Zones Welcome and Keynote Panel

Optimizing the Value of Your IT
The business landscape has changed dramatically in the last two years, especially from an IT perspective. Managing IT in the modern era requires overseeing remote users, hybrid users, and a wide range of devices and endpoints. How do you optimize the value of your IT? That’s the topic of the day. Join Derrek Hallock, Zones President and Chief Operating Officer, for our opening keynote. Following Derrek's welcome, Deepak Purohit will lead a discussion with panelists Linda Marbena and Jeff Andrew that will provide attendees with an in-depth look at how best to utilize your IT to ensure your business reaches its fullest potential. 

Derrek Hallock

President and Chief Operating Officer, Zones, LLC

Derrek Hallock was named President in 2020 in addition to holding the Chief Operating Officer role at Zones since 2017. In this role, Hallock leads the company's Partner and Product Management (PPM), Marketing, Operations, and Supply Chain, along with Logistics, Integration, Technology Solution Centers, and Service Delivery divisions. In this role, he is responsible for driving innovation and collaboration across the company's partner ecosystem, increasing operational and supply chain efficiency, optimizing costs, elevating the Zones brand, and strengthening global service delivery for Zones clients, with an overarching mission of enabling industry-leading customer experiences and client satisfaction.

Hallock leverages broad industry experience gained at SED International, Tech Data, and CompuCom Systems, where he led a progression of sales management, strategic marketing, and global supply chain organizations. He graduated from Michigan State University with a degree in Supply Chain Management and went on to earn his Executive Master of Business Administration from the University of Washington Foster School of Business.

Deepak Purohit

VP, Solutions, Zones, LLC

Deepak Purohit was named VP of Solutions and Services at Zones in October 2019. Purohit plays a strategic role in the services organization, where he focuses on leveraging Zones’ supply chain strengths to transform service delivery. Leading a team of highly talented architects, Purohit provides executive support for strategy and execution to streamline Zones’ solution offerings and simplify customer service, working with top OEM partners. His background is deeply rooted in solutions, with a special focus on large global business transformation and service transformation. Prior to joining Zones, Purohit served as SVP for Strategic Engagements at Birlasoft, a consulting services firm working with Fortune 500 clients. Previously, he held several consulting positions in the IT industry, including Head of Enterprise Solutions Practice at Infosys. Purohit holds an MBA from XLRI, India and a BE in Production Engineering from the College of Engineering, Guindy, India.

Linda Marbena

VP & GM, Technology Solution Centers, Zones, LLC

Linda oversees all logistics, integrations, and project management offices at Zones. Her responsibilities include managing five Zones-owned Logistics and Integration Solution Centers, 13 Virtual Solution Centers via 3PL, and all Zones global transportation, including imports and exports. Linda joined Zones in 2002 and has held various supply chain operations positions ever since. Prior to joining Zones, she served as general manager of operations at The Woodfield Group and as the director of procurement at Valcom. Linda holds an undergraduate degree in IT operations.

Jeff Andrew

Senior Vice President and Chief Delivery Officer, Zones, LLC

Jeff Andrew was named Senior Vice President and Chief Delivery Officer in March 2022 to lead our IT Services Delivery business. Jeff is a tech-savvy industry veteran and global executive who brings a steady hand and a builder's mentality. His knowledge and skills include all areas of service delivery in various industries, including retail, banking, healthcare, technology, and manufacturing. Prior to joining Zones, Jeff held executive leadership positions at Pomeroy Technologies, CompuCom, VizTech (formerly Tech Force), and CSC (now DXC Technology). His extensive cross-functional IT leadership experience is integral to driving Zones' service delivery practices to benefit our customers. After earning an associate degree in IT programming, Jeff graduated from West Virginia University with a degree in Business Management.

Overcoming Challenges in Network Operations

Managing your corporate network is only becoming more challenging, as organizations are faced with overseeing a wide range of users spanning many locations, devices, and endpoints. It’s important for any organization to have a network operations center (NOC) that can cater to the needs of both individual users and the organization as a whole. This breakout session will discuss what you can do to improve in this area, and how the Zones Innovation Center may be able to help.

Presented by Zones 

Harlin Miller

Global Advanced Technology Executive, Zones 

Harlin Miller serves as Zones longest tenured Global Advanced Technology Executive in the Southeast region. Born in Germany to military parents, Harlin has the unique life and business experience to speak towards dynamic and fluid operational, financial, and technological changes.

