MANHASSET, N.Y., Oct. 17 /PRNewswire/ -- To increase the profitability of Government Integrators and their vendor partners, CMP Channel has tapped the Chief Information Officers (CIOs) from California, Texas and Illinois to keynote its GovernmentVAR State and Local Roadshows. The state CIOs will discuss the significant and growing opportunities state and local governments represent for Government Integrators and the Channel.

The roadshows, which are powered by the live event arm of CMP Channel, CMP XChange, feature keynote presentations from state CIOs, general sessions from editors of GovernmentVAR, educational workshops, and a solutions pavilion to encourage networking opportunities between Government Integrators, vendors, and potential government customers.

"Bringing together Solution Providers, Government Integrators, and strategic industry decision makers to encourage partnerships and create profitable opportunities is what CMP Channel is all about. We're thrilled at the success of this great GovernmentVAR event series," said Robert C. DeMarzo, vice president and editorial director, CMP Channel.

State and local government agencies are expected to spend $71 billion per year on IT products and services by 2011 and 85 percent of that will be outsourced to government integrators who have established close relationships with state and local government buyers, according to research firm Input, Reston, Va. Because of this, each stop on the Roadshow offers an ideal opportunity for vendors to network with Government Integrators who through close relationships with their customers can significantly increase a vendor's product sales.

California state CIO J. Clark Kelso told government VARs attending GovernmentVAR's State and Local Roadshow in Sacramento last week that when it comes to winning IT business from the state, size doesn't matter. What the State of California and other state governments are looking for often isn't the billion dollar IT vendor or integrator, but rather small nimble solution providers that have expertise in applications such as server consolidation and virtualization, web redesign and document management.

With 13 California state IT contracts over $10 million and 11,500 under $500,000 there is plenty of room for solution providers. Kelso provided five tips for solution providers to win IT business from state governments:

1. Learn the state's overall IT strategy and map solutions to fit the goals; 2. Get to know departmental CIOs; 3. Don't use the term outsourcing when dealing with state; 4. Go green with proposals; and 5. Partner with state IT retirees.

Brian Rawson, CIO, State of Texas will keynote the October 24 Roadshow in Austin, Texas, and Doug Kasamis, Interim CIO, State of Illinois will keynote the November 6 Roadshow in Oak Brook, Illinois. To register to attend, go to:

http://cmpxchange.com/state_local.

To learn more about how to win state government contracts, read Craig Zarley, CMP Channel's Industry Editor's article "California CIO: 5 Tips to Win State Contracts" at: http://www.crn.com/government/202403331;jsessionid=VZWULCLX0H2HUQSNDLRCK...

Vendors interested in sponsorship, contact Allison Cohen at accohen@cmp.com or 516-562-7870.

About XChange Events

CMP's XChange Events is the global leader in face-to-face channel events. XChange Events bring together new markets, customers and revenue opportunities for solution providers and technology vendors. XChange Events offer the best recruiting, training, education and networking opportunities in three & four day events filled with keynotes, lectures, debates and discussions revolving around critical channel issues and trends. XChange Event information can be found online at http://www.cmpxchange.com/ . CMP Channel hosts a complete suite of integrated media and business solutions whose asset portfolio includes, CRN, VARBusiness Magazine, XChange Events, Institute for Partner Education & Development (IPED), the ChannelWEB Online Network and GovernmentVAR Magazine.

About CMP Channel (http://www.cmpchannelgroup.com/)

CMP Channel is the one stop shop customers turn to in order to meet their global sales channel objectives from access to execution. Through use of its family of channel solutions which include CRN and VARBusiness, the ChannelWeb network, XChange Events and the Institute for Partner Education & Development (IPED), vendors are able to accelerate sales through the channel. CMP Channel provides a worldwide answer to advertising, branding and marketing services, lead generation, market intelligence, branded and custom events, education of solution providers and best practices for vendors.

About CMP

CMP (http://www.cmp.com/) is a media and marketing solutions company serving the technology industry. With the leading online, event and print brands in all technology market categories, and with services and tools that reach beyond traditional advertising, CMP shapes and influences the technology industry worldwide. CMP publishes highly respected media brands such as TechWeb, InformationWeek, ChannelWeb, CRN, EE Times and TechOnline; produces major industry events such as Interop, Web 2.0 Expo, XChange, Game Developers Conference and the Embedded Systems Conferences; and provides business information and marketing services such as the International Customer Management Institute, Semiconductor Insights and Second Life consulting for technology marketers. CMP is a subsidiary of United Business Media (http://www.unitedbusinessmedia.com/), a global provider of news distribution and specialist information services with a market capitalization of more than $3 billion. For more CMP news, go to cmp.com/news.

Contact Allison Cohen CMP Channel 516-562-7870 accohen@cmp.com

CONTACT: Allison Cohen of CMP Channel, +1-516-562-7870,
accohen@cmp.com

Web site: http://www.cmp.com/
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http://www.cmpxchange.com/

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