What Makes the 2026 Telarus Partner Summit in Texas Unique

Education is another investment in your success, and there is no better example of that than the Telarus Partner Summit. Joining me for today’s conversation is our SVP of sales, Tim Bossa. Tim, thanks for being here to talk about our biggest event of the year.

Hey, Cass. Happy to be here. Just, landed in Louisville, got into my hotel room, got reasonably reliable Wi Fi, so I think we’re ready.

Wonderful. I’m super excited to hear that. It’s funny that you mentioned hotel rooms. Before we even jump into anything, I do have big news that we got last night.

We thought yesterday was the last day to get the discounted rooms for Telarus partner summit, but our events team apparently went above and beyond and got it extended to for this Friday at three PM central. So if you haven’t registered or you haven’t gotten your hotel room yet and you thought you missed out, you have not. So make sure that you go and you get into that room block. We are I mean, they are about ninety one percent full of that block is taken already, so make sure that you guys hurry, get your hotel room before those rooms are gone.

But, yes, super excited to have you on the call to talk about this. We are only about three weeks away from partner summit, and there is a lot of excitement building.

There really is.

For anyone that’s who’s never attended, okay, what makes this event different from every other event out there in the channel?

Well, first, let’s talk about those who’ve never been and what the survey says every year.

So every year, as you know, Cass, we pour over all of the comments from the survey that we get from Partner Summit. And those comments help me help us make Telarus Partner Summit better every year, so it’s always improving. But one of the number one things we read is I should have came sooner. I don’t know why I waited so long.

This was the best event I ever attended. So it it truly is different, and it benefits you to take action. There’s big takeaways. We’ll cover a lot of that today, and the takeaways are gonna be different for the different attendees.

I mean, there’s great education that’s way beyond what you get at your local events. There’s networking that’s very different, again, than you experience because there’s a different cast of characters there from all over the world that are gonna converge on the Galer Texan. So you have this three days of Telarus community, the best in the community, so you get a chance to sort of get a peek at your future if you’re just starting. And if you’re already successful in thriving, the next level is probably gonna be in that room too.

So you’re gonna see the unlocks to get your business to the next level, whether it’s in a workshop or live on stage. So if you’ve never been before, it’s worth investing. If you’ve been before, then you know it’s true. You know that Partner Summit can make a measurable difference in your business, and you need to you need to take the time to make it to Dallas.

Yeah. I absolutely agree. Last year had so much energy and just what everyone was talking about, what they learned, what they took away from, each of those different panels and all of those different breakout education rooms. It really felt, electric almost when you’re in that atmosphere.

Yeah. For sure. Well, that’s one of the well, also one of the comments. Sorry. The the surveys are the best for me because I can take the words right off the the print.

Right? Which is felt like I was floating on a cloud. The environment was electric, way different than I expected, not a boring boring business seminar. So all those things are great, and that’s really because of everybody who’s watching this right now.

And then, also, there’s great, the education you’re gonna see on stage from industry experts. You know, Jay McBain is a well known analyst in the space. You can see him on LinkedIn. You can read his stuff all over the web.

But what he shares in a keynote that’s personal to you all watching is very, very different than what he shares sometimes publicly because it’s fine tuned for you. Same thing with Ray Wang who leads our tech trends. He’ll be on stage.

And, Ray, you you guys have seen him on all the business channels for sure, but those are, like, one minute snippets, two minute snippets. Maybe you watch a YouTube video, but in his keynote and and collaboration, I think, with Jen live on stage, that’s that’s a long session where we just unpack tech trends that are very powerful to put to use in twenty twenty six and also as you’re building your plan for twenty twenty seven. A lot of people say that they’re already building their plan when they go to partner summit, and it’s the anchor information that they learn there, the insights and actual insights, to help them really shape and mold their plan with their team on-site, or they take that info homecast, and they have those insights they can use right away in real time. They don’t have to wait. They’re not waiting to unpack something new. They get it right there in Dallas.

Yeah. It’s it’s really powerful to hear from them. In fact, I don’t know if everybody’s aware of this too, but if you ever wanna sneak peek at, like, how will the partner summits go? We put together, like, a full video, actually.

And you go to Telarus University under the forums tab, there’s literally partner summit. It shows you a video. You get to see Ray Wang, and you get to see Jen on screen talking about tech trends. You get to see Tim walking around the room, getting everybody pumped up and ready to go for each session.