Harlin is a graduate of the University of Tennessee and MBA candidate at the University of Washington’s Foster School of Business. He handles some of Zones’ largest strategic growth accounts in the Southeast region.

Knowing the True Value of Full-Stack Observability

To truly manage your IT in a holistic way, you need to have full-stack observability - your team must have complete, comprehensive knowledge of what’s happening across your technology stack at all times. This requires collecting, correlating, and aggregating telemetry on an ongoing basis to ensure you constantly know the health of your system. This breakout will feature presenters from Cisco and Zones discussing how your organization can make that happen.

Presented by Zones and Cisco

Samotria Holmes

Director, PPM, Zones

Samotria Holmes was named Zones Director, Partner and Product Marketing – Cisco in June of 2022. In this role, Samotria leads a seasoned and knowledgeable team, dedicated to deepening our relationship with Cisco and expanding their architectures within our partner community. Her experiences in technology cover a myriad of solutions including wireless infrastructure & networking, point of sale & barcoding as well as unified communications and video conferencing. She’s spent the last 15 years enriching her technical knowledge and leadership skills within the channel ecosystem and brings a unique perspective to team building that will enable our team to move quickly toward our shared goals and objectives.

Sung Paik

Leader, Cloud and Full Stack Observability, Cisco

Sung Paik is the lead for Cloud and Full Stack Observability solutions in the Americas Partner Organization. Sung engages with partner executives, cloud leaders, sales, and engineering teams to raise awareness of Cisco’s solutions for partner go-to-market strategy and plans.

Sung has comprehensive experience that includes corporate finance, software and application development, big data & analytics, VC funded start-up leadership, direct sales success, and partner business development.

Simplify Your Data Center with an "as a Service" Approach

Managing corporate data has never been more difficult, as devices and their users are spread out across such a wide range of locations and endpoints. Yet at the same time, it’s important to prioritize simplicity in your data center, as doing so will help your organization cut costs and save your IT team countless logistical headaches. How can you maximize both efficiency and simplicity? Going with an “as a service” approach to data is a good start. In this breakout, Zones will explain how.

Presented by Zones

Inside the Process of Data Center Virtualization

The modern data center is facing more demands than ever before - but at Zones, we have a strategy to help you meet all of them and more. By virtualizing your data center, you can create a modernized IT infrastructure that is highly scalable, always available, and above all secure. This breakout session, featuring presenters from Lenovo and Zones, will take a deep dive into that process and how it can benefit your business.

Presented by Zones and Lenovo

Emmitt Wells

Advanced Technology Executive, Zones 

Emmitt is an Advanced Technology Executive with Zones with over 34 years of professional experience in the IT industry. He is currently a sales executive but has spent the bulk of his career responsible for a team of Network Consultants engaging in opportunities including Network Architecture, Mobile Infrastructures, Unified Communications, Microsoft Migrations, Process Engineering, and Video Conferencing.

Alexander ‘Doc’ Docherty

Channel Technology Strategist, Lenovo - Infrastructure Solutions Group

For about as long as I can remember, I’ve been taking things apart. I’m fascinated by how things actually function on their own, and as part of greater systems. To this day, I maintain this curiosity and eagerness to understand how things work. Being well-rounded and versatile are the qualities I value the most, and as I such, I do everything I can to embody those traits. Knowledge of a wide array of seemingly unrelated subjects gives me a better understanding of the Big Picture.

I've wanted to talk about computers and what they can do for a living ever since the day my mom won our first computer at a fundraiser. (For the record it was a regional white-label 486SX with 4 megs of RAM and a 100 meg hard drive). I'm now lucky enough to do just that, and about a thousand other things, on a daily basis. In the flurry of it all I still often find myself thinking: "Whoa, how cool is this?!?

Since you’re most likely here to meet me professionally, know that when asked in real life, I tell most that I “Work in tech sales for a big tech company, I do servers and the big machines you don’t really see that much of”. Before doing this for the last twelve years or so, I have had a ton of interesting jobs. These include customs officer at the Port of Montreal (I did cargo ships), a summer spent tying tiny radio trackers to insects (after much trying) at the Central Experimental farm in Ottawa, running a one-man pit crew at a refurb desktop shop (one hand on a cloner, the other on a shopvac), building props used by Astronaut Chris Hadfield on a reality show, installing rooftop microwave antennas in -20 weather, and a bunch of other gigs that saw me in all sorts of hilarious jams. I like getting my hands a bit dirty.

