Day two of Next Level 2026 proved the energy of day one was no fluke. If day one was about reading the landscape, day two was about learning to move through it: a keynote that reframed how the room thinks about the future, and the conference’s signature Mega Panels to send everyone home fired up for what comes next. Here is how the final day unfolded.
Back for the big finish
There is a special kind of energy on the final morning with Mitch Colton, Chair, SMBiT Professionals and Vivien Dehamer, Executive Officer, SMBiT Professionals welcoming everyone back. They looked back on the best of day one and reminded the room exactly why they were all here. They unveiled Next Level 2027, July 29 & 30, held at the Sofitel Brisbane, building the momentum from this event and what they hope to improve next year. Mitch reflected on his journey with the community, attending his first conference in 2016, and this year at the 2026 conference, taking the seat as the Chair of the Board. Jess Leong, Board Member and Scott Atkinson, Vice Chair, joined Mitch on stage to share the mission and vision for SMBiT Professionals and for the association’s future. This is what the SMBiT Professional’s community does better than anyone: it brings TSPs together to share what is working, learn from the businesses a step ahead, and leave with a plan rather than just another to-do list. Two days in, the value of being in the room, and of being an SMBiT Professionals member, had never been clearer.
Keynote: Gus Balbontin on why adaptability beats prediction
Entrepreneur, investor and former Executive Director and CTO of Lonely Planet, Gus Balbontin took the keynote stage with a challenge to stop chasing forecasts. The energy in the room was instantly lifted by Gus’s vibrancy, authenticity and humour. “It doesn’t matter how well you can predict it. If you can’t adapt your business to it, what’s the point in knowing it?” he said. His cautionary tale was Kodak: “Kodak actually invented the first digital camera. So not only did they know what was going to happen, they invented what was going to happen,” and still could not adapt fast enough to survive.
His antidote was novelty. “The antidote for a business or for an individual is to start embracing the novelty, to start doing stuff that you’ve never done before more regularly, to increase your tolerance to that discomfort, and in the process increase your adaptability.” On AI, he urged patience and urgency in equal measure: “AI is not the solution. The solution is humans working with AI,” adding that in five years “you’ll be as dependent on AI for your business as you are on the internet right now.” His ask of the room was simple: “Be ready to feel uncomfortable, to be challenged, to not believe me.”
We all left the room inspired and ready to implement adaptability and innovation in our business to help us thrive.
Around the vendor hall
The vendor hall stayed busy right to the end, with last chances to catch demos, settle those stand competitions and swap details before everyone headed home. If day one was about first hellos, day two was all about the follow-up conversations that turn into real partnerships and vendor prizes being drawn at the end of the day. The vendor hall wrapped up with an open bar thanks to Cyber Drain prior to our final sessions in each room, the Mega Panels.
The Mega Panels
The conference built to its finale with the Mega Panels running across two rooms. In the Coro Room, Demi facilitated a panel featuring Fuzzy, Nick Moran, Brett Chalmers and Dawid from ITLive. In the Atmos Room, Jacky Li hosted Wayne Small, Luke Irwin, Alex Tilley and Ben Verschaeren. Two rooms, a stack of sharp minds, and a wide-ranging conversation on where the industry is heading. It was the ideal note to end the conference on.
That is a wrap on Next Level 2026
And that is a wrap on Next Level 2026. Two days, a record turnout in a brand new location and a room full of Australia and New Zealand’s leading TSPs, vendors and industry voices, all focused on growth, strategy and the future of the industry. But the conversations do not stop when the doors close, and that is the whole point of this community. The connections made this week become the partnerships, ideas and support that carry TSPs through the year ahead. A massive thank you to every keynote speaker, panellist, sponsor and delegate who showed up, and to the SMBiT Professionals team who made it all happen.
We can’t wait to see you all in Brisbane next year at Next Level 2027
Thank you to our sponsors
Thank you again to our room sponsors Coro and Atmos, and to the sponsors behind the touches that make the days run: bag sponsor Gorelo, water bottle sponsor GTIA, massage sponsor Turbineers, lanyard sponsor NetVault, coffee sponsor Kaseya, and our bar sponsor Cyber Drain.
And thank you to every exhibitor and sponsor backing Next Level 2026, including Acronis, Arcserve, Auscomp, Bluechip Infotech, Cambium Networks, Cyber White, Dolphin Electrics, Dijital Team, Halo, Huntress, Inception Marketing, LastPass, Manage Protect, Morphability, N-Able, NinjaOne, Siege Cyber, Sophos and The CSP Edge.