Target Components Open Day 2018
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Target OpenDay 2018 "Celebrating 20 Years"

Review by:  Jennifer Griffiths 
Video & Testing by: Philip Griffiths

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Introduction :

If you are in the computer business you have probably been to an open day or trade show before.  However, if you have never been to Target Components Open Day, you have not lived.  Each year it changes and gets even better than the year before.  I have been going since 2009. Opening day 2009 was held in a tent outside of the Target warehouse.  Oh how times have changed!!  From that Open Day, Target have moved to two different venues.  The one today was at Cedar Court Lodge hotel in Bradford.  Each year vendors and retailers big and small come to Open Day.  We set aside this day on our calendars as soon as it is announced.  We make hotel reservations as soon as we have confirmation of where it will be held.  Why?  We love what we do and we enjoy bouncing new business ideas off of each other.  We like to help each other do things.  We enjoy having a good look at the latest in technology and talking to the vendors about it.  We also enjoy seeing the team at Target who go that extra mile for us in our day to day lives to make our jobs that little bit easier.  Last but not least, we all enjoy a free bar.  No, seriously, everyone has their own reason for being here and I bet if I interviewed ten people as to why they were here today they would all give me different answers.  Open Day has something for everyone.  So, what about this year?  READ ON! 

About Target 

Target Components has just celebrated its 20th Anniversary in IT distribution. For two decades we have supported a very broad range IT resellers, from independent retailers and systems integrators, to networking specialists, VARs and etailers. We constantly set the standards of customer service and innovation within the industry and genuinely think of our customers as part of our family, which is why some of the World’s best-known IT brands like Gigabyte, Intel, WD, Kingston, Three and HP have chosen us as their official distributor. 

Our success relies entirely on the success of our customers, which is why we have always tried to provide not only the right products at the right prices, but we’ve also provided a range of tools to help resellers make the most of their businesses, including the In-Store PC Builder – something we’re extremely proud of.

Vendors in Attendance 

 

  • Tenda

  • Smart Home

  • Genius

  • Hitachi-Lg

  • Team

  • Blue Digital

  • InkLab

  • CF Capitol

  • Phanteks

  • Akasa

  • GfK

  • F-Secure

  • Asrock

  • Cryptocurrency

  • WD

  • Cloud Hosted Services

  • Kingston

  • Servers Plus​

  • Antec

  • Target Custom Builds

  • Linksys

  • ECS

 

 

 

  • Bullguard

  • Target

  • Patriot

  • Ubiquiti

  • Context

  • Fujitsu

  • Gigabyte

  • Aruba

  • Three

  • HPE

  • ThermalTake

  • Tenda

  • Tenda Business 

  • Cooler Master

  • AVerMedia

  • Cronus

  • Energenie

  • Xilence

  • Spares and Repairs (Target)

  • New and Refurbished Laptops (Target)

  • New Products (Target)

  • Humber Regional Organised Crime Unit.

 

Talks

  • Googles new ranking factors and 10 actions you can implement now to improve your website-Blue Digital

  • PC Gaming and VR in 2018-Context

  • The World's Most Secure Server-HPE

  • Experience is everything so stop selling products start selling aspiration-GfK

  • More finance more sales more growth-CF Capital

  • Stay safe and anonymous on the web-F Secure

  • Cyber-crime threats and how businesses can mitigate the risk-West Yorkshire Police

  • The Power of We: 5 Brands under 1 Western Digital - WDMore

  • PCs and Digital Signage An introduction to ECS - ECS

  • Setting up your in store PC Builder and admin features - Cory Lees, Target

  • Selling the dream - how to deliver installed smart home solutions - Energenie

  • How to make money from reselling Cloud Services - Servers Plus and Vapour

  • How to get a fast AF data centre - Fujitsu

  • Advance your business with Aruba's intelligent Edge - Aruba

  • Next generation WiFi and how to sell it - Tenda

  • Chassis like no one else - ThermalTake

Awards 


Best External Signage-----121 Computer Services

Best Business Idea-----GHI Computers

Best Website-----FYL Direct

Best Shop Window-----Martin Group services

Best Use Of Social Media-----DTec

Best Event or Activity-----DTec

Best Marketing-----FYL Direct

Best Internal Display-----DTec

The menu on the night was:

  • starters      Tomato soup and bread

  • main           Chicken carrots potatoes parsnips broccoli

  • afters          Chocolate pie and cream

  • beverages  Beer and wine

  • extras         Coffee and tea

Entertainment

 

