CRN Sales & Marketing Awards - Finalist Q&A with Andrea Horton, UK marketing director at Infinigate

Andrea Horton talks being a finalist at this year's CRN Sales & Marketing Awards

What prompted you to enter the ‘Best Partner Event – Distributor’ and ‘Best Marketing Team’ this year, without giving anything away, of course?

We entered these categories because the feedback we get from partners and vendors round our marketing and events has been exceptional, and we wanted to recognise the results we’re achieving with a CRN channel award Infinigate’s go-to-market programmes have become a genuine growth engine, and we’ve built a strong reputation for delivering consistent marketing and events that make a real difference. Our flagship event, CyberVerse, is a great example. It showcases our capability as a cybersecurity platform by bringing the channel together, sharing practical insight, and creating the right conversations between vendors and partners that lead to net new business.

CyberVerse is also a true cross-functional effort, marketing, sales and vendor management pulling together for shared outcomes. Entering this award felt like a timely opportunity to recognise what we’ve achieved, and the standard we’re helping to set for partner engagement across the channel year after year.

What would winning this award mean to both your people and your customers/partners?

For our teams, it would be recognition of the work that goes into making these events happen, showcasing the everyday impact marketing has on the business. Marketing lead our business development strategy, bringing together a wide range of skills across a growing function to deliver high-quality output and business outcomes. We’re also investing to keep raising the bar; recently hiring an events executive as a great example of how marketing is key to our future success. And personally, as the Marketing Director, I’d love to see our fantastic marketing team recognised, especially in a sales-centric industry where the impact of marketing can often be overlooked.

For our partners and vendors, just being short-listed is an independent endorsement that what we’re doing is different. Winning would be a great moment to celebrate that with the channel community.

What are the key demands you are seeing from your customers this year?

Channel partners need more from their distribution partners than ever before. They’re being asked to adopt and adapt faster, expand their portfolios, and stay credible across a much wider set of technologies - without necessarily having the headcount to match.

That’s where our role as a trusted advisor has never been more relevant. We’re at the coalface of vendor conversations, so we can bring partners the latest updates on what’s changing, what’s coming next, and what’s landing in specific verticals. Most partners simply can’t resource vendor expansion in the way a specialist distributor can.

And it’s not just about product knowledge. Partners need a distributor who can help them grow end-to-end, from finance and logistics, to marketing enablement, services and technical support. We help partners take on new vendors and new technology at an accelerated pace, with confidence.

Which technology trend currently still in hype stage are you placing your bets on?

AI is the obvious one. While there’s plenty of hype, we see its growth as inevitable in real-world deployments. Yes, it’s introducing new threat vectors, but it’s also a major opportunity for distribution to respond with the latest security solutions. We’re also seeing existing vendors rapidly embedding AI capabilities into their solutions making them more attractive and differentiated in crowded markets.

Alongside AI, we’re also increasing focus around OT and IoT. As the attack landscape shifts towards operational disruption, securing environments such as manufacturing and utilities is becoming a clear opportunity for a specialist cybersecuritBe part of the celebration that brings the industry’s brightest talent together.

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