It's master mania on this episode of Coffee with Craig and Kevin!

First, Bryan Reynolds of TBI is back with the second in a series of appearances on the podcast, leading up to his emcee duties as moderator of our 5G, RMM and UCaaS "Thunderdome" panels.

We also get to know about a lesser-known master agent, iTelecom, which will be setting up shop on the Channel Partners Evolution show floor as a new exhibitor just a few weeks from now.

Speaking of Evolution, we'll have a rundown of some of the great education conference tracks at the event, and a discussion about our expanded focus on education for our supplier audience.

All that, plus Kevin "channels" Queen with another edition of our summer game show, "Random Personal Question." Bring your earplugs!

The heat of summer is here, so Craig and Kevin are bringing you a red-hot version of the Channel Partners podcast!

The guys are excited to welcome to the show Robin Robins, the well-known IT marketing and sales consultant, who is getting ready for her four-hour preconference workshop at the upcoming Channel Partners Evolution, the channel's biggest fall event. Robin explains why you should attend the event and drops a number of important sales and marketing tips that you can apply to your business before you even get to Washington, D.C.

"I think this is what gets many small business owners in trouble. They don't really understand marketing, so they think it's branding, a beautiful logo and a dynamic website. It's really none of those things. I'm a salesperson. A salesperson thinks differently about marketing. ... People are going to buy from us because we provide real value, we can solve a problem for them and we are positioned properly."

Speaking of Evolution, to be held Sept. 9-12, we'll explore some of the great networking opportunities on tap for the show. You'll also hear about a new partnership Channel Partners and Channel Futures have with Auvik, the RMM provider, which gives you the chance to take home some really "cool" prizes during the heat of summer.

The prizes don't stop there. A number of channel executives will be taking home honors at Channel Partners Evolution, part of our new "Top Gun 51" program that recognizes some of the biggest players in the biz, as well as some names you might be less familiar with. We'll announce a date for the big "reveal."

The podcast wraps with another great "Random Personal Question." But instead of putting our guest on the spot, Craig is forced to face the whammy.

The long-awaited MSP 501 rankings are out. Did your company make the list? That's the focus of this episode of Coffee with Craig and Kevin.

The guys welcome Kris Blackmon, senior editor of the MSP 501, to talk about how MSPs were chosen for the list and the remarkable effort it took to increase the number of applications we received this year by a big number.

"Our community profile has just grown and grown," said Blackmon. "Last year was a record number for applications, and this year we saw 35% year-over-year growth. So it seems to be one of those programs that's really resonating and taking off."

Also on the show is Bryan Reynolds, director of sales operations for master agent TBI. In the first of a series of appearances on Coffee with Craig and Kevin, Reynolds talks about the popularity of online video content his company is producing and previews the upcoming "Thunderdome" series that he hosts at Channel Partners Evolution in Washington, D.C.

"It's kind of like a live buyer's guide and you hear it directly from the vendors themselves. If you're in a competitive sales situation and there are competitors bidding against each other, you don't necessarily hear them say exactly what they're saying to the customer. This was a way to get them all in the same room at the same time and ask them pointed questions that customers might ask or partners might ask, and then hold them accountable for what they're saying."

Reynolds also bravely participates in our summer series, "Random Personal Question," where we spin the wheel--round and round she goes, where she stops, nobody knows..

Don't "press your luck" with this episode of the podcast!

Craig and Kevin welcome in Max Silber, vice president of mobility with MetTel, who steps into the coffeehouse to explain why 5G is exciting, but we should temper our expectations about how readily available it will be right off the bat.

"5G is coming. It will be available in several U.S. cities by the end of the year. And we'll all be able to enjoy it under one condition -- that we all live in our cars," jokes Silber. "The issue isn't just the deployment of 5G, it's really, how do you get that signal inside a building? The narrow band and high frequency that 5G requires in order to give us those ultra fast speeds, don't really like to penetrate buildings and energy efficient windows the same way that 4G LTE does."

Thus creates a challenge for wireless suppliers and channel partners.

Silber also touches on the connections between 5G and the internet of things, and how IoT has become an essential part of the MetTel portfolio.

We'll also bring you some "breaking news" around a special guest, well-known in the IT industry, that will lead the preconference at the upcoming Channel Partners Evolution.

And summer game shows are back! Kevin plays the role of the "channel whammy" as we kick off our new segment, "Random Personal Questions," which our guests will most likely learn to fear.

Did you think we were gone for good? No way -- sorry!

The guys are back with their first show since the Channel Partners Conference & Expo wrapped last month with a recap of the event and a trio of interviews with some big players in the industry.

First up is Danny Obaseki, VP of sales with GMS Live Expert, who shares how MSPs and their end customers are benefiting by working with his company.

Then, Channel Partners/Channel Futures news editor Edward Gately talks with channel leaders from KnowBe4 at their KB4-CON user conference, where dozens of partners were in attendance. They get us caught up on the latest trends in cybersecurity and how the KnowBe4 partner program is helping partners improve their security chops.

