TPAC Comes of Age

Mon, 16 Dec 2024

We’re thrilled that TPAC’s expansion into Africa and Asia has made it more accessible to our global partners.

I don’t know how far ahead Doug Ash was thinking when he proposed, planned, and hosted the first TPAC (Third Party Advantage Conference) in 2003. Did he imagine that, 21 years later, his brainchild would have gone global?

Not only is the original North American TPAC still going strong. It has become the template for successful sister events in Southern Africa and Asia.

2024 marked the first year that events have been held in all three regions:

TPAC North America: Returned to its hometown, Vancouver, in March for its 21st edition
TPAC Southern Africa: The spectacular Drakensberg hosted the 2nd African edition in April
TPAC Asia: November saw Penang, Malaysia host a highly successful inaugural event

What makes TPAC special?

The success and longevity of TPAC are in large part due to a consistent focus that differentiates it from other conferences in a crowded event calendar:

Third Party products are the headline acts, not a sideshow
Sage 300 is the hero ERP system
Sage Business Partners are the main attendees, providing a forum for them to interact directly with Development Partners and peers.
Opportunities to hear directly from (and talk directly to) senior Sage executives.

These attributes attracted Orchid Systems to the initial 2003 TPAC in Vancouver, and have kept us returning year after year.

The contacts we’ve made at TPAC over 21 years have been instrumental in helping us establish ourselves as a familiar, reliable Sage 300 partner.

Asia joins the TPAC family

The inaugural TPAC Asia, held just weeks ago, demonstrated all the attributes listed above. It featured over 155 attendees, had the active support of Sage Asia, and key Sage personnel were prominent.

Amongst the latter was Rob Sinfield, Senior Vice President of ERP, who gave a keynote speech that included an overview of the Sage 300 Product Roadmap and investment priorities, as shown below.