Category Archives: Cisco Live

My Belated Review of Cisco Live 2023

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It’s been a couple of weeks since Cisco Live US 2023 and I’m just now getting around to writing about it. I was thrilled to attend my 18th Cisco Live and it was just the thing I needed to reconnect with the community. The landscape of Cisco Live looks a little different than it has in years past. There are some challenges that are rising that need to be studied and understood before they become bigger than the event itself.

Showstopping Reveals? Or Consistent Improvement?

What was the big announcement from Cisco this year? What was the thing that was said on stage that stopped the presses and got people chattering? Was it a switch? A firewall? Was it a revolutionary new AI platform? Or a stable IP connection to Mars? Do you even know? Or was it more of a discussion of general topics with some technologies brought up alongside them?

In the last few years you may have noticed that the number of huge big announcements coinciding with the big yearly conferences has come down a bit. Rather than having some big news drop the morning of the keynote the big reveals are being given their own time to shine instead. Rather than piling up tons of news of acquisitions or new product releases and watching them all get lost in the shuffle of fanfare they’re now being spaced out or bunched up at the end of quarters instead.

The big keynotes are instead being used to push initiatives. Rather than talking products the companies are talking strategies. Things like sustainability and outreach replace speeds and feeds. The goal isn’t to show off something shiny but instead to show off what the goal is to utilize the new products. Those kinds of announcements tend to play better with the press and analysts as well as the investors.

Does that mean that we’re never going to see another big announcement during an event keynote? No. What it does mean is that you shouldn’t expect to see groundbreaking shifts happening during those discussions. Steady and predictable is what the investors like. And during those keynotes that’s what you’re going to see for the most part.

Community Marches On

Social media sure has been fun for the past few months wouldn’t you say? The decline of Twitter, the rise of Mastodon and BlueSky, and even more craziness all over the place. Proof? Check out my badge from Cisco Live this year:

Yes, I needed all of those flags to show people where I was posting things to social media. And keeping track of all of the communities can be tiring. Some people still use Twitter because it’s there. Some people have embraced the Fediverse and deleted Twitter altogether. Others are trying out BlueSky and finding their groove again. And that doesn’t even discuss the number of people that are embracing video platforms or other means of posting. It is a certainty that the former king of the hill is rolling down very quickly in the face of so many other options.

One thing that I loved is that the community around Cisco Live has endured through so much upheaval. As soon as we arrived on site it was just like old times. People coordinated hangouts and invited friends all over. Parties were held. Introductions were made. And people caught up as if they hadn’t seen each other in forever. It made me happy to see that the impending collapse of a social platform didn’t affect the people that used it to build a great group.

Another thing that I realized when I got to the event was that this was the tenth anniversary of the Cisco Live Social Media Hub. I can still vividly remember when I walked into the convention center in Orlando in 2013 to find this brand new area dedicated for us to hang out and enjoy a little spotlight. Over the years the hub has grown from just a few tables and some laptops to an entire control center that serves as a central meeting location for folks as well as a set for some creative content to be made. I remember on more than one occasion seeing folks running around staging shots for a TikTok video and seeing lots of extra content being posted from everywhere. It’s good when you don’t have to make your own little space.

Tom’s Take

What does the future of Cisco Live look like? Is it going to continue to be a huge draw for people to come and enjoy the community? Is Cisco going to keep releasing new products and making this a destination for networking professionals? Given the number of attendees increased again this year I’d say that there is definitely a desire for people to attend conferences in person again. Given that the community has continued to persevere through all manner of challenges I’d say they’re also here to stay as well. All in all, I’m glad to see Cisco Live has continued to see success. As long as we temper our expectations for what the conference will be in the future and continue to keep the community alive then I don’t see any challenges that can’t be overcome.

The Silver Lining of Cisco Live

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Cisco Live 2022 Attendees by the big sign

Cisco Live was last week and it was an event full of both relief and worry. Having not seen any of my friends and colleagues during the Geek Summer Camp for since 2019 I was excitedly anticipating how things would go this year. While I was thrilled to see everyone in real life again there were also challenges that presented themselves by the end of the event that we need to discuss as well.

