Good afternoon from Las Vegas. Event host Mark Jeffries is out to kick things off. The stage is set up with a lineup of seats, so I’m assuming we’ll have something of a panel discussion.

Up first though, Intel’s Laura Crone, VP of the wordldwide HP account team.

Crone opens witn Intel’s new vision – “create and extend computing technology to connet and enrich the lives of every person on Earth.”

By 2015, Intel expects to have more than 15 billion connected devices, including new types of connected “devices” — cars, TVs, etc.

By 2015: 3 billion Internet users generating 1000 Exabytes of global Internet traffic.

Crone says Utrabook an enteprise opportunity, cites the HP Folio 13 as an example.

“Expect this cateogry to continue to evolve,” with the addition of touch, voice, near-field communication, etc. “Ultrabook will be better than the best tablet, and better than the best notebook.”

Crone talking about the data centre processor “boom and bust,” expects to double the number of processors in data centres by 2015, even assuming 75 per cent of the servers deployed are virtualized.

Crone tells partners to be on the look out for the next generation Core and Xeon processors later this year. “We don’t need a better reason to go out and convince our customers it’s time to buy some new technology.”

And with that, Crone wraps up her session and Jeffries is back ou. Apparently the panel will be taking questions a little bit later. But first… some strategic drill down on the enterprise business from Rich Geraffo.

“We went through a lot of changes” in leadership and strategy, “but our partners stuck with HP, and we will stick with you,” Geraffo tells partners.

Across the Americas “there’s a lot that this company can do,” which will lead to a year of growth..

Geraffo  urges partners to drive growth by going across categories, and seeking out new adjacencies in the HP portfolio.

Top opportunities ripe for partners include information management and security, Geraffo says. “Look at your business plan,” and see how they fit in.

Geraffo urges Cisco and EMC partners to look at HP’s networking and storage portfolios, respectively, for an alternative to the incumbent.

“When you think about HP, you have to think about the breadth of the portfolio,” Geraffo says. By expanding the portfolio, partners have access to what he describes as a $615 billion TAM in the Americas.

Geraffo wraps up his segment by thanking partners “for sticking with us through a very tough year,” and we’re going to the panel of Americas leadership.

ESSN’s Randy Seidl: “We are the only cloud provider that can enable partners to provide to your customers public, private or hybrid clouds” throgh CloudSystem, and on the storage side, huge growth in dedupe and 3Par.

In networking “we’re the only vendor that’s truly open,” Seidl says.

Stephen DiFranco once again showing off the 14-inch Spectre ultrabook on the panel

DiFranco tells partners they can buy the Spectre now on HP.com. (Of course, many channel partners probably have other ways to acquire HP products, one would think.)

DiFranco talks up VDI as a “very partner-driven” solution, integrating ESSN and PSG hardware, as well as partners for software and services to round it out.

With just under half of partners doing the full portfolio, where do HP execs want to see that. Surprisingly, 100 per cent. DiFranco says that number has increased dramatically over the last few years. “We believe in franchise partnerships,” he says.

Seidl detailing the cross-selling advantage — get extra points of margin for adding products from various HP business units to a solution, up to five points. “We’re trying to do better together throughout the whole ecosystem.”

Koeck: Having “cool or sexy” product is the starting point, but beyond that, there has to be a lot of innovation on supplies, on managed print, etc. “That’s the win.”

HP Software’s Steve Erdman describes his offerings as “the glue” in an HP-centric solution. “You’re going to find an HP Software product that answers [customers’] questions.” 

Erdman details an HP partner-to-partner program working with Software and ESSN parnters to help develop full solutions.

DiFranco on HP’s mobile strategy: “We’ll be engaged in the Windows 8 mobile launch,” with consumer and enterprise tablets. After asking partners to start mobility practices last year, HP will now be able to add a Microsoft-based secure platform. Expect more information “as we get closer to the Win 8 launch.”

DiFranco: “We need to get on and off the cloud through a lot of different devices.” Regardless of getting out of product categories, it’s always been about the channel providing security and resilience. He says Windows 8 tablets will benefit from HP learned in the short-lived Touchpad. “It’s been a bumpy road, but we’re going to get there.”

Sounds like Technology Services is looking to sign up a lot more partner than they currently have.

Siedl suggests partners have a better view across HP’s portfolio than even HP itself does.

DiFranco: Channel partner revenue, across business units, grew faster than HP’s own revenues, and the benefit dollars delivered to partners grew faster than revenues for the first time ever.

The Americas market grew 6.4 per cent — all HP partners grew 9 per cent. But DiFranco shows a slide showing that specialist partners grew at 13 per cent while HP “franchise” partners grew at 17 per cent.

IPG’s Koeck says that 88 per cent of IPG revenues are driven through partners — that figure is up from last year.

Steve Erdman from Software says getting Software into PartnerOne wa a big win – common structure across all the BUs now. Technical certifications are way up in the partner community, and a new deal-registration program put in place. Last year, about 12 per cent of HP’s partners were selling software. That’s up to about 18 per cent this year, with a 65 per cent growth rate in the software business through the channel.

DiFranco showing off Windows 8 beta on a Folio, which he describes as “the first Ultrabook for business.” Lenovo has used the same branding and moniker on its ThinkPad ultrabook devices.

Seidl’s closing shot: “Success if if you all come back here next year and say you made more money with HP than anyone else.” “All ne storage customers will go through the channel,” draws some applause, with StoreOnce and Lefthand being only through the channel.

Koeck’s closing shot: “Let’s get together” around managed print and solutions-selling. “88 per cent [through the channel] is not good enough.”

Erdman’s closing shot: He’s looking to get more ESSN, PSG and services partners working with software group through more sales calls.

DiFranco’s closing shot: “Thanks for sticking with us” through a tough year. “In this new role, one of the things I noticed in PSG is that we need to get our field teams better associated with their parnters.” Says he’s asked for somebody in teach geography to be repsonsible for SMB growth in the channel. Urges partners to invite reps out to visit them. “Get them to know who you are, and it will be an even better partnership in the future.”

And to wrap things up, they’re going to make Randy Seidl wear a New York Giants jersey, part of a bet with a New England-loving HP partner. Even made him wear Manning’s number.

Mike Parrottino out on stage now, bringing up business leaders from across The Americas including Canada’s Leyland Brown, Dave Frederirckson, Lloyd Bryant and Brad Keats.

Parrottino: HP has added 10 per cent to its channel business over the last year.

And with that, things are wrapping up for this session here in Vegas. Thanks for joining us… we’ll be back liveblogging the wrapup keynote featuring software chief Bill Veghte, Autonomy CEO Mike Lynch, and finally, new CEO Meg Whitman.

And for those of you in Las Vegas for GPC, we’ll see you at the Canadian partner party over at TAO this evening.