So, yeah, if you even if you wanna see a sneak peek of the last year, which I we can’t compare. There’s so many different things from last year. But just to get a little little snippet of what that energy and, like, what it looks like, it’s a great place to go just to kinda get that idea.

I mean, is there anything in particular? Because I know, hey. One one thing that has been standing out to me, if you guys haven’t seen it, is basically the how hands on the agenda is.

Like, what makes these education sessions different from what advisors might experience at other live or virtual events?

Yeah. So I think if you go backwards for a second and everyone who’s been there, they they’ve experienced the electricity. They’ve seen the hands on environment. But if you haven’t been, or even if you have been, you need to be reminded.

Think about a time when your business or you personally were really impacted by an educational session or a mess a powerful message. For most people, it was in a hands on environment where it was total immersion. So it could have been a live workshop in their local community. It could have been a regional event.

It could have been a church service where they felt like, you know, the message was directed right at them. Most of the time, it happens when there’s total immersion and it’s interactive. So what happens at Partner Summit goes way beyond the main stage. It happens in the breakout rooms that are finely tuned.

Again, based on surveys, based on what you guys say as we travel the country, take your input. These workshops are live interaction. There’s whiteboarding. There’s a bit of role play.

Don’t worry. You don’t all have to participate, but there’s a bit of role play that can happen. They’re supplier agnostic. So I know sometimes you guys go to these events, and suppliers are a big part of it, and we’ll get to that later.

I think that’s a critical piece of this event. But supplier agnostic is also important. We can just go and learn and absorb the information, take action items, take notes.

It’s very different than when you’re on a virtual training. Although virtual training is very efficient, you’re multitasking. There’s screens everywhere. Someone’s tapping on your shoulder for a god a minute.

You might check out and go swap the laundry around. Right? Move the stuff into the dryer. At Partner Summit, there’s no escaping the work, and it’s worth it to go and do the work.

It’s worth it to engage in those workshops, see the practical case studies, see the frameworks that are proven, not just because we say so, but because this community says so. Right? We don’t we don’t just say, Cash, you know this. You’re involved in education every day.

We don’t just come up with this stuff. We fine tune it. But a lot of it’s what’s working right now in our community, and you have a chance to go learn it, take notes, whether you’re brand new to the business, just starting, or whether you’re fully scaled and you have some new employees or you just wanna come sharpen your saw. Iron sharpens iron, and that’s that’s why you wanna be at Partner Summit.

The education sessions, even for me, light bulbs go off. And and I think I study a lot of this stuff every day, and I have one or two action items in every session I attend personally.

Yeah. There was a lot to learn when you were inside of those rooms. In fact, one of the things that we did this year differently than we did last year, this, again, is all coming from the survey, what people asked us for. We moved away from that traditional one zero one, two zero one, three zero one structure Yes.

Because a lot of folks were like, well, I am kind of new, but I also feel like I know a little of this. So am I one zero one or two zero one? And others are like, well, I don’t think I’m advanced, but I also don’t think I’m intermediate. So where do we go from there?

And moving away from that, we streamlined it into two tiers, and that is built for your goal. So you think of, like, oh, I’m beginner. That’s building foundational understanding. That’s developing confidence and positioning, different solutions.

That’s identifying new opportunity areas where, like, the advanced classes are more like how to lead strategic customer conversations, how to, you know, navigate solution convergence, address operational complexity. So doing that makes it easier for you guys to know, like, this is the the one I want this is the breakout room I wanna go to. This is the one I know that will work for me instead of having to guess where am I on this scale. Right?

Like, it’s it’s very much a spectrum versus, like, very distinct.

Look. I wanna double down on two things you said. Number one is is confidence.

Number two is you said I don’t have to guess. So that’s clarity. So what happens is we all go to the interwebs, and we Google things or we AI things. And while the all the tools are amazing, what I see a lot is it also creates confusion. It creates conflict in your brain.

So when you attend partner summit breakouts or just have a casual conversation in the lobby with a peer, it creates some clarity because you find the best practices. You find the what’s working now and what’s work when been working in the past with some of your peers.

