Last week, the Auvik crew travelled to DattoCon 2018. Here are some of the highlights.
DattoCon 2018
ChannelPro Network reported that DattoCon “drew over 1,600 MSP partners from 25 countries… making it the largest open ecosystem MSP event in the industry.”
The event took place in Austin, Texas, a city with a reputation for being creative and laid back. With Austin also being the first name of Datto CEO Austin McChord, opportunities abounded to have some fun with the conference vibe.
Keep Austin weird! / far right photo: Focus Data Solutions
Austin kicked things off with a recap of Datto’s commitment to MSPs, a look at some new product launches, and the announcement that Autotask AEM is now called Datto RMM.
Datto CEO Austin McChord
Is that a polar bear on the DattoCon main stage? Why, yes. Yes. it is.
Alex Hoff, Auvik VP of product & sales, on stage at DattoCon 2018
Each DattoCon sponsor got 30 seconds to deliver a pitch or tidbit of information. Auvik’s VP of product and sales donned the bear suit to tell a story of an MSP who was locked in a server room by their client. Unfortunately, Alex ran out of time before he could finish. You’ll hear him get the buzzer in the video below. sad trombone
Not to worry though! Right after the quick fire round was Alex’s breakout session on how to own your clients’ networks, where Alex finished the story. Folks were lined up at the door to attend, and inside it was a full house.
Lined up out the door to see the Own the Network breakout session from Alex hoff
In the afternoon, Robert Herjavec—perhaps best known for his appearances as an investor on TV’s Dragon’s Den and Shark Tank—delivered a well-received keynote.
photo credit: Darren Mak
On Tuesday night, Auvik, ID Agent, and Duo rented a boat to take 100 attendees on a bat tour! The underside of the Congress Avenue Bridge in Austin is home to million of Mexican bats, who migrate to the city in spring.
Armed (faced?) with bat masks, the crowd watched as the bats poured out in a wave at sunset. An amazing sight! Fun fact: 90% of the bats under the bridge are pregnant females.
Bat masks on the bat boat!
Approaching the bridge, waiting for sunset and the bats to emerge
A stream of bats as sunset approaches
No DattoCon would be complete without an epic disaster demo. As TSG Ltd. reports:
“Two firefighters came onto the stage and cut the server and then an appliance in half, then recovered virtual machines not once, but twice. Once using the Datto appliance and once using the Datto cloud DR. They were also brave/confident (delete as appropriate) enough to run the presentation from the recovered VMs in the cloud.”
photo credit: TSG Ltd.
Then came the moment that many had been waiting for—the Richard Branson keynote. At the beginning of the session, Richard walked over and removed Austin’s tie to make the discussion less formal. Austin then pulled out a “back up” tie. Good one, Austin!
photo credit: Richard Thompson
The final day of the conference wrapped up with an Auvik Arcade, where MSPs could hang out with a polar bear ice sculpture (naturally!), try their hand at a number of video and interactive games, and ham it up in the photo booth.
Photo booth fun at DattoCon 2018
Poutine, eh?
For a grand finale, the Spazmatics took the stage for a great concert. That bear—he’s everywhere.
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