I could spend volumes detailing every little thing that went on but no one really wants to read that kind of discussion. I’ll just summarize some the stuff that I liked, some of it that I didn’t, and some bigger things that everyone needs to think about.

What Worked for Me

I was happy to once more be a part of the CCIE Advisory Council. We have been meeting via Webex for the entire pandemic but there’s just something about being in a room together that fosters conversation and sharing. The ideas that we discussed are going to have a positive impact on the program as we look at what the future of certifications will be. There’s a lot more to this topic than I can cover in just a quick summary paragraph.

I was a bit confused about the Social Media Hub hours on Sunday, so I resurrected my original tweet about meeting people right outside registration:

I had lots of people stop by that morning and say hello. It warmed my heart to see everyone before the conference even started. Thankfully, the Cisco Live social team came out to tell me that you could get to the Social Media Hub even though the show floor wasn’t open yet. I went in and grabbed a comfy chair to await the opening tweetup.

The tweetup itself was a good one. Lots of new faces means lots of people that are getting introduced to the social side of Cisco. That means the community is going to continue to grow and prosper. One point of weirdness for me was when people would introduce me to their friends and such by pointing at the Social Media Hub and saying, “Tom is the reason we have all this.” While that’s technically true it still makes me feel weird because the community it was keeps driving Cisco Live forward. No one person defines it for everyone else.

I enjoyed the layout of the World of Solutions this year because I wasn’t packed in with everyone else elbowing my way through crowded alleys trying to visit a booth. It felt like Cisco put some thought into having ample space for people to spread out instead of trying to maximize space usage. I know that this is partially a result of the COVID pandemic (which we’ll cover more of in a bit) but I wouldn’t be sad to see this layout stick around for a few more years. Less crowded means better conversations.

The keynote was fun for me, mostly because of where I enjoyed watching it. We put together a watch party for the Tech Field Day Extra delegates and it was more fun than I realized. We were able to react live to the presentation without fear of making a calamitous noise in the arena. I had forgotten how much fun the MST3K style of keynote commentary could be.

Lastly, the social media team knocked it out of the park. They were on top of the tweets and answering questions throughout the event. I have some issues with the social media stuff in general but the team did a top notch job. They were funny and enjoyed bantering back and forth with everyone. Social media is hard and doing it as a job is even harder. I just hope we didn’t scar anyone with our tweets.

What I Was Concerned About

Not everything is perfect at events. As someone that runs them for a living I can tell you little things go wrong all the time and need to be addressed. Here are some of the things that happened that made me take a few notes.

The communication across the whole event felt a bit rushed. Like certain things were announced at the last minute or were only announced in certain places. Nailing down the best way to share information is always difficult but when in doubt you need to share it everywhere. If you have access to social media, email, digital signage, and other avenues use them all. It’s better to overshare and remove doubt than undershare and end up fielding questions anyway.

There was some grumbling about the way that some of the social media aspects were handled this year. I think that sentence gets typed every year. Some of it comes down to the focus that stakeholders want to put on certain aspects of the event. If they want more video content that’s going to favor folks that are comfortable recording videos. If they want more long-form written items that naturally prioritizes those that are good at writing. No one is ever going to find the perfect mix but, again, communication is key. If we know what you want to see we can help make more of it.

The other thing that annoys me a bit, specifically about Las Vegas, is the land rush of sponsored parties. On Monday evening I was walking back to the Luxor to my room to drop my backpack and more than half the restaurants and bars I walked past all had banners out front and signs stating they were closed for a special event or booked until a certain time. While I appreciate that the sponsors of the event are willing to go out of their way to spend money and entice attendees to go to their party and hear about how awesome their products are it also creates an artificial crunch for other things. If half the bars are closed then the other half have to pick up the remainder of the hungry people. That means that a half-full exclusive party causes a two-hour wait at a restaurant next door. While this is nothing new in the conference community the lack of other options at the south end of the Las Vegas strip means you’re pretty much stuck taking a taxi to another hotel if you don’t want to wait to have a burger or pizza. In full transparency one of those parties on Monday was one that I attended for the Cisco Champions program but there were also two other parties booked in Ri Ra that night concurrently.

