 80 MSPs from Brazil, so if you are a Portuguese MSP and you want to tap into the Brazil market, MSP GLOBAL is the place to be. Or if you are UK-based and want to enter Germany, you will find a partner at MSP GLOBAL.
I will never forget when, during a panel discussion on our quarterly State of the MSP report, an MSP from Malta, who had a client that wanted to enter the Portuguese and Spanish markets, got up and said he was looking for advice.
Immediately, several MSPs from those countries said let’s have a coffee after this session. You don’t get that if you attend a regional or local event.”
MSP-focused contentJaeger says that WHD Event builds all its events around three pillars – a multi-vendor exhibition; support for socialising and networking; and, perhaps most importantly for MSPs, relevant content.
This includes sessions across the conference programme’s six tracks covering Growth & Efficiency, Solution, focused AI, Product Education & Platform Building, Cybersecurity, Compliance and Regulation and Tomorrow’s Big Ideas. “Our research shows that MSPs are interested not in huge stages with somebody saying ‘Hallelujah, this is the next product you need to invest in’ but in solving problems they might have. If you’re a small MSP, you probably struggle with things like licensing and billing.
When you are mid-sized, you may find it hard to find talent. If you’re a big MSP, you might be looking for new M&A targets. For each of the tribes that come under the umbrella of MSP GLOBAL, we provide dedicated content that can drive their business forward.”
Self-classification by MSPs as part of the registration process and via the event app enables MSP GLOBAL to identify what ‘tribe’ someone belongs to and what issues resonate most strongly with them and then proactively alert them to relevant roundtables, conference sessions and expert-led guided tours (a new feature first introduced at CloudFest in March).
In addition to MSPs’ own input, WHD Event proactively monitors attendees’ interests, including through the use of beacons placed around the venue.
“We’ll know what you’re reading, how you’re engaging with our newsletters, which content pieces you’re looking at, and we do that in order to deliver more usefulcontent and a more rewarding experience so that when you come to MSP GLOBAL you will meet the five or 10 people out of 3,000 there that might actually change your business. This is the art of running big shows, finding those hidden diamonds, and it’s where we make a particular effort,” explains Jaeger.
Making introductions
Other ways in which MSP GLOBAL helps visitors make the right connections are through speed networking, where you have a minute to present yourself; country roundtables that enable people from the same region to gather together at the show; guided tours of the exhibition area based on specific business needs; and, for the first time this year, an app-based matchmaking service that will recommend people an attendee might want to meet.
“We have done a lot of testing with apps and the one we used at CloudFest was the first that made me smile because it worked so well,” says Jaeger.
“Often you don’t need to meet 100 people, just one to five. It’s our job to make sure you meet those five so that you return home saying ‘I really got something out of that’.”
To register to attend MSP GLOBAL or to find out more about the event, please visit www.mspglobal.com – Technology Reseller readers can get a free standard pass (usually €399) with the code: TECHRESELLER via this link: https://registration.mspglobal.com/registration?code=TECHRESELLER
