Cisco Live US 2026 was an interesting ride this year. There was a lot of talk about AI. There was a big discussion about security and how we are protecting our software from the AI models on the horizon that are ready to uncover every bug ever conceived. And there was even more discussion about whether Cisco was ahead of the game or behind the curve on their support for everything from eBPF to the latest Mythos reports. I say there was a lot of discussion, but I’m not sure where exactly it was happening.

Social Desert

One of the biggest things I heard from my friends at the event was how light everything felt. Fewer people was a common theme. The reported number was around 22,000 but it felt closer to 20,000 to me. The World of Solutions felt very spread out this year, with most of the back side being Cisco booth space.

The other thing was the Social Hub. It had shrunk from last year. At least the couches were facing each other this year. And there were some cool stickers and some interesting puzzles to work on. But there were far too few tables for people and the same sign setup as last year with a basic Cisco sign and the LIVE! part being a projection in the background. I think it’s safe to say that the days of the big sign pictures are in the past.

One of the reasons for this, in my opinion, was the new security measures that were in place. This year in order to get anywhere near the sessions or World of Solutions you had to pass through weapons scanners. This was similar to what I saw at RSAC this year. They were placed so you couldn’t get into the lower part of the Mandalay Bay Convention Center without passing through them on either level. At least one of my friends was stopped every time he went through them, even with nothing but a laptop in his backpack. I know that there are a lot of issues going on and there was definitely some disruption at last year’s Cisco Live event but what is the purpose of forcing everyone through these checkpoints aside from ensuring only registered people can get in?

Putting Someone In A Corner

This year a LOT of my friends were missing from Cisco Live. Some had work obligations. Some had life obligations. But more than a couple said they didn’t see the value any longer. This is part of the circle of IT life but it’s sad because not seeing the value for Cisco Live also means that any other things that are going on there can’t outweigh the costs. It’s like people who have gone to a minor league baseball game saying that while the play on the field might be subpar the rest of the atmosphere was awesome and worth the cost. Eventually if the play is bad enough or the atmosphere isn’t worth the cost then they will move on to do something else.

That’s what it felt like to me this year. People weren’t getting the previous value. I know that Las Vegas has its challenges for people. Neon and noise are things you have to take into account. If the sessions are good and the community is welcoming then people are more than willing to survive the heat and the in-your-face style of Vegas. This year wasn’t enough. I looked back at the original Cisco Live picture from 2011 and only three people in that picture were in Vegas this year.

This was also the first year in forever that I didn’t show up on Sunday. I had a very busy weekend before the event and made the choice to do things in my non-IT life instead of flying in for the traditional Sunday social meetup. Last year showed me that the meetup isn’t what it has been in the past. The people that I know that did go said much the same this year. It’s geared toward people that have been coming for the past couple of years and not people on the fifteenth or twentieth Cisco Live. It makes me sad because this would have been the fifteenth anniversary of the original Tom’s Corner. I even took a picture on the last day by the original column. The only thing next to it this time was a trash can.

I sat at the Social Hub on Thursday prepared to hang out until they took the furniture away as we’ve done so many times before. But that didn’t happen. This year I left half an hour before the World of Solutions closed and went back to my hotel room. I felt more melancholy than anything. I won’t say the community is dead or gone. But I do wonder where things go from here. Is the community something that is encouraged by Cisco to show people how practitioners feel about their attachment to an organization like this? Or is it more of a prop that can be used to help sell more gear? I can’t answer that question. But I do wish I knew what the people behind the event were thinking.

Tom’s Take

Requiem has a connotation of something offered for the dead. But it comes from the Latin for rest. I think that’s the best way to think about where the original social community is right now for Cisco Live. I think back fondly to the 2019 pic of the group camped in the social media hub and I wonder if and when we will ever be there again. Perhaps what we need now is time to rest and recharge. I will probably be back at Cisco Live 2027 for my 21st event. Maybe a year will bring back what I think we missed this year. Until then, my friends.