Adding members alone “isn’t going to be good enough”, the CEO of the Global Technology Industry Association (GTIA) has asserted as he revealed his priorities for the post-CompTIA Community era.
Dan Wensley was announced as the GTIA’s CEO in May, four months after it rebranded from CompTIA.
Talking to IT Channel Oxygen at its ChannelCon EMEA event, Wensley said his two priorities are to grow the vendor-neutral trade association’s membership and the value it offers members.
The sale of the CompTIA brand and certification/training business in January resulted in the creation of a “substantial” endowment designed to cover the GTIA’s operating costs indefinitely.
The move means the GTIA can now show “total commitment” to its members and the channel, Wensley said.
“I want to hear we’ve changed their businesses”
With a mission of helping the channel “connect and grow”, the GTIA represents 212,000 professionals from 2,500 MSPs, solution providers, vendors, distributors and other companies serving the IT channel worldwide.
This morning, the GTIA announced the appointment of Nancy Hammervik as its first Chief Channel Officer in a move designed to grow this membership base.
But Wensley’s other priority is to ensure the GTIA’s resources are utilised by more of its members.
“Just adding members isn’t going to be good enough,” he said.
“We understand that we’re not for profit, but we also understand that our members are. We have to deliver them value they can take back for their own career and personal growth, and most importantly their businesses.
“I want to hear that we’ve changed their business and improved their business by being a member.”
“Unprecedented” value-to-cost ratio
Wensley was speaking at the inaugural ChannelCon EMEA event, which was attended by over 500 members and featured keynotes from Sir Stephen Fry and Sir Bob Geldof.
Although not publicly disclosed, the size of the CompTIA endowment means the GTIA “doesn’t have to worry about revenue really at all”, Wensley said.
This means the value-to-cost ratio for GTIA members is “unprecedented”, Wensley claimed.
“For the few hundred pounds it costs to be a member, the millions of dollars we put into research is worth it, the ISAO [the GTIA’s threat intelligence tool] which comes with the membership is worth it, and the ability to come to an event like this for free is worth it,” he said.
“The list-to-value is almost too great, but we haven’t done a good enough job of marketing the value of the GTIA. We’re the best-kept secret in the industry and we plan to change that.”
Ensuring the GTIA’s research can be acted upon by more members is a particular priority for Wensley.
“We do an incredible amount of research. It’s not about doing more assets and more material; it’s about more eyes on the materials we have and more members taking advantage of it,” he said.
“It almost stumped me”
In the morning’s keynotes, Wensley joked with his fellow GTIA executives about how they would all have to pay $1 each time they mistakenly referred to it as CompTIA.
It’s now been 275 days since the rebrand happened, and 165 days since Wensley was handed the CEO reins.
Despite his 30-year career in the vendor space, Wensley admits he was bamboozled by one line of questioning in his interview for the top job.
“One question that almost stumped me was when they asked, ‘what makes you think you can run a channel membership organisation and trade association when you’ve always run technology organisations?’” he recalled.
“The question highlighted that the only way I was successful in building these technical organisations was by building communities.”
Due to the pace of change in AI, there “may never be a more important time in history to be part of a community or peer group”, Wensley counselled.
“If you try to simply consume what’s happening or understand the trends and adoption curves on your own, you’re going to very quickly get left behind,” he said.
This article was produced in association with the GTIA and is classified as partner content. What is partner content? See more here.