What We Should All Be Asking

Now it’s time for the elephant in the convention center. The reason why we haven’t had an in-person Cisco Live in three years is COVID. We were locked down during the pandemic and conference organizers erred on the side of caution in 2021. 2022 was a hopeful year and many conferences were back to being live events. RSA happened in San Francisco the week before Cisco Live. There were thousands of people there and a reported 16,000 people at Cisco Live.

The reports coming out of Cisco Live were that a lot of people tested positive for COVID after returning home. Cisco had a strict policy of requiring proof of vaccination to attend. Yet people were testing positive as early as Sunday before the conference even started. The cases started rising throughout the week and by the time folks got home on Thursday evening or Friday my Twitter feed was full of friends and colleagues that came back with the extra strength conference crud.

Thankfully no one has been seriously affected as of this writing. Most everyone that I spoke with has said they feel like they have a cold and are tired but are powering through and should be clear to leave quarantine at home by today. I, amazingly, managed to avoid getting infected. I tested every day and each time it came back clear. I’m not actually sure how I managed to do that, as I wasn’t wearing a mask like I really should have been and I was around people for most of the day. I could attribute it to luck but the logical side of my brain says it’s more likely that I caught it sometime in May and didn’t realize it so my body had the latest antibody patch to keep me from coming down with it.

Between RSA and Cisco Live there are a lot of people asking questions about how in-person conferences of size are going to happen in the future with COVID being a concern. RSA was tagged as a “super spreader” event. Cisco Live is on the verge of being one as well. There are lots of questions that need to be asked. Can a conference ensure the safety of the attendees? Are there measures that should be mandatory instead of encouraged? What value do we get from face-to-face interaction? And will the next event see fewer people now that we know what happens when we get a lot of them in one place?

Tom’s Take

I could go on and on about Cisco Live but the important thing is that it happened. No last minute cancelations. No massive outbreaks leading to serious health problems. We all went and enjoyed the event, even if the result was coming home to quarantine. I went fully expecting to get infected and I didn’t. Maybe I should have done it a little differently but I think a lot of people are saying the same thing now. I hope that Cisco and other companies are encouraged by the results and continue to have in-person events going forward. Not everyone is going to attend for a variety of reasons. But having the option to go means building back the community that has kept us going strong through difficult times. And that’s a reason to see a silver lining.

Friday Thoughts Pre-Cisco Live

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It’s weird to think that I’m headed out to Cisco Live for the first time since 2019. The in-person parts of Cisco Live have been sorely missed during the pandemic. I know it was necessary all around but I didn’t realize how much I enjoyed being around others and learning from the community until I wasn’t able to do it for an extended period of time.

Now we’re back in Las Vegas and ready to take part in something that has been missed. I’ve got a busy lineup of meetings with the CCIE Advisory Council and Tech Field Day Extra but that doesn’t mean I’m not going to try and have a little fun along the way. And yes, before you ask, I’m going to get the airbrush tattoo again if they brought the artist back. It’s a tradition as old as my CCIE at this point.

What else am I interested in?

  • I’m curious to see how Cisco responds to their last disappointing quarter. Are they going to tell us that it was supply chain? Are they going to double down on the software transition? And how much of the purchasing that happened was pull through? Does that mean the next few quarters are going to be down for Cisco?
  • With the drive to get more and more revenue from non-hardware sources, where does that leave the partners of Cisco? Is there still a space for companies to create solutions to work with aspects that Cisco doesn’t do well? Or will they find themselves in a Sherlock situation eventually?
  • I’m cautiously optimistic that a successful conference will mean more of the same going forward. I know there’s going to be reports of COVID coming out of Vegas because there’s no way to have a group that big together and be 100% free. If there is a big issue with rates skyrocketing after a combined two weeks of RSA and Cisco Live it will force companies to rethink a return to conference season.

Tom’s Take

If you’re in Vegas next week I hope to see you around! Even if it’s just in passing in the hallway stop me and say hello. It’s been far too long since we’ve interacted as a group and I want to hear how things have been going. For those that aren’t going to go make sure to stay tuned for my recap.