So you’re not just relying on chat GPT to say, I hope you’re I hope this email finds you well. Right? Those those silly things that it repeats over and over generically, you get very specific things at Partner Summit, finely tuned, ready to deploy, no second guessing, no overthinking it. Just go take action.

No. Absolutely. I remember last year, we had advisers closing deals immediately following, their breakouts.

They were using what they just learned to close a deal during Yeah.

During the whole partner summit. So that was really exciting to see.

Oh, those are my favorite things, the the little challenges we do in the breakouts. And people can take action. They advance a deal. They get a lead. They un they unstick a deal.

Just the the the knowledge bombs that are dropped in those rooms, it’s fun to hear those stories afterwards.

Oh, absolutely. And then, you know, not to get away from too much for education, but, yeah, talking a little bit about the suppliers. The supplier trade show is always one of the most exciting parts of the week too.

I I have my own opinions about what makes it so exciting, but what makes it such an important part of the partner summit in your opinion?

Well, this is a relationship business. So and everybody watching knows that. They just said, no. Duh, Basa.

Right? It is a relationship business. But here’s the thing. The truth is that we all have our circle of influence that sort of surrounds us.

There’s a quote that that’s pretty popular on the Internet. I heard it when I was a kid. You’re the average of your five best friends. Most people’s circle of influence is, like, eight to ten people.

They have their favorite suppliers. Maybe they have a new supplier.

So the key to the supplier part of the supplier trade show and the suppliers who are gonna be there and also, it’s really important to know that we don’t overwhelm you as suppliers. We curate meaningful suppliers. But the point I wanna make is, I know in school, they told you, don’t talk to strangers. I’m telling you at Partner Summit, you gotta talk to strangers.

You gotta expand your circle. There’s a new supplier on that exhibit floor hall. In the two days that they’re gonna be that they’re gonna be there on that floor hall, you need to go and meet suppliers who are interesting to you. You need to curate conversations.

You need to unpack some details. You need to see the hands on demos. Sure. You’re gonna pick up some swag, but just don’t go swag shopping or tchotchke shopping.

Go and engage. Get a get a business card. Tap phones. Connect however you connect. LinkedIn.

Make a meaningful connection. The one plus one equals three is true Get to know them beyond the surface level.

It creates easier collaboration. You’ll know right away. You start talking to a supplier. I guarantee you go meet you take the Tim Bossa challenge. You go meet somebody you’ve never met.

Take go one level deeper than the surface level, and I promise you, customer will pop into your mind. You’ll think, oh, I could probably use these guys with John Smith. So I think it’s just It’s very different than email banner or LinkedIn banner. Go meet the people that are gonna connect you to deals.

They’re gonna help remove friction for you, bust down roadblocks. It’s just super valuable. And I I also will tell you this. I know a lot of folks skip the expo hall sometimes because they sched they overschedule themselves meetings with their current peer group.

There’s nothing wrong with that. I want you to see your friends. I want you to have a blast at Partner Summit, but spend a couple hours minimum on that exhibit floor hall. Go meet some strangers.

I guarantee it’ll it’ll create a meaningful connection and a new result.

Absolutely. Yeah. Meeting people there is so great to see. It’s always fun to see everyone’s names right when you’re in chat, but it’s always nice to meet the people behind the names and then meet people who haven’t even had a chance to join calls like this and learn more. So definitely don’t Sorry.

I just glanced at the chat. Yeah. I’m gonna show I can’t look at it anymore. The hecklers.

Hey.

It’s all good.

Although, I do appreciate all that feedback that’s there. And by the way, guys, please don’t miss out on meeting new people. Also, don’t miss out on the AI main stage and education focus this year. You know, we again, we went through those surveys.

We read what you guys wanna know about. We know that AI is in the top of everyone’s mind, and it is growing faster and faster than we can even keep up with some days. But, hey. We’re doing our best to make sure we’re always staying in front of it.

Can you provide any anything on just, like, what they should expect from our main stage this year, anything like that?

Yeah. Well, main stage, as always, we’re gonna have great keynotes. I talked about that at the very top. You know, Ray Wang.

You know, Adam’s gonna take the stage, and Adam’s insights are always super powerful around the business, the industry, what’s next for you guys, what’s next for Telarus. So I think the the return of Richard and the Real Housewives what’s that session called, cast?

I just like calling it channel partners.

The Yeah. The Real Channel partners.