Some will argue that the entertainment was by Chrissy Bray.  I will say she played a part of it.  The real entertainment was put on by the people that attended on the night.  All of us who stood to sing, dance, and make fools of ourselves in front of people we may or may not know ....we were the entertainment.  So raise a glass to yourself if you danced, sung, joined in on figuring out what song was played - who sang it - the movie it was from, or did something completely out of your comfort zone for the sake of helping your table advance on the night.  You are the real entertainment.  I must say though, Paul and Sonya did give us an excellent show if you were still around to see it.  If you missed it, they danced on stage to Staying Alive by the Bee Gees.  Frankly, I'm pretty sure the Gibb brothers would have given them a medal for that performance.  It was incredible! *if you missed it there is probably footage somewhere like Target User Group on Facebook or maybe TFT will have some*

 

Last but not least, to the team TO INFINITE AND BEYOND at Table 6, congratulations on a job well done.  To all who stood and attempted to sing and dance, to Jamie @ Tenda for his air guitar performance, to all of us....CHEERS!  I must really love you guys a lot to do some of the things I did for points in a game on the night.  (That or my sore losing side combined with OCD and a free bar gave me that extra drive to  help out my team) But whatever it was, I had a great time with you all.  

See more of the evening at https://youtu.be/pOLhvqhktMU (around 2:20min into the video)

more...

Today Target celebrated 20 years of service.  Target are best known as the distributor that cares.  The team at Target develop close working relationships with each of its customers.  Paul and Sonya Cubbage know each of their customers by name and face.  That's saying a lot for the amount of people they serve.  From Customer Service to the Account Managers the Target Staff are very helpful and ready to do that little something extra to help you in your business.  

Conclusion:

I think it is fair to say we all walked/staggered away with a little more knowledge than we came here with.  Even if you did not attend a talk. If all you did was have a walk around to see the vendors or make an attempt to talk to someone be it new or old friend; you probably picked up a business idea or got some kind of helpful advice that you can implement in your daily life by the time you read this review.  That's what makes Target Open Day so special.  It's relationships.  The people. The customers, the staff, the vendors, all of which make up the Open Day family are what make this event more special than any I have ever attended.  The free bar is a great intensive for us all as well. ;)   Happy 20th Anniversary, Target. And may you have many more! ---- Jenni

 

What do you get when you mix Techs, technology, food, alcohol and an Australian?  The Target Open Day 2018!  The day was a prime example of what all distributors should be doing.  It allows us tech see products before we buy them; as it always hard trying to promote a new product you have not seen or used before.   Also a relationship forms between Target, the vendors, and the techs that you would not otherwise get.   I managed to speak to most of the vendors at the event, and when I think back the one stand that stood out to me compared to the others was Blue Digital.  What they did was test your websites SEO.   They gave you a score and put you on a leader board so you could see how you ranked on the likes of Google compared to others who were at the event and they would give you advice on what would help you rank higher. (like more back links or faster load speed by reducing image size).   As Jenni said above, the biggest bonus of these events though is actually getting to meet other techs like yourself!  Thanks again Target for the amazing event, I look forward to what you can do next year! - Phil

 

Stand out point:  We finally got to hear Sonya sing!

 

Pros:

  • Great variety of knowledgeable and easy to work with vendors

  • Staff were friendly and eager to help 

  • Target staff and vendors were very welcoming 

  • Great variety of talks and workshops

  • The entertainment surpassed any I have ever seen in all of my years of coming

  • Getting to meet other piers

  • Free bar and evening

  • POS if there was any to be gotten

  • Prizes/raffle given away

  • Good to see awards back and congratulations to the winners

  • Vendors were willing to listen and take advice/take feedback

  • Most vendor stands were staffed by people who work for the company they represented.

  • Target staff were eager to take and answer questions and listen to feedback
     

Cons:

  • No fault of Target but the exhibit room and dinning area got really warm with all of the people together

  • Evening food could have been better *no fault of Target, more of a venue thing*

  • Vendors ran out of POS well before they should have

  • Seemed too many talks going on at once.  A few people wanted to see things  that were going on at the same time.  Would have been better if they spaced the talks by 45 minutes in two alternating rooms so no one would miss anything.  *one starts at say 10AM and finish at 10:30 AM the next talk in the other room would be at 10:45 and finish at 11:15, the next one would start in the next room at 11:30 etc*

  • The layout is a bit hap hazard.  I think Target have outgrown this venue.  It would be better if all vendors were in one big room 

 

 

 

Scores:

 

Vendor Layout:  3

 

Vendors Available:  4

 

Venue: 3

 

Atmosphere: 5


 

15 points

 

 

 

They got a MUST ATTEND Award for this product.

200+ Pictures below

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