Tom’s Virtual Corner at Cisco Live Global 2021 – Anniversary

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We made it through the year that was March 2020. Here were are on the other side trying to find out whatever this normal is supposed to look like. We’re not out of the woods yet but we do know that things aren’t going to be back to the way they were any time soon. That includes the events that we enjoyed traveling to and hanging out at.

Cisco Live has made the decision to go virtual again this year. One can’t blame them to be honest. Travel uncertainty and the potential liability of having a huge event just didn’t make sense. If you thought the old Conference Crud was bad you really don’t want this new-and-improved version! Cisco has also decided that one global event makes more sense than several events scattered across the calendar. That means that Cisco Live Europe and Cisco Live US are now global and happening at the end of March instead of January or June.

With the announcement that everything will be virtual again this year it also means that the social aspect of the event is going to be virtual as well. As much as we would have liked to hang out at Tom’s Corner in Las Vegas and catch up it just won’t be happening. I am a bit disappointed because this year was going to be the tenth anniversary of Tom’s Corner. It’s been a decade since I plopped down in an uncomfortable chair and set out on a quest to meet people. I was hoping to bring back the stool and the table and the corner live in person but it appears that we’ll have to do it some other time.

In the interim, we’re still going to be getting together in just a few weeks! We’re going to be hosting a Webex call just like we did last year so we can all hang out and chat throughout the day. Here are the details:

Date: March 29, 2021

Time: 7am PT – Whenever we get bored!

Where: Virtually via Webex (link will be in the calendar invite)

If you want to take part in the virtual corner, you need to either send an email to tom@networkingnerd.net or send a DM/PM/RRM/DMVPN to me on social media with the email address you want your calendar invitation sent to. If there is no email address I can’t send out the invitation! We’ll send them out as we can to get everyone signed up. You can pop in and out whenever you want. We’ll try to create breakout rooms for those that just want to chat on specific topics and such. It’ll be fun! Provided, that is, that we all keep to some basic ground rules:

  • Disruptive attendees may be removed at the discretion of the hosts.
  • Wheaton’s Law applies. If you think you’re violating it, you probably are.
  • Be respectful of the community. We want this to be positive for everyone and that means everyone is responsible for keeping it that way.

If you have any questions about Tom’s Corner or things in general just ask! I want to thank Gestalt IT for allowing us to host this meeting and continuing to support community engagement and involvement. A huge part of my job is doing things like this and I still continue to be thrilled to have the support of Stephen Foskett, Claire Chaplais, and the rest of the Gestalt IT team when it comes to taking part of my day to interact with you all, virtual or otherwise.

I wish things could have been different as far as Cisco Live this year but we’re going to make the most of what we have. That means virtual for now but rest assured the the next time we can all meet in person we’re going to have a birthday party for Tom’s Corner that will be sung of in legends to come!

Opening Up Remote Access with Opengear

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Opengear OM2200

The Opengear OM2200

If you had told me last year at this time that remote management of devices would be a huge thing in 2020 I might have agreed but laughed quietly. We were traveling down the path of simultaneously removing hardware from our organizations and deploying IoT devices that could be managed easily from the cloud. We didn’t need to access stuff like we did in the past. Even if we did, it was easy to just SSH or console into the system from a jump box inside the corporate firewall. After all, who wants to work on something when you’re not in the office?

Um, yeah. Surprise, surprise.

Turns out 2020 is the Year of Having Our Hair Lit On Fire. Which is a catchy song someone should record. But it’s also the year where we have learned how to stand up 100% Work From Home VPN setups within a week, deploy architecture to the cloud and refactor on the fly to help employees stay productive, and institute massive change freezes in the corporate data center because no one can drive in to do a reboot if someone forgets to do commit confirmed or reload in 5.

Remote management has always been something that was nice to have. Now it’s something that you can’t live without. If you didn’t have a strategy for doing it before or you’re still working with technology that requires octal cables to work, it’s time you jumped into the 21st Century.

