Suzanne Mattaboni
Suzanne Mattaboni Communications
For D&H Distributing
(610) 737-2140
suzanne@mattaboni.com

For Immediate Release:

D&H DISTRIBUTING LAUNCHES NEW TECH CONFERENCE BRANDING, & TRANSITIONS ITS FIRST 2 "THREAD" EVENTS TO VIRTUAL THREADCASTS

- To Help Support Partners as They Navigate the Pandemic, D&H Delivered its Content Via "LIVEcast" Streaming Channels, Illustrating How Businesses Can Sustain Continuity Through Collaborative Technologies -

HARRISBURG, PA - March 27, 2020 - D&H Distributing, a major provider of SMB and consumer technologies to the North American high-tech channel, announces it has relaunched its popular conference series for 2020. The conferences were rebranded as the "THREAD™" Technology Conferences. D&H has continued to evolve this offering, solidifying its format of special speakers, subject matter experts, and manufacturer-based technology presentations. In addition, after careful consideration, D&H Distributing transitioned its first "THREAD" Technology Conferences to virtual, live-streamed "THREADcast" videocasts in light of the status of the Coronavirus (COVID-19). THREADcast was one of the first channel-wide broadcasts since the COVID-19 crisis. Content included a focus on categories that lent themselves to current issues: business continuity, collaboration, unified communications, and security--all areas that help companies accommodate remote connectivity and an increased demand for teleworker environments.

The THREADcast offering was designed to be conscious of partners' time in light of how their workloads and availability have recently changed, ensuring that content was accessible, engaging, relevant, and specific to their needs. Registrants could ideally experience THREADcast live for real-time engagement, but partners will also be able to view and participate on-demand at their convenience for weeks after. See www.dandh.com/threadcast for information on viewing on-demand.

D&H would also like to hold up the new virtual THREADcast as an example of how technology can be applied to achieve business continuity, allowing companies to conduct meetings and educational sessions virtually, or to accommodate the transfer of its employees to home-based work environments. In addition to converting its conferences to a virtual medium, D&H will continue to advocate for collaborative solutions from manufacturers such as Cisco (which has extended trial licenses of its Webex services and some security offerings at no-cost during the crisis), Microsoft Teams, Dropbox, Intermedia, and RingCentral. Now more than ever, channel partners should be versed in how to deploy these collaborative and hosted solutions to help businesses, communities--and the people who are at their core--stay connected and maintain viability during social distancing periods.

"This is a unique time in history, but our partners and the industry in general are working hard to meet challenges with the technologies we've been promoting all along," said Jenn Walcott, vice president of marketing at D&H Distributing. "Now more than ever, partners will be helping end-customers enable remote work environments that encourage virtual collaboration while maintaining the same performance and security standards they have within their physical spaces. THREADcast will help inform our partners about those solutions. We also hope it will serve as an example of how companies can leverage technology for both marketing and educational purposes."

The THREADcast included "LIVEcast" sessions with speakers from the City of Industry agenda:

• High-tech marketing expert Jay Baer, who gave pertinent examples of successful vs. unsuccessful ways for solution providers to enhance customer experiences, strengthen customer relationships, and foster increased business.
• Channel consultant and industry-renowned journalist Larry Walsh of the 2112 Group, who addressed the state of the channel and its response to COVID-19, especially relative to teleworkers and the education market.
• Guy Grace, director of security and emergency planning at Littleton Public Schools and chair of PASS (Partner Alliance for Safer Schools), who gave insights into how schools are utilizing technology for purposes such as security, surveillance, crisis management, and distance learning during the pandemic.
• Jason Bystrak, vice president of D&H's Cloud Business Unit, who explained how MSPs and VARs can leverage cloud-based technologies to address these new needs through D&H's Cloud Solutions offering. This presentation included content from Jason Lambert and Matt Allison, D&H cloud consultants.

These were streamed live at specific times and are also available on-demand.

The LIVEcasts were conducted from the speaker's individual location, and included live Q&A opportunities, creating a training opportunity that is as comparable as possible to a live encounter. Virtual manufacturer and solution LIVE Channels were also available for viewing during the THREADcast event, so manufacturers could present material about their latest innovations. Current D&H conference registrants were automatically enrolled in the virtual THREADcasts. In this way, D&H provided the best possible experience for its partners by way of a comparable hosted venue with up-to-the-minute, relevant content--at a time when many other channel events have been forced to cancel. Additional agenda information is available for D&H partners at www.dandh.com/cityofindustry.

The rebranded D&H THREAD™ events represent the next generation of the distributor's long-running conferences, weaving together educational training, partner engagement activities, interactive solution experiences, and collaborative opportunities. They bring a wealth of enablement resources to help partners across North America accelerate their businesses and reach new levels of success.

The tagline of the rebranded conference series, "Strength in Connections," emphasizes how joining with peers and partners in the channel for relevant, insightful, and effective educational experiences will accelerate growth for MSPs, VARs, and resellers. D&H has added a new conference in Atlanta, GA, which will potentially rotate with the distributor's Houston, Texas show every other year, extending D&H's training proposition to a wider geography. Both the March 26 City of Industry THREAD in California and the April Montreal THREAD in Canada have made the transition to the online "THREADcast" format while maintaining an outstanding agenda that addresses the needs of the channel during the current crisis.

D&H partners can call (800) 877-1200 to speak to a D&H account representative, or visit www.dandh.com.

About D&H Distributing

D&H Distributing believes the most important element of doing business is developing relationships for mutual success, delivering superior engagement experiences to its community of partners and employee co-owners. The company continues to build upon its 100-year-old culture, providing a wealth of partner enablement resources, multi-market expertise, and consultative services. D&H maintains a focus on independent VAR and MSP partners, expanding their competencies in areas such as cloud services, ProAV, collaboration, UCC, mobility, and server networks across a range of markets. Its value proposition includes highly-lauded training opportunities and partner engagement events, dedicated Solutions Specialists, certifications, professional marketing resources, and an expanding digital Cloud Marketplace.

D&H has been named to the Forbes List of America's Largest Private Companies since 2009, and is among the top five companies on that list in Pennsylvania. One of Harrisburg's largest employers, the distributor is headquartered in Harrisburg, PA, in the US and Brampton, Ontario, in Canada with warehouses in Atlanta, GA; Chicago, IL; Fresno, CA; and Vancouver, BC, Canada. Call D&H at (800) 877-1200, visit www.dandh.com, or follow the distributor's Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter feeds, https://www.facebook.com/DandHDistributing/, https://www.linkedin.com/company/dandhdistributing/, and @dandh.

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Link to THREADcast screenshots.

Screenshot IDs - files are labeled to match:

• Dave Labagh, D&H's THREADcast moderator
• Guy Grace, Littleton Public Schools; chair of PASS (Partner Alliance for Safer Schools)
• Jay Baer, Convince & Convert
• Larry Walsh, 2112 Group
• Jason Bystrak, vice president, D&H Cloud Business Unit
• Jason Lambert, D&H cloud consultant
• K-12: Trevor Schubert, D&H solutions specialist
• Esports: Chris Phillips, D&H technical enablement supervisor
• Paul Morano, partner sales executive, Microsoft