Back to the whole talking about computers thing, I figured that since I loved waxing poetic about technology and made all my spare cash flipping gear on the internet, IT solutions sales might just be my ticket. I’ve since focused on the channel and have had a number of sales and technical positions at a global partner, as well with Lenovo, for the past five plus years. Outside of work my favorite things are tinkering, DIYing all the things, playing trivia, driving at the track, biking my brains out, non-fiction media, looking at maps, and, above all, without question, being the best dad possible.

Exploring Digital Transformation in Retail

For retail and dining establishments today, there’s a great deal of pressure to usher in modern technology. Consumers have come to expect mobile and self-checkout options, which means it’s important for stores and restaurants to adopt these technologies and meet these expectations. In this breakout, we’ll discuss what businesses can do to innovate quickly and effectively, and how Zones’ nterprise solution can play a role.

Presented by Zones

Improving the Customer Experience with Digital Signage

Digital signage has the potential to transform the way customers experience your brand. By presenting information in a way that’s clear, digestible, and engaging for all audiences, you can keep people better informed and usher them along on their customer journeys. This breakout will feature an in-depth discussion, led by Zones Account Manager Matthew Beck and Larry Payne, Senior Sales and Consulting Leader at STRATACACHE, on the specific ways that digital signage can make an impact.

Presented by Zones

Matt Beck

Advanced Technology Executive, Zones

Matt Beck is an Advanced Technology Executive at Zones. Matt has more than 13 years of experience working with Fortune 1,000 clients helping them solve, implement, and execute complex technology goals. He enjoys leading technical teams to achieve digital signage solutions and is passionate about introducing cutting-edge technology solutions to retail clients to help improve their businesses and profitability.

Aaron Hockett

Chief Architect, Office of the CTO, Zones

Based in Portland, Oregon, Aaron Hockett has worked across multiple industries over the last 18 years including High Tech, Health Care, Education, Telecom and Retail manufacturing. His passion is to identify key points of where technology and business intersect to drive towards acceleration of a company's digital business transformation. Innovation is his daily mandate to bring fresh insights to your ways of working.

Larry Payne

Senior Sales and Consulting Leader, STRATACACHE

Larry Payne is a Senior Sales and Consulting Leader at STRATACACHE. An inspired problem-solver, Larry works with clients to discover new ways of creating value out of technology. His work with enterprise clients spans from inception of business strategies and concepts, to estimates and business value assessments, to technical and application selection, through to full project execution and resultant business management. Areas of expertise includes:

- Enterprise Analytic and Business Transformation Solutions
- Executive Information Systems and Decision Support Systems
- Complex Multi-Vendor Systems Integration

Transforming Hardware and Services Deployment

A significant part of mastering IT involves managing the deployment of hardware and services from end to end. Ideally, your organization would be able to implement new technology quickly and effectively, train users on the fly, and manage your IT on an ongoing basis without any unforeseen hiccups. Zones presenters Matt Pelot and Abhishek Wadhawan will lead this breakout discussion, and they’ll go in-depth on mastering the fine art of deployment.

Presented by Zones 

Matthew Pelot

National Services Sales Vice President, Zones

Inside the Store of the Future

The retail industry is evolving fast, and it’s important for businesses to adapt on the fly to keep up with industry trends. Modern technologies, such as mobile and automated checkout options, are a prime example of this. So what will the store of the future look like, exactly? Join Apple and Zones for this breakout discussion, and you’ll get an up-close look like none other.

Presented by Zones and Apple

Aaron Hockett

Chief Architect, Office of the CTO, Zones

Simplify The Way You Consume Technology

Provision quickly, scale on demand, and pay as you go across your entire multi-cloud, multi-edge and multi-data center environment. Consume best of breed Dell Technologies innovation as-a-Service, unlocking the flexibility you need to adapt and thrive. This breakout session, featuring presenters from Zones and Dell, will take a deep dive into APEX and how it can benefit your business. 

