From its opening hour to the final close, the 2025 ITEXPO was abuzz with activity. For three days, C3 happily hosted countless conversations, connected partners (and even “competitors”) together, and contributed to four different speaking engagements. 

To help recap the event, we’ve turned to two of C3’s finest to share their impressions: Darin Gull (Director of Business Development) and Jonathan “JC” Cox (VP of Information Security). In addition to being long-time industry veterans and ITEXPO attendees, both Darin and JC served as panelists, carrying those conversations out onto the floor. Here are their key insights from an unforgettable week.

Back and Better Informed Than Ever 

Make no mistake about it — after a long road through Covid, things finally felt normal again, with a packed floor from day one. For Darin and JC, it wasn’t just the renewed activity but the quality of conversations that had changed. “The conversations were just different from years past,” said Darin. “As cybersecurity is becoming a bigger threat, people are more in tune with the need to do something about it and looking for real solutions.”

JC noticed a new level of knowledge, too. “Compared to last year, attendees had better context about what cybersecurity means in terms of a risk-based management program. Attendees are learning where their products and services fulfill security versus compliance needs. That was very exciting — the better the preparation on the vendor side, the better the market can pivot against the threats.” 

“What exactly do you do?” 

With our centrally-located booth free of product demos and prominently featuring a racing simulator, it was an understandable question we heard frequently. 

The goal, as Darin put it, was to facilitate conversations. “We’re not here to sell you anything. We’re here to hear about your experiences, understand what you’re struggling with, and help you find solutions. That starts with a conversation and having a little fun: it turns out that getting into a car and (virtually) crashing into a wall at 200 miles an hour is pretty exhilarating.”

JC concurred: “Our approach allowed attendees to approach us once they were comfortable and realized we weren’t going to just browbeat them with a topic.”

“AI has entered the chat” 

There’s no debating what the hot topic was this year: in talk after talk, it was only a matter of time before artificial intelligence came up. “Everyone’s been waiting to see what the next big thing is, and that next big thing is obviously AI,” said Darin. “There’s a fear of AI, but also an understanding of what AI can do for us.”

“It was interesting to see how AI was emerging in every conversation,” said JC. “The question is, how do we embrace it? How does it impact us from a compliance perspective? From a risk perspective? It’s not going anywhere, so how do we actually approach it?”

Centering Cyber Resilience

For JC — a panelist on “Building a Security Culture to Combat Phishing and Social Engineering Threats” —  it was time for hard truths about the intensity of cybersecurity events. 

“Companies are at a significant disadvantage today. Threat actors are taking a shotgun approach versus the occasional targeted shot of the past. These techniques dramatically change the odds of being breached at some point. The question is when, not if, and how will you be able to respond? Do you have the proper risk mitigations, systems, and people in place to deal with those hits when they happen?”

In short, organizations need to build cyber resilience. Unfortunately, such changes can’t occur meaningfully overnight. “It takes time to select a risk framework, implement controls to manage that risk, and learn to mature your organization over time. And along the way, you still have exposure and will likely be dealing with events.”

Darin observed that companies outside the tech industry simply don’t grasp the risk yet. “People don’t understand how essential a multi-layered approach to security is. A major part of that is staff training — most breaches now originate from an employee unknowingly clicking a phishing email. Unfortunately, staff training is also an area where clients tend to hold their budget back thinking they don’t need it.” 

Why not? “In the small to mid-sized business market, most companies simply don’t budget for IT,” continued Darin. “They’re reactive as opposed to proactive. So it’s become the responsibility of companies like C3 to educate the customer on why it’s important: the cost of remediation is a fortune and will bankrupt most companies.” 

A New Generation of MSPs

For Darin — a panelist on “Become a Channel Champ: Mastering the Tech Sales Cycle” — it was clear that a new generation of MSPs presents new challenges and opportunities. 

“There are a lot of newer MSPs out there that focus on providing and fixing hardware, and don’t yet have the deep security capability we do,” he observed. 

“So there’s an opportunity for collaboration. This reflects C3’s core philosophy: we help you complete your portfolio in areas you can’t. Not only will we not compete in your sweet spot, we will protect you from competition coming in. We’re supplementing your income, helping you monetize what you don’t do well.”

Conversely, the tried-and-true approach of cultivating customer relationships and honing in on problem-solving still reigns supreme. As Darin put it: “Don’t go in and spit out your entire portfolio when talking with a customer. Hone in on solving a problem, win the deal, and then talk about what else you can do once you’ve earned their trust.”

A Hub For Conversation 

ITEXPO is all about catalyzing conversations in ways that help move the whole industry forward.

Darin recalled one particularly memorable moment when a series of major competitors were all sitting together in our booth. “These so-called ‘enemies’ of each other in the field were all coming to the booth to find common ground. We were like the Switzerland of ITEXPO.”

JC echoed that sentiment. “While we were engaged in conversations, we were surrounded by partners in our space. Mid-discussion, I could turn over my shoulder and say, ‘Here’s my partner over here, can you come and lend your expertise to this individual’s needs?’ Being able to have that breadth of knowledge around us was just incredible. C3 Complete is truly completing some neat conversations today.”