‘There aren’t these silos of technology. It’s not just cloud. It’s how AI is affecting cyber, how cyber is affecting cloud. It’s impacting every scope of the industry. So we need every voice at the table,’ says Dan Wensley, GTIA CEO.
The Global Technology Industry Association is betting that the future of the IT channel will be built not only on technology, but on stronger connections between the people using, selling and developing it.
That means creating more opportunities for MSPs, vendors, distributors and other members of the channel to learn from one another, while also giving the industry a stronger voice on issues such as AI, cybersecurity and professional standards.
In an interview with CRN at its recent ChannelCon conference, GTIA CEO Dan Wensley described that strategy as a combination of local community, global perspective and practical resources. One of the most visible pieces will be the association’s regional and local chapters, which will give members more opportunities to meet as peers.
“We all see the need to come together as a community and an industry,” Wensley told CRN.
The chapters will generally meet quarterly, and members will determine the conversations they want to have—whether that means discussing AI, sharing MSP success stories or working through common challenges.
That member-led philosophy extends to GTIA’s broader initiatives. The Consortium for Responsible IT Services, developed in partnership with Texas A&M University, is intended to help establish standards for an industry that Wensley said has lacked a formal framework.
The same approach is behind GTIA’s Managed Intelligence Alliance, created after cloud marketplace Pax8 brought the idea forward, and its partnership with the United Nations’ AI for Good initiative.
And for Wensley, the common thread is connection.
“Staying connected as a community is more important than ever,” he said, “Particularly as AI accelerates the pace of change.”
CRN spoke further with Wensley on GTIA’s road map, partnerships and the role of community in navigating changes with AI.
What are you hoping the local chapters become?
What we’re excited about with the local chapters, we heard this from members throughout the last year and a half since GTIA [rebranded]. One of the requests they had is the ability to get together more as peers, and we all see the need to come together as a community and an industry. There are so many members who want to get together more often. Regional chapters and local chapters will allow them to come together, and we set it at a quarterly pace. They might want to meet more, so we’ve established the budget to allow them to meet. And there’s also certain interest groups. So there are groups of MSPs. There might be local chapters within the same city that have different interests. We really see it as another way for peer-to-peer interaction in a member-led environment.
Tell me about the Consortium for Responsible IT Services. How did that come about?
I think, as an industry, we’ve talked about the lack of regulatory authority, like anybody could hang out a shingle as an MSP. There were no standards around it.
This challenge, or this observation, has been around for decades. What our partnership and the consortium with Texas A&M does is allow us to give the real framework around it, and especially as we see AI, cyber and all of the technologies and complexities impacting the industry. If we don’t get our heads around and wrap around standards as an industry, they will be forced upon us.
So our view is, with government interaction, the governments are going to be looking for somewhere to go. Where are the standards? Because they’re getting pressured for it too. As the global trade association that we’re in, we’re responsible [for doing] that for the industry.
Could that eventually mean working directly with local governments on AI standards?
Yes, through partnerships. A part of the consortium’s framework and mandate is to interact and reach out to government entities and make them aware of what we’re doing as a trade association for this industry, get their involvement where it’s applicable and ultimately get them to adopt the standard that we deliver.
And on a global basis, that draws right into our partnership with the UN and AI for Good. The UN, the global community, has seen where AI is going. So not only will the consortium help us with some standards and some guardrails around it, we’ll be able to take that into the UN environment on a global basis as well.
Is there a road map for approaching government, local, state and federal?
This is why our partnership with Texas A&M is so critically important because they have the capacity, they have the knowledge, they have the experience in doing exactly that. They have set standards like this in other industries and have that liaison into the government agencies to be able to do it.
How did the Managed Intelligence Alliance come about?
That came about from a member, Pax8. And it’s where a lot of these initiatives, as the Global Trade Association, come from. We don’t sit around and make these things up. We’re interacting with members; we’re understanding and listening to what this market and industry needs. Many members have talked about the challenges they’re going through with how we’re going to adopt AI and managed intelligence and what it’s going to look like and how it’s going to be priced.
Pax8 brought it to us, and we stood it up. We’ll be adding a lot of other vendors and MSPs to be a part of that alliance and have the conversation around how to ethically, profitably roll out AI strategies for the industry.
A lot of GTIA’s announcements have involved partnerships. Why are those partnerships so important?
Expanding the voices and the conversation … we’re not in a silo. What we are as the Global Trade Association is the connector, and we need every voice inside this industry as a part of that connection and a part of that conversation, or we will miss a piece of it.
We’re in a very unique position as the nonprofit, as the trade association, to bring every voice: competitive, positive AI, negative AI, cyber—all of it has to come together. We’re also seeing convergence. There aren’t these silos of technology. It’s not just cloud. It’s how AI is affecting cyber, how cyber is affecting cloud. It’s impacting every scope of the industry. So we need every voice at the table.
What is the goal of the partnership with the UN and AI for Good?
There’s a number of real positive aspects to this partnership. First, it’s going to expand the exposure for GTIA members and, more importantly, show others in AI innovation that we’re here.
We’ve sometimes been called the ‘best-kept secret’ in the industry. We’re doing a lot to change that, but we’re certainly the best-kept secret outside our line of sight in this industry. This partnership will expose GTIA to new innovative technologies in AI and vendors and innovators across the globe.
So again, that’ll expand the footprint. And for our members today, it broadens their scope and vision on what AI innovation can do, and we can bring that together. We’re excited from not just the optics of the UN, but what it’s going to do in expanding our voice and our connections across the globe.
So what does 2027 look like for GTIA?
We were given a mission with GTIA to grow this association, to grow the membership. And we really adopted a strategy of delivering more value to more members. So not growth for the sake of growth, but to really ensure that even the great work we were already doing was being utilized inside the market.
More value, yes. Great events like ChannelCon. More value by doing local chapters, so we’re staying on that trajectory for sure. But they’re supporting us with even greater growth.
Why should an MSP or vendor join GTIA when there are already so many communities and peer groups?
Global perspective with local peer connections. As the nonprofit we can talk about neutrality. We can talk about the association’s responsibility and opportunity. And there are great peer groups, and we welcome all of them in. It’s not a ‘don’t do that, do this.’ It’s a ‘yes and.’
Be a part of all of those peer groups, whether it’s your vendor peer group, whether it’s your independent peer group. We’re partnering with all those folks and supporting them. But it’s not a ‘yes or.’ It is a ‘yes and.’ Be a part of that. But believe me, for the value, we’re unique in the amount of research, content and information that GTIA brings to market. You deserve it. Come get it.