Presented by Zones and Dell Technologies

Tim Bisping

Solutions Architect, Zones

Tim is an on-prem Cloud Solution Architect who specializes in on-prem solutions. Not only is Tim focused on Zones’ current on-prem cloud portfolio – he also strives to continuously add additional on-prem cloud partners to the Zones portfolio. In his previous role as the lead HPE Inside Solution Architect, Tim designed over 5,000 solutions for Zones clients totaling over $150M in shipped revenue, a feat for which he was awarded the Zones Platinum Seller Award in 2013, 2014, 2016, 2017, 2018, and 2019.

Before joining Zones, Tim worked at Microsoft as a Data Center Engineer. He also served in the US Army as an AH-64D Apache Helicopter crew chief.

Anthony Ferguson

APEX Account Executive, APEX Acceleration Team, Dell Technologies

Anthony Ferguson is an Account Executive on Dell’s APEX Acceleration Team. Anthony originally joined Dell in 2006 as an Onsite Systems Engineer working with higher education customers in the Mid-Atlantic region, helping them with their virtualization efforts in their enterprises. Upon re-joining Dell in 2018, he took a role as a data center consultant and moved over to the APEX team in June of 2021 as the team was being formed. He’s been working closely with our partner community and customers to help them accelerate their path to Dell’s APEX as-a-Service offerings.

Prior to joining Dell, he spent years as an Infrastructure Lead at large Federal organizations such as the Army Research Laboratory in Aberdeen MD, and NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, just outside of Washington DC. Anthony lives in Northern California, and enjoys traveling with his wife and exploring wine country.

Revolutionizing IT Management with Virtual Desktop Infrastructure

Managing IT is a challenge these days, especially given the proliferation of remote and hybrid workers. But by adopting a virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI), organizations have a chance to automate IT management, expedite various processes, and bolster endpoint security at the same time. In this presentation by Microsoft and Zones, you can learn more about the various benefits of VDI.

Presented by Zones and Microsoft

Josh Kuser

Senior Solution Engineer, Zones

Josh is a highly motivated and ambitious Microsoft Azure Solution Engineer with a focus on Azure architecture and security. He is a U.S. Army veteran with a deep understanding of service and a proven ability to overcome unique and complex challenges. His background and experience in infrastructure, operations, messaging, and Azure technical solutions position him to provide robust solutions to any client that's looking to modernize their system architecture. Josh has a passion for collaboration and problem solving, as well as a great deal of Azure cloud experience spanning migration, compute, networking, storage, and security.

Brent Durst

Solutions Architect, Zones

Brent has extensive experience designing solutions for cloud and data center migrations and managed services. He has worked in Cloud and Data Operations as well as Program Management at Microsoft, Real Networks, Comcast, and Sony Media Entertainment. As a Solution Architect at Zones, Brent architects and maintains production-grade secure cloud solutions, supporting IT processes by utilizing industry standards (ITIL).

Oscar Pineda

Solutions Architect, Zones

Oscar Pineda is a Cloud Solution Architect at Zones with a focus on SaaS, PaaS and DevOps. Oscar has been in the computer industry for more than 25 years, honing his skills at several SaaS companies in a post-sales engineering role. Oscar’s interests include anything that involves tech, learning new technologies, e-bikes, and being outdoors with his dog.

Discover NextGen Workplace Services from Zones

To manage IT effectively, you need to be available to support all users, at all times, with whatever they need. Zones’ NextGen Workplace Services make that possible. This offering focuses on supporting end users with any and all issues in their work environments, providing device support, application management, and more. Join us for this breakout session, and we’ll explore NextGen Workplace Services in depth.

Presented by Zones 

Josh McLaughlin

Solutions Architect, Zones

Bolster Data Security with Zones Backup as a Service (ZBaaS)

Are you worried about data security? If so, it’s time to draw up a plan for backing up your data and retrieving it efficiently. That’s the idea behind Zones Backup as a Service, which gives you an “easy button” to back up your data quickly and affordably, including coverage from end to end. In this breakout session, we’ll show you all the ins and outs of Zones BaaS, demonstrating how our solution can deliver value for your business.

