CompTIA Newsroom

Las Vegas – ChannelCon 2019, the technology industry’s premier education, networking and partnering event, ended its Las Vegas run Wednesday with new perspectives on emerging technologies and observations from a self-professed tech geek and hall of fame basketball great.

More than 1,000 tech industry leaders attended ChannelCon 2019, the conference produced annually by CompTIA, the leading trade association for the tech industry.

The final day of the conference was highlighted by a conversation with Shaquille O’Neal, a member of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. The basketball legend shared stories of his career, upbringing, business interests away from the court, and love of technology.

“I’m a geek and I’m proud to say it,” O’Neal told the ChannelCon audience. “Geeks rule the world, dude.”

O’Neal recalled that his first exposure to technology occurred in a high school computer class.

“I was terrified of it,” he recalled. But with help from another student, he learned about hardware, software, networks. Later, he became an early tech adopter, an early investor in Google and a friend of developers in Silicon Valley.

Planning for Emerging Tech

The Wednesday program also featured discussions on emerging technologies and the new business opportunities they’ll create.

• Companies such as SpaceX and OneWeb have launched satellites for space internet programs and other are expected enter the race, which has the potential to deliver improvements in communication, education, and healthcare.
• Blockchain is still most known for cryptocurrency, but the use cases extend far beyond that to areas such as smart contracts, fintech, the Internet of Things, voting, and more.
• Applications for commercial drone implementations continue to expand, with markets such as agriculture, transportation, construction, and energy at the forefront.

For the latest information from the conference visit the ChannelCon Virtual Press Office and at https://twitter.com/hashtag/channelcon.

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About CompTIA
The Computing Technology Industry Association (CompTIA) is a leading voice and advocate for the $5 trillion global information technology ecosystem; and the more than 50 million industry and tech professionals who design, implement, manage, and safeguard the technology that powers the world’s economy. Through education, training, certifications, advocacy, philanthropy, and market research, CompTIA is the hub for advancing the tech industry and its workforce. www.comptia.org.

Contact:
Steven Ostrowski
CompTIA
+1 (630) 678-8468
sostrowski@comptia.org­