And fellow news editor James Anderson files a live report from master agent TBI's Big Event at Soldier Field in Chicago.

All that, plus Kevin tries to slow Digi's momentum and the guys reveal a big name that will be taking the stage at this fall's Channel Partners Evolution.

Be sure to check out the following links mentioned in the podcast:

Live video podcast on Channel Evolution Europe: https://www.channelpartnersonline.com/videos/coffee-with-craig-and-kevin-get-ready-for-channel-evolution-europe/

MSP 501 application page: https://informa.co1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_3Xmxv9gFsMHSgVT?track=Website_Announcement

The Channel Partners Conference & Expo is almost here, so the guys are celebrating with a trio of first-time exhibitors at the show.

First up is Richard Stevens of Channel Assist, who talks about how his company helps businesses increase partner engagement.

Then comes Rachael Wright of Upcurve Cloud, a Google Cloud premier partner. She shares how Upcurve offers partners the opportunity to engage their clients from top to bottom of the technology stack.

Last but not least is Jennifer Kula of Wasabi, who explains Wasabi's "hot" storage and how partners can be "hot" by association.

And of course, with this being the last podcast before the Channel Partners Conference & Expo in Las Vegas kicks off on April 9, Craig and Kevin offer tips to make the best of your event-going experience. Oh, and Kevin raps … and goes off on a rant to get us all pumped up … the usual stuff.

March Madness is in full swing, not only on the basketball court, but with our podcast and the just-around-the-corner Channel Partners Conference & Expo.

Oracle, fresh off its purchase of SD-WAN provider Talari, is poised to make a big splash at our show. Nate Grinnell, senior director of the company's worldwide alliances and channels, strolls into the coffeehouse to talk about: how the acquisition will benefit partners of both companies; the new master-agent relationships he's setting up; the year's hottest SD-WAN trends; and the message he and his team hope to get across to prospective partners at CP Expo.

We'll also get an on-the-scene report from Ingram Micro's Cloud Summit X, where the distribution giant just launched a new IoT Marketplace.

All of that, plus a rundown of the Channel Partners agenda that only a millennial could appreciate.

With the Channel Partners Conference & Expo now just a little over a month away, the guys are getting serious. (Well, kind of. Their guests certainly are.)

First up is Tim Cook, founder and chief revenue officer of Blulogix, the B2B monetization specialists. Cook explains how partners can take advantage of what he calls the "monetization moment" and discusses the on-demand Channel Partners webinar that can help our audience make a giant leap toward getting there.

Next up is Andy Ory, co-founder and CEO of 128 Technology, a company that takes a unique look at networking. Ory tells us how the surge in the use of multiple clouds is impacting the industry and how his company's Session Smart SD-WAN is changing the game for its partner community.

All that, plus--are you ready to par-tay? The revamped Digi Awards at the upcoming Channel Partners Conference & Expo in Las Vegas now features a party where we're welcoming a few hundred guests to put their hands up and raise a glass. We break it all down.

Craig and Kevin are coming down off the high from Valentine's Day in their latest podcast.

Love is in the air when Jim Vicatos, national director of sales at Choice Business Connections, joins the show. In addition to telling us where to find the best bagels and pizza on Long Island, Jim talks about his company's important relationship with T-Mobile, partner opportunities in IoT and how Choice's CAMP program is saving customers money.

The guys also feel the love from Rick Beckers, who's not only a member of the Channel Partners Advisory Board, but also the head of a new company that's bringing a new approach in digital distribution to the channel.

"It's an evolution and a collision of everything that's going on in the world as it pertains to what everyone has hung "industry 4.0" on ... our channel vendors and agents and partners are selling technology things. ... The digital transformation has turned everything from what used to be an on-premises world to a hybrid world, and you'd now be hard-pressed to find a technology offering that, if it already isn't subscription-based, the vendors selling those things are already working on how to make their wares subscription-based. XaaS1 ... is evolving the channel ... [creating] a digital distribution layer ... making the channel easier in general with a single-sign-on platform."

All that and more, including a preview of the Business Success Symposium at the upcoming Channel Partners Conference & Expo and all of the "great ideas" that haven't quite made the cut for our shows over the past several years.

The groundhog didn't see his shadow, so that means at least six more episodes of Craig and Kevin.

The guys are pleased to welcome RingCentral channel chief Zane Long to the show. He talks about the latest cutting-edge research around unified communications a service and how his company's recent purchase of a pair of customer-engagement platforms is bound to benefit partners.

"This bolsters our customer-engagement portfolio .... without question our primary focus has been addressing the needs of businesses as they look to enable their mobile and distributed workforces all across the world," Long says.

We also get an on-the-scene report from our own Edward Gately, who spent the week in Las Vegas at the Check Point CPX360 event. He caught up with new Check Point channel leader Frank Rauch to learn about the direction the cybersecurity provider is taking with its partner program.

All that, plus Kevin introduces a sketchy new acronym--KWIM--that we doubt is going to catch on. He tries hard nonetheless. And we'll offer an update on this spring's upcoming Channel Partners Conference & Expo, whose pieces are really starting to come together.