Right. Yeah. Channel chiefs.

So one unique thing about thing about that is it’s it’s very candid conversation. So we’ve say we’ve said, you know, no holds barred. Open up.

Pull back the curtain. Talk about the things that matter most. So, main stage, as always, will be will be super powerful and, and worth the worth joining those sessions.

Yes. It absolutely will. And partner summit isn’t just all about, like, classrooms and breakout sessions, folks. I want us to if you don’t mind, Tim, I also wanna talk about all of the other exciting events we have planned this year. We, you we have the high roller roundup, the charity five k run, the stockyard stampede, and just kind of talk with everyone about why those networking events matter just as much as the education. I know we already said we are a people business. Right?

Yeah. For sure. So I I I apologize if I was a little distracted during the last question. I just chatted I just looked at the chat.

I have it over on my iPad next to me, and I couldn’t help but smile by some of the chatter because I see some some Telarus veterans and superstars in there chatting about their favorite part is meeting up with their peers. So Yeah. No doubt about it. I’m looking forward to seeing these guys and gals live and in person, but every single one of them was a stranger before they became a friend.

Every single one of them started with a handshake and an introduction before they gave me a valuable game changing insight. So go still my go make friends with strangers, that applies. But when you talk about rodeo, live music, glass cactus type stuff, like the the hotel lobby bar. My favorite thing at Partner Summit, and we’ll touch on a few of these things probably as we close, is that.

It’s the high fives. It’s the handshakes. I say this every year on main stage. I know I’ll say it again this year.

I’ve had people pull me aside. A lot of you guys don’t know, but we get analysts and media that come from all over the world to partner summit. And I had a guy pull me aside a couple years ago in Nashville, and he said, what is this? Some sort of cult?

I’ve been to every business. I’ve been to Salesforce and AWS and all these things all over the world, IBM. No place is this great. You guy, this feels like a family.

So I agree.

It feels like a family. It’s a special place. You’ll feel that feeling when you’re there. People are so helpful.

There’s this commitment or attitude of gratitude and abundance. So everyone’s helping everyone. It’s really a cool thing. You gotta experience it for yourself.

The rodeo that the team put together, I’ve seen the preview and the planogram. It’s gonna knock your socks off. Live music, live rodeo, true Texas experience. It’s gonna it’s gonna be a a really special thing.

Alright. I I have a question for you personally. I know Burning Minds wants to know. What are the odds we will get to see you wrangle a calf, Tim?

I I don’t know. Is it what I don’t wanna head I don’t wanna hedge, the the sports books. You know? People have fan duels.

It’s true.

It’s lie lie with polymarket and all those things. We with people alive bet, I could I could move the needle either way.

Yeah. That is an opportunity for everyone at the rodeo. There’s gonna be an adult calf wrangling competition.

So I’m hoping see you could see an adult wrangling a calf.

Could be Sean Kane.

Could be.

I’m just saying.

Oh, Chad Meagan.

He owns calfs.

Could be you.

That’s gonna take quite a bit of that Texas shine for me to get on out there on those staffs.

This is a family friendly family friendly show. You can’t talk about Texas shine. I don’t even know what that is.

But, hey.

Also, guys, don’t also forget too. You guys talked about this year. But while you’re at the trade show, one of the other fun things we have is the pin passport program. This gives you guys a chance not only to collect pins while you go and you talk to the suppliers.

We really wanna make sure that you guys have that chance to introduce yourself. Easy in. Ask to pick out a pin. And then ask them if they’re gonna be competing in any of the re rodeo, shenanigans we have going on later.

Well, I know we’re getting close on time. I wanna make sure that we can get through anything else that we need to. But, Tim, you have been to a lot of partner summits.

Yep.

When you think back over the years, is there a moment or maybe something you see happen every year that really capture what makes partner summit special?

Yeah. I’ll tell you. I just I know, I’m an open book, so I’m not gonna overshare right now, but I just got goosebumps. So my favorite thing about Partner Summit is what I partly what I just said.

High fives, hugs, handshakes, watching old friends come together, people make new friends. People say it’s like homecoming. That’s very, very cool. But my very favorite thing, and a lot of you guys have heard this before, so you’re gonna be like, no duh, bossa.

You said this before, and I’ll say it again when I when we’re at Summit, is this.

