The ChannelBuzz.ca Podcast spent an action-packed day at Activate Digital 2019, a digital tranformation-focused conference hosted by Long View Systems, and comes to you with four big interviews from presenters at the show.

First, we catch up with Dave Frederickson, executive vice president of sales at Long View, to discuss the event. Why does Long View run a digital transformation event? How does it craft its lineup of speakers from customer and vendor communities alike? And where is it looking to take Activate Digital in the future?

Frederickson answers those questions and more, explains why having customers on stage is so important, and discusses the lofty goals Long View has for the event in the long term as a way to help shape and refine the digital transformation story in Canada.

Then, we talk to Rola Dagher, president of Cisco Canada, after her presentation at the event.

Dagher, who was joined onstage by Gayleen Gray, CTO of McMaster University, gets into their discussion around the soft skills side of digital transformation, and why she believes digital transformation is another case where people and culture trump technology by a wide margin.

And, since this is the ChannelBuzz.ca Podcast, we get into Dagher’s advice on how solution providers can help beef up their ability to support digital transformation from a cultural change perspective, as well as her thoughts on how customers’ approaches to digital transformation have evolved.

After that, we get to know Paula Hodgins, the new president at Hewlett-Packard Enterprise Canada.

Hodgins’ presentation focused on the intelligent edge as an important element of digital transformation, and we discuss what that means to partners as they build their own digital transformation strategies, as well as where HPE needs more support from its partners on the edge.

And since Hodgins is new to her role, we also touch on what partners can expect from Hodgins herself, as well as HPE Canada, over the course of 2019.

And finally, we wrap up the show with an end-of-day discussion with Paolo Del Nibletto, channel chief at Jolera and the master of ceremonies for Activate Digital.

Del Nibletto offers his thoughts on the takeaways of the day, and we discuss a number of topics, including the unique nature of Activate Digital in the Canadian landscape, the prevalence of the theme of digital media throughout the day, and how some of the most fundamental business lessons we’ve been taught along the way apply to digital transformation.

All that and more in this edition of the ChannelBuzz.ca Podcast.

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