Does anybody really have the time to rush about saving the world from itself? And yet, if there's a time of year in the IT realm when it really would be handy to possess the abilities of your friendly neighborhood ... Superman, conference season is it. You could leap tall convention centers in a single bound, use X-ray vision to attend multiple workshops and panel discussions at the same time, and possibly even fly really fast around the equator and reverse the flow of time itself if you happened to miss a really good after-hours mixer, or found yourself needing to book lodgings back before the event venue sold out.

For those of you who are merely mortal, however, there's a fine solution available if you happen to not be in a prime position to attend CompTIA's annual ChannelCon event, held this year Aug. 3-5 at the (sold out - curses!) Hilton Chicago in, yes, the Windy City itself. One of the premier events of the annual IT conference agenda, ChannelCon brings together executives and IT professionals from both the business and tech realms to share ideas, forge connections and learn more about how the business of IT gets done. It's well worth the time and resources required to attend.

And, critically for those facing constrained travel budgets or conflicting scheduling demands, attendance is not exclusive to those who are on the ground in Chicago. ChannelCon Online, inaugurated to great success in 2014, will once again open the conference up to remote participation. In 2014, virtual attendees made a strong contribution to overall attendance at ChannelCon, and more of that same impact is anticipated this year. There will be some limitations on the CompTIA ChannelCon experience of those who can only attend via streaming video and audio, but it's still a valuable option for those without the option of donning a red cape and tights to zoom back and forth between normal activities and CompTIA ChannelCon.

Unlike the actual event, ChannelCon online is limited to a two-day agenda, Aug. 4-5. Virtual attendees can choose between two tracks, a Channel Track and the specialized Track4Techs. The Tracks4Tech agenda was created especially for working tech professionals and focuses on key IT growth areas such as cloud computing and Big Data, with an eye to how those realms are impacting and transforming IT careers. Track4Techs can also be beneficial to CompTIA certification holders, as attendance at T4T sessions counts toward the Continuing Education Unit (CEU) requirement for certification renewal.

Perhaps best of all, ChannelCon Online requires registration, but there's no cost to virtually attend. Online participants get full access to the ChannelCon vibe, and even get to reap some of the rewards of actual attendance: Along with those who attend in person, all online attendees receive complimentary access to the new CompTIA Sales Toolkit.