HPE's Partner Festivals: Bringing the channel together

[Alex_Podmore]

Here at HPE, our partners are an intrinsic part of our business and essential to our success. We love creating unique events to celebrate and invest in our partnerships, and this year invited our partners and service providers to a number of festivals around the world, exclusively for our community.  

The world of technology has changed dramatically in recent years, and with a continuing transition from virtual meetings to in-person events, it’s crucial that we all pull in the same direction, working with partners and service providers to achieve our shared goal. As a result, we built on the success of 2022, maintaining the momentum from our inaugural award-winning UK Partner Festival. Our events this year stretched worldwide, with Partner Festivals across the UK, Ireland, Middle East and Africa. 

Celebrating partners at HPE’s 2023 partner festivals 

Having gone through significant transformation here at HPE this year, partner feedback has helped to reshape our partner relationships, providing consistency and a world-class experience. Partnering is in HPE’s DNA, and gathering partners and service providers together, out of the office, to physically stand shoulder-to-shoulder with them reinforces our commitment to work together. 

Festival fun in the sun  

This year saw HPE host four worldwide festivals in the UK, Ireland, South Africa and Mauritius, with a further festival scheduled for Dubai, later in the year.  

With over 300 partners in attendance, the UK Partner Festival was held in sunny Milton Keynes. Partners enjoyed presentations alongside entertainment, marketplace stands and some fun activities. For the first time, we also provided technical demonstrations in a dedicated platform pavilion, to showcase solutions and updates in real life and demonstrate how partners could make best use of it. Managing Director Matt Harris gave a keynote emphasising our continued commitment and support for our partner community, announcing, “We’re back, and we’re better!” Festival-goers raved about the event as “fun”, “vibrant” and “action-packed”, as well as “hot”, as they sweltered under clear blue skies and 30-degree temperatures. 

Joe Pemberton, HPE’s UK Cloud and Data Partner Lead summed up the event, “It’s gone fantastically - partners, sponsors and distis have shown up and are connecting with HPE. The content is bigger than ever before and it’s all about the culture of doing things differently. Partnering is what we’ve always done, and what we’ll continue to do, so why not get people together, out of their comfort zone and here together?” 

Similarly in Ireland, this style of connecting in a relaxed and informal setting saw over 100 partners attend the festival held in Dublin, with a similar mix of presentations, activities and entertainment. Ray McGann, Managing Director in Ireland, emphasised how we’ve become more relevant within the market in recent years and continuing to increase our presence as tech experts within the country. Partners enjoyed hearing more about advancing digital transformation in Ireland, new technology and working together to enhance customer experiences.

South Africa’s Partner Festival in Johannesburg followed the same HPE formula, with a sunny day celebrating partners through sharing food, activities and hearing from HPE leaders, along with a good dose of entertainment.  

With channel partners travelling from across South Africa to be there, HPE’s Country Manager for South Africa, Sandile Dube was impressed by the turnout, “It really just goes to show the commitment and level of support that HPE enjoys from all of our channel partners.” Matt Armstrong-Barnes, HPE’s CTO for Artificial Intelligence added, “The feel of the event has been so inclusive. It’s about winning, together and tackling some huge problems as a collective.” 

Africa’s Partner Festival in Mauritius made the most of the blue skies and white sandy beaches with an event that spanned three days, hosting over 50 partners and distributors from across 38 African countries. The theme of good food, great entertainment and investing in our partners continued, with a key message around developing and growing HPE business in Africa and reaffirming our commitment to digital transformation across countries, supporting with the latest and sustainable technologies and solutions. 

Partners across Africa were delighted to attend, with most having the chance to speak with Ahmad Alkhallafi, HPE’s UAE and Africa Managing Director, one-to-one, sharing challenges and expectations. He explained, “It was a great moment for us to be back to show our commitment to Africa, and deliver on that continuous commitment.” Conversations explored how together, HPE and our partners can drive a digital transformation for Africa, and presentations looked at strategy, HPE’s priorities, coverage, market presence and route to market.   

Feedback demonstrated the enthusiasm from partners to work with HPE in growing market share and the overall HPE footprint in Africa. “This is unique; to discuss and share our vision,” explained Siddarth Gupta, Head of Sales for Africa. Regional Director Rich Auty, added that it was, “A great opportunity to meet so many different partners from all over Africa and talk to them about the full HPE portfolio. I would certainly encourage more partners to come.” 

With an overwhelming response to our festivals, it’s now time to build on the incredible conversations we had at that these events. We’re looking forward to engaging more partners in collaborative conversations, working with them to build our solutions and work together to a shared goal, serving customers across the globe and providing flexible, efficient and relevant solutions that enable success.  

Alex Podmore
Hewlett Packard Enterprise

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