We kicked off our first Accelerate general session today at 8:00 a.m. with things wrapping up around noon. Partners heard from key Lenovo executives and received exciting industry, product and branding news. Lenovo continues to grow in the channel, not only by the number of registered Lenovo partners and revenue. As reiterated by each speaker, Lenovo’s success depends on our partnership with the channel.

David Schmoock, SVP general manager, North America, shared objectives for 2012 with a focus on SMB, services, public sector and server and workstation.

Leveraging success in the channel, Tom Looney, vice president and general manager, North America, who is responsible for Lenovo’s enterprise, public sector and federal business shared market share growth within this key segment and winning strategy for 2012.

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Vice President and General Manager, ThinkPad Business Unit Dilip Bhatia showcased the CES superstars and reviewed a myriad of new products from Lenovo from all lines including ThinkPad classic, ThinkPad Edge, ThinkCentre, ThinkVision, ThinkServer and ThinkStation. With special guest stars, Bhatia illustrated the ins and outs of these new products, including the ThinkCentre Tiny and ThinkPad X1 Carbon.

Visit our Flickr page to see more images.

Key to Lenovo’s success, both within the channel and in consumer markets, has been increased brand awareness fueled by a brand campaign which launched last year.  David Roman, senior vice president and chief marketing officer, and David Rabin, executive director, marketing, shared key metrics from last year, as well as the new branding campaign before revealing exciting news for Lenovo. Lenovo is now the exclusive sponsor of the NFL! Be on the lookout for a lot more Lenovo and get ready to watch football this fall.

And what better way to celebrate this exciting NFL news than have Jerry Rice on stage to share how to be a winner, both on and off the field. It has been an exciting morning here in Las Vegas.

Visit our Flickr page to see more images from our morning session, and check back for updates on our breakout tracks and showcase to find out what’s going on.