Global Technology Industry Association

Welcome to GTIA Presents, the podcast where member insight turns resources into real business results.

Hey everyone.

My name is Vicky Bruns, host of GTIA Presents, and we are here for another episode, this time talking about member education and peer-led education through GTIA for members.

We have two awesome women of the channel, both representing si- both sides of the house of the channel, our vendor side and our ITSP side.

Anne Westerheim, CEO of Ikaru, uh, an MSP or ITSP.

You were showing us some really cool swag that you, that you got from-

I did.

I got my new ASCII GTIA pin.

Lots of research.

We have a dedicated research team at GTIA.

And one of the things that we keep coming back to is terminology around things like maturity.

governance.

Fight on.

He's been a two-time finalist for the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year, named Partner of the Year multiple times by both Microsoft and Oracle, and most recently, a finalist for GTIA's inaugural Innovate Award at ChannelCon 2026.

What sets Kevin apart is that he's technically enough to architect the product and commercial enough to take it to the market.

So he combines both that technical expertise and that commercial expertise.

We're going to get a look at his take on the state of play in managed services.

the state of play and partner-led AI services, the importance of community, GTIA, buying ASCII, all sorts of good stuff.

It's coming your way right after the break.

Stick around.

It's the number one way partners are influenced.

They travel twice a year to get this experience.

But if I looked at all 100%, I understand that there's these powerful associations, CompTIA, now GTIA being the largest.

But there's 68 other associations below CompTIA.

And in next week's show, if you want to know what

is really going on in the IT channel this year, then we dive into the state of the channel report with Carolyn April from GTIA.

It's got all the facts and the figures, the trends, everything that's going on.

You need to listen to it to find out where you need to focus to grow your MSP right now.

always am up for answers.

You did a show about a week ago, right after the big announcement that everybody is talking about, GTIA acquiring the ASCII group.

And I'll go ahead and just throw out the disclaimers ahead of time, folks.

I am not or I was not a member of GTIA.

I was a member of ChannelCon years ago.

I got out of that.

So here's the question.

Setting aside community groups.

Yes.

And I am Chris Tromsen, Director of Cybersecurity Compliance Programs at GTIA.

And I'm a Leo.

to tell you the titles that we all threw out there, the selling jibba jabba.

Before that, 12 years as COO and CFO of Proactive Technologies, a New York MSP, Inc. 5,007 times sold in 2019.

He sits on GTIA's Workforce Advisory Council, and his session here is AI Readiness for TSPs, What Actually Matters.

Dave, welcome to the show.

Thank you.