Every August, 500+ MSP leaders land in Jersey City for three days with one goal: leave with something they can actually use.
Build IT LIVE is IT By Design’s annual conference built entirely around that premise. No vendor pitches from the stage. No theoretical frameworks. Just 45+ platform CEOs and MSP operators run $10M+ businesses, sharing what’s working, what’s broken, and what they’re building next. Four tracks. 50+ sessions. Every seat in the room is filled with someone dealing with the same decisions you are. This year it runs from August 3 through August 5 at the Hyatt Regency Jersey City, NJ.
Day 1, August 3: Keynotes & Breakouts
What’s on stage:
The breakout tracks cover AI and the future of MSPs, leadership, operations, and growth and sales. Three sessions on Day 1 worth putting on your Agenda with the top MSP Leaders
- From Experimentation to Strategy: Building an AI Roadmap for Your MSP. For operators who have run pilots but haven’t yet committed to a production path
- Pricing for Profitability: Getting Away from Per-Device and Per-User Traps. A direct conversation about the pricing models that quietly compress margin
- Churn Prevention: Identifying At-Risk Clients Before They Call Your Competitor. Practical signals most MSPs aren’t tracking until it’s too late
Day 1 closes with the Pub Crawl inside the Solutions Pavilion. It’s unstructured by design. Some of the most useful conversations of the week happen here.
Day 2, August 4: The Full Breakout Day
Day 2 is where the depth is. Eleven breakout sessions across four tracks, running from 9 AM through 5 PM. This is the day most attendees use to map their next 12 months.
Sessions that reflect where the industry actually is right now:
- Will AI Make MSPs Obsolete? An Honest Assessment. Not hypothetical. A room full of operators thinking through what the next three years actually look like for their business model
- Building the Agentic MSP: The Security Integration Layer for Digital Employees. Presented by Shahin Pirooz, covering what it takes to deploy AI agents without creating new security exposure
- The PE Playbook: What Private Equity Is Actually Looking for in MSP Acquisitions. For any operator thinking about exit, recapitalization, or building toward a valuation event
- AI and Margin: Where Automation Actually Improves Your Bottom Line. Presented by Baxter Lanius, with the specifics on which automation investments show up in EBITDA and which don’t
- The KPIs That Actually Tell You If Your MSP Is Healthy (And the Ones That Lie to You). One of the most-requested session topics, now on the main agenda
- Vendor Consolidation: Rationalizing Relationships Without Losing Leverage or Rebates. A practical operations session for leadership teams actively reviewing their stack
Coaching by Design runs throughout Day 2, with 30-minute one-on-one sessions with ITBD practice leads covering AI operations, team scaling, and cybersecurity strategy. Slots are assigned in the registration order.
The evening moves to a small group Hosted Sponsors Dinners. These are conversations that don’t happen in a breakout room.
Day 3, August 5: The AI Accelerator
Day 3 is new for 2026 and it’s the most significant structural change to the conference. The full day is a dedicated AI Accelerator, built for MSP operators who are actively deploying AI in their service operations or are ready to start.
The day opens with a mainstage keynote, followed by an AI panel built around real implementations rather than demos. Three hands-on workshop sessions run through the afternoon, covering ticket triage, dispatch optimization, and agentic workflows.
Attendees leave with a 90-day implementation roadmap. Four virtual follow-up sessions run through October to keep the work moving after the conference ends.
This format is exclusive to Build IT LIVE attendees. The standalone ITBD AI Accelerator program runs separately throughout the year at $2,500. The conference bundle is the only way to access it at the price point of $1495.
The conference closes at 5 PM with the ITBD Partner Awards.
The Evening of August 5: Great Gatsby at the NYSE
The closing reception this year moves to the New York Stock Exchange Trading Floor in Manhattan, running 7 PM to 9 PM with a Great Gatsby theme.
It’s available to the first 300 registrants. Business cocktail attire. Closed-toe shoes are required by the exchange for floor access.
There’s no equivalent on the channel calendar. The venue creates a specific kind of conversation.
Register early if you want to be in the room.
Build IT LIVE 2026 | August 3 through 5 | Hyatt Regency Jersey City, NJ AI-First. People-Powered. By Design.