After the awards, when I’m I come off stage and I’m roaming around the hall and someone comes up to me and says, my goal is to be on stage. My goal is to get a guitar. My goal is to get a surfboard. I’m gonna make president’s club.

I’ll see you in Japan at chairman’s club. And then it freaking happens, man. And that is awesome. So wherever you are, excuse me, wherever you are in this business, whether you’re starting or scaling, the opportunity to rise up is there.

You’re gonna see your future on stage if you’re starting. You’re gonna see what success looks like. And if you’re already successful, you’re gonna see the whole a whole another level. You’re gonna see someone get a surfboard.

You’re gonna see people get guitars. You’re gonna see hall of fame. And that level of attainment shows you what’s possible, that there are no limits at Telarus, that you’re part of the best community globally. And we’ve been saying that, but now there’s public and this will come out at more at summit.

There’s public documents out there that show by independent companies that we’re number one. Like, this is the place to be. Summit’s the place to be. It only happens once a year.

It’s total immersion. Sharpen your saw. Meet your friends.

Celebrate success with everybody else. You just gotta be part of it. It’s my favorite part of the year. I’m jacked and ready to go. But it’s gonna be fun to watch you, you know, participate in the rodeo cast. That’s gonna be a highlight for sure.

I get to connect with, some of the knuckleheads in chat. That’s gonna be great. So I encourage you, everyone, make the investment. If you’ve already made it, congratulations. I’ll see you there. If you haven’t, pull the trigger today. Let’s get you registered, and I’ll see you in Dallas.

Yeah. I hope that this conversation has really switched someone’s has been that that light switch for anyone who is still on the fence that you know now, like, coming to Partner Summit is going to be something that’s so important not only for you, but your investment in yourself and the growth of your business and getting to make all these awesome connections because that’s what we see a lot of. Right? Like you said, we’re we’re people business.

This is what partner summit is about. It is a time to meet with everyone, learn so much, take all the notes, make all the connections, and, you know, please, like, if you haven’t registered, go ahead and do so. I think I saw in chat someone was offering up free rooms at their house. I could be lying, but I’m pretty sure someone up here said they would come by.

Hey. You never you you never know what could happen at partner summit. I will tell you this. I know you’re trying to wrap up.

Marketing is not gonna like what I’m about to say, but the guitar the guitar winners, they get input in their guitars. Right? So I was in some of the chats, and I’ve I’ve dared all of them to break their guitar on stage like a rock star, and I promised them that we’ll give them a replacement guitar. It’s never happened before.

It probably won’t happen this year. I’ve even whispered in the ear of people, like, I’ll, you know, I’ll buy you a drink and get you another guitar if you bust that one. No one busts it. Probably you’re gonna see them hoisted overhead, but you may see a you may see a busted guitar.

Someone might go, you know, Axl Rose or, you know, Eddie Van Halen.

Have that rock star moment. I feel that.

That’s right. I I think it’s I think it’s about time.

Well, there you go.

We’ve put Tim’s put it out there for everyone to know. You get those guitars. He’s don’t do that. Love marketing. That’s what our marketing team is set in chat.

They’re like, bossa, no. Like, don’t do that.

It’s the you can’t yell fire in a movie theater. That’s what they’re gonna try to censor me now.

Yep.

Don’t worry, Tim. We’ll still always wanna hear from you. But thank you so much for joining me today, sharing a preview of everything Partner Summit has to offer. Again, guys, if haven’t registered, I hope today’s conversation gave you a better idea of why this event continues to be one of the most valuable investments that you can make for yourself and your business. Remember, the the discounted hotel block is open until Friday at three PM central time. So go ahead, get in there, get your block before we run out of space.

And then, of course, if you haven’t registered, please make sure you do that as well. We’ve gone ahead. We’ve left up the the telarus dot com slash t p s on the screen, that QR code. If you haven’t done so, make sure you get that. Thanks again, Tim, and we will see you in Texas.

Yeah, Cass. Thanks for having me. Thanks to everyone in the chat. Looking forward to seeing everyone.

I see there’s a bunch of first timers. Come up to me. Shake my hand. Give me a high five.

We’ll see you there.

Absolutely. You guys of course, you can do that same for me too. If you see me, stop me. Let’s say hi. Let’s make a connection.