Presented by Zones 

Daniel Kristek

Solution Engineer, Data Recovery Specialist, Zones

Visionary Keynote with Mitch Joel: Disrupting Disruption

We live in a culture of change. Most companies are overwhelmed by the massive shifts that they have to make to their business models. Disruption is everywhere. Digital transformation is imperative. There are several new (and dramatic) realities that will force businesses to rethink many of their commonly held beliefs about what works in business today, and what the future may look like. Interestingly, this is less about the adoption of technology and much more about how consumers have become that much more efficient in this very different landscape. The result of this? Consumers have adopted technology in a way that has fundamentally changed how they buy and interact with businesses today. The world continues to change and challenge brands like never before. Is your business ready to disrupt disruption?

Don't miss our Visionary Keynote with Mitch Joel, Founder of Six Pixels Group - an advisory, investing and content producing company that is focused on commerce and innovation. His first book, Six Pixels of Separation, named after his successful blog and podcast is a business and marketing bestseller. His second book, CTRL ALT Delete, was named among the best business books by Amazon.

Sponsored by Lenovo

Mitch Joel

Six Pixels Group. Investor. Author. Speaker. Decoder of the future. Books: Six Pixels of Separation & CTRL ALT Delete. Thinkers50 Radar. Marshall Goldsmith's 100 Coaches.

When brands like Google, Walmart, Starbucks, Microsoft, Procter and Gamble, Twitter, Unilever want to leverage technology to better connect with their consumers, they call Mitch Joel.

Mitch spent close to two decades building, running and (eventually) selling his agency to WPP - one of the world's most valuable marketing and communications holding companies. He was most recently President of Mirum – a global marketing agency operating in 25 countries with close to 3000 employees. Mitch is now Founder of Six Pixels Group - an advisory, investing and content producing company that is focused on brands, commerce, community and what’s next.

Mitch Joel has been called “one of North America’s leading visionaries” by Strategy Magazine. He is also an entrepreneur, investor, author, trusted advisor, chronic reader, and passionate speaker who connects with people worldwide by sharing his insights on business transformation, innovation and marketing. He was awarded the highly prestigious Top 40 Under 40.

Since 2005 he has given anywhere between 40-60 keynote presentations a year to small, medium and large organizations in both the B2B and B2C space all over the world. As a professional speaker Mitch customizes every presentation for maximum impact. Since Covid-19 kicked in, Mitch has delivered over 150 virtual presentations for brands like Google, Walmart, SAP, Sanofi, Canadian Franchise Association, National Retail Federation, European Startup Festival, and countless others.

His first book, Six Pixels of Separation (Grand Central Publishing - Hachette Book Group), named after his successful blog and podcast is a business bestseller. His second book, CTRL ALT Delete (Grand Central Publishing - Hachette Book Group) was named one of the best business books of 2013 by Amazon.

Currently, he is an advisor and investor in many businesses and charitable organizations in the fields of artificial intelligence, smart audio/voice, martech, fintech and blockchain. He sits on the advisory board for Canada’s Top 40 Under 40, Inovia Capital's Early Stage Fund, HubSpot’s Inbound conference, and is a Trustee of the Westmount Public Library. Mitch is the former Chair of the Board of Directors for the Canadian Marketing Association and a past executive for the National Advertising Benevolent Society. He is also a former board member of Postmedia and the Interactive Advertising Bureau of Canada. In the past, he sat on the content committee for both the National Retail Federation and the Web Analytics Association.

In 2019, Mitch was named to Dr. Marshall Goldsmith's "100 Coaches" list celebrating the world's leading executive coaches, top business thinkers, and best leaders.

Thinkers50 named Mitch to their exclusive Radar class for 2021. "The Radar class features an eclectic mix of people who have crossed our personal radars and who, we believe, will make an impact with their campaigning, their ideas, their research and their passion in the year ahead."

Mitch is frequently called upon to be a subject matter expert for publications like Fast Company, Strategy, Forbes, and many other radio, television, digital and print outlets. He is a columnist and journalist for I Heart Radio, the Harvard Business Review, and Inc. Magazine. Mitch is also the host of Groove – The No Treble Podcast, where he is slowly trying to build the largest oral history of electric bass players in the world.

Fun side fact: Mitch’s first professional job was interviewing Tommy Lee from Motley Crue. He then went on to become a music and entertainment journalist and publisher of magazines. With that, he also co-launched Distort Entertainment, the only hard music label in Canada to have major label distribution (Universal Music) and whose roster featured the platinum-plus, Juno Award and MuchMusic Video Award-winning acts, Alexisonfire and City And Colour.