14 01732 759725 changing. The traditional business models don’t seem to be working anymore, or at least won’t for long. We need to change and CloudFest provides the closest match to the information we need’,” explains Jaeger. One year later, WHD Event launched MSP GLOBAL as a separate event specifically for MSPs but modelled closely on the CloudFest template of international participation, knowledge-sharing and out‑of-the-ordinary locations. A destination event MSP GLOBAL was first held at Germany’s legendary Nürburgring racetrack before moving to PortAventura theme park near Barcelona in 2024. of MSPs at WHD Event’s foundational show, CloudFest, which started 22 years ago as a forum where Germany’s web hosting providers, largely based around Cologne, could talk about their shared problems and challenges. Since then, CloudFest has grown into a huge international cloud computing and infrastructure event, which this year attracted 200 vendor partners and almost 11,000 attendees from 80 countries. “Our 2022 data showed that 15% of CloudFest attendees were MSPs. We arranged meetings with those MSPs and asked them why they were at an event that wasn’t really for them. They told us ‘There is no specific event for us, but our industry is moving and On October 21-22 MSP GLOBAL returns to PortAventura near Barcelona. This is the third year the event is being held at the theme park on the outskirts of the Catalan capital. ‘Being staged’ might be a better choice of words because, as in previous years, spectacle and entertainment are as important to the event as knowledge-sharing and education. There will be keynote speeches, presentations, a vendor exhibition and extensive opportunities for the 3,000 MSPs present to conduct business – the meat and drink of any conference – but alongside these core components are other attractions, from a server throwing competition to themed parties, designed to encourage socialising and relationship‑building. This is all facilitated by the MSP GLOBAL take-over of PortAventura, which gives MSPs the opportunity to escape from quotidian concerns for two days and let their hair down with peers from around the world who face many of the same challenges and opportunities and have a common desire to learn from each other. Not for nothing does Christian Jaeger, CEO of WHD Event GmbH, which launched MSP GLOBAL in 2023, refer to MSP GLOBAL as a ‘tech festival’. Identifying a need The rationale for MSP GLOBAL emerged in 2022 when Jaeger noticed large numbers James Goulding talks to Christian Jaeger about the unique appeal of MSP GLOBAL, taking place in PortAventura near Barcelona on October 21-22 An MSP event with a difference EVENTS Christian Jaeger Throwing a party As it did in 2024 and 2025, MSP GLOBAL is hosting the Spanish qualifier of the World Server Throwing Association (WSTA), the winner of which will be invited to take part in the World Series at CloudFest 2027. For Jaeger, this is another great example of how their events bring people together. “At CloudFest, we had 1,500 people squeezed around the 20-metre throwing pitch, drinking, cheering different nationalities. We had flags and smoke machines; people go crazy; it’s like a stadium. This is not something people will experience at London ExCeL. This is something only we can do because we are happy to risk doing something silly in the best possible way in the spirit of bringing people together,” he says.
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