Blog | Charles IT

Charles IT Successfully Hosts Second Annual Vendor Summit, Integrating Innovative LEGO® Serious Play Activity

Written by Betta Greenberg | Nov 27, 2023 1:30:00 PM

Middletown, November 20, 2023 — Charles IT, a leading Managed Services Provider (MSP) in Connecticut, is excited to announce the success of its second annual Vendor Summit, held in a hybrid style on November 3, 2023, from their Middletown office. This year's summit surpassed expectations in fostering collaboration and strengthening vendor relationships and introduced a unique and interactive LEGO® Serious Play activity to align participants towards a unified goal.

The Charles IT Vendor Summit is an annual virtual gathering that brings together our vendors, marketing partners, and key stakeholders to discuss industry trends, share insights, and explore collaborative opportunities. This year's event was particularly special as it embraced a holistic approach to teamwork and problem-solving by incorporating LEGO® Serious Play.

The LEGO® Serious Play methodology is a powerful tool that encourages creative thinking and effective communication by leveraging the hands-on, minds-on approach of building with LEGO bricks. Participants representing Datto / Kaseya, Cisco, Netsurion, ConnectWise, and Charles IT were actively engaged in constructing models, in 60 seconds or less, that represented their individual perspectives on challenges and opportunities. The LEGO® Serious Play activity's interactive nature facilitated open communication and helped members reveal more of their personalities.

Charles IT’s Marketing Manager, Betta Greenberg, remarks, “As a LEGO® rookie, this exercise pushed me out of my comfort zone, making me build without overthinking. It was an instinctive, laughter-filled experience that let me show a livelier side of myself not usually brought out in our regular partner calls”.

Charles IT is all about building ‘real relationships’ with vendors as an integral part of delivering best-in-class services to its clients. The Vendor Summit serves as a platform for open dialogue, collaboration, and strategic alignment. By integrating the LEGO® Serious Play activity into the summit agenda, Charles IT’s Events Coordinator, Carrie Wicks, aimed to enhance the level of engagement among participants, break down communication barriers, and ensure that everyone involved is working towards a shared vision.

“I chose to incorporate LEGO® Serious Play because it was a really fun and interactive way for our team and participants to form a foundation for group discussions, creative problem solving, and effective decision making,” said Carrie. And the event was a great success. “The LEGO® Serious Play activity was unique and enjoyable, providing a fantastic opportunity to deepen our relationship with our vendors.”

The event concluded with a round-robin style discussion that generated new and innovative ideas for 2024 while renewing a shared commitment to ongoing collaboration. Carrie shared, “The final discussion provided valuable feedback from all sides, which will be extremely beneficial for planning next year’s events”. Participants expressed enthusiasm for the creative approach taken by Charles IT, emphasizing the importance of maintaining these partner relationships to better serve SMBs in the Northeastern United States.

About Charles IT

Charles IT is the Northeast’s compliance expert, headquartered in Middletown, Connecticut, with a second location in Stamford, Connecticut. As a managed service provider (MSP), Charles IT specializes in IT and cybersecurity compliance, including SOC 2, HIPAA, DFARS, CMMC 2.0, SEC, and NIST CSF, in addition to its IT support, IT security, and IT service offerings. With a human-first focus, Charles IT values knowing client teams just as well as they know their technology, allowing them to find the best-fit solutions that take clients from functioning to flourishing.

For media inquiries, please contact:

Betta Greenberg | Marketing Manager

bettag@charlesit.com

860-344-9628