Underscoring its new position as a truly global value added distribution partner,
Stampede last week convened its first Executive Vendor Summit on October 23—24
at the Tivoli Victoria-Vilamoura in Portugal. Like the Stampede Vendor Summits
held previously in Buffalo, New York and Toronto, Canada, the European Executive
Vendor Summit featured a mix of networking events, one-on-one sales meetings
with key vendors and the European sales team, a trade show exhibit, and a keynote
business presentation that highlighted the company’s growth plans for the region.
According to Stampede CEO Mark Wilkins, the two-day event included Christie,
Luida, Hitachi, Vogels, Calibre, Display Ten, and TeamMate in addition to senior
Stampede management and the entire Stampede European sales team. “This was
the first in what will now become an annual event that will only grow larger in the
years to come,’ Wilkins said today. “Our inaugural vendor participants had the
opportunity to meet one-on-one with each sales team member and present the full
value proposition their product lines offer. As a result, our sales team is more
empowered and better prepared to represent these manufacturers to our reseller
network.’
Amplifying on the global impact of the Stampede Vendor Summits, Stampede
President & COO Kevin Kelly emphasized to attendees that, “Stampede now has a
global presence in North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia, and Australia and is
able to connect partner vendors with a reseller network that exceeds 20,000
members. Clearly, Stampede is open for business worldwide — ready to bring your
products and services to 7,000 new resellers around the world that did not do
business with us last year.’ Kelly was referring to the net new gains in the
company’s global reseller network achieved through its June 2016 acquisition of Just
Lamps.
Reaching this global network of resellers, Kelly continued, is going to be achieved
through the launch of expanded new series of policies, programs, and processes
that are going to make doing business with Stampede easier than ever before.
The completion of the third Stampede Vendor Summit comes at a time when the
company continues to grow and expand at a historic rate across all vertical markets
and in every major product category. At the European Vendor Summit, particular
emphasis was placed on Drone Video Systems and Unified Communications, two
areas that are growing dramatically throughout Europe. Next year, Kelly plans to
integrate augmented and virtual reality into the European product offerings.
Looking forward to 2017, Kelly reiterated a message delivered to attendees of the
Buffalo and Toronto summits — opportunity is knocking and it is time to adapt,
change, and harvest the new opportunities this shift from a product centric AV
industry to an experiential AV industry is creating. “Our goal is to continue to be the
best final mile in the global ProAV industry, and I believe we have the people,
programs, and processes in place that will allow us to achieve this goal.’