High Gear

Opengear is a company that has presented a lot at Tech Field Day. I remember seeing them for the first time when I was a delegate many, many years ago. As I have grown with Tech Field Day, so too have they. I’ve seen them embrace new technologies like cloud management and 4G/LTE connectivity. I’ve heard the crazy stories about fish farms and Australian emergency call boxes and even some stuff that’s too crazy to repeat. But the theme remains the same throughout it all. Opengear is trying to help admins keep their boxes running even if they can’t be there to touch them.

Flash forward to the Hair On Fire year, and Opengear is still coming right along. During the recent Tech Field Day Virtual Cisco Live Experience in June, they showed off their latest offerings for sweet, sweet hardware. Rob Waldie did a great job talking about their new line of NetOps Console servers here in this video:

Now, I know what you’re thinking. NetOps? Really? Trying to cash in on the marketing hype? I would have gone down that road if they hadn’t show off some of the cool things these new devices can do.

How about support for Docker containerized apps? Pretty sure that qualifies at NetOps, doesn’t it? Now, your remote console appliance is capable of doing things like running automation scripts and triggering complex logic when something happens. And, because containers are the way the cloud runs now, you can deploy any number of applications to the console server with ease. It’s about as close at an App Store model as you’re going to find, with some nerd knobs for good measure.

That’s not all though. The new line of console appliances also comes with an embedded trusted platform module (TPM) chip. You’ve probably seen these on laptops or other mobile devices. They do a great job of securing the integrity of the device. It’s super important to have if you’re going to deploy console servers into insecure locations. That way, no one can grab your device and do things they shouldn’t like tapping traffic or trying to do other nefarious things to compromise security.

Last but not least, there’s an option for 64GB of flash storage on the device. I like this because it means I can do creative things like back up configurations to the storage device on a regular basis just in case of an outage. If and when something happens I can just remote to the Opengear server, console to the device, and put the config back where it needs to be. Pretty handy if you have a device with a dying flash card or something that is subject to power issues on a regular basis. And with a LTE-A global cellular modem, you don’t have to worry about shipping the box to a country where it won’t work.

Tom’s Take

I realize that we’re not going to be quarantined forever. But this is a chance for us to see how much we can get done without being in the office. Remember all those budgets for fancy office chairs and the coffee service? They could go to buying Opengear console servers so we can manage devices without truck rolls. Money well spent on reducing the need for human intervention also means a healthier workforce. I trust my family to stay safe with our interactions. But if I have to show up at a customer site to reboot a box? Taking chances even under the best of circumstances. And the fewer chances we take in the short term, the healthier the long-term outlook becomes.

We may never get back to the world we had before. And we may never even find ourselves in a 100% Remote Work environment. But Opengear gives us options that we need in order to find a compromise somewhere in the middle.

If you’d like more information about Opengear’s remote access solutions, make sure you check out their website at http://Opengear.com

Disclaimer: As a staff member of Tech Field Day, I was present during Opengear’s virtual presentation. This post represents my own thoughts and opinions of their presentation. Opengear did not provide any compensation for this post, nor did they request any special consideration when writing it. The conclusions contained herein are mine alone and do not represent the views of my employer.

The Conundrum of Virtual Conferences

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Okay, the world is indeed crazy. We can’t hide from it or hope that it just blows over sooner or later. We’re dealing with it now and that means it’s impacting our work, our family lives, and even our sanity from time to time. One of the stalwart things that has been impacted by this is the summer conference schedule. We’ve had Aruba Atmosphere, Cisco Live, VMworld, and even Microsoft Ignite transition from being held in-person to a virtual format complete with shortened schedules and pre-recorded sessions. I’ve attended a couple of these so far for work and as an analyst, and I think I’ve figured it out.

If you come to a conference for content and sessions, you’ll love virtual events. If you come for any other reason, virtual isn’t going to work for you.

Let’s break this down because there’s a lot to unpack.

Information Ingestion

Conferences are first and foremost about disseminating information. Want to learn what new solutions and technologies have been launched? It’s probably going to be announced either right before or during the conference. Want to learn the ins-and-outs of this specific protocol? There’s probably a session on it or a chance to ask a professional engineer or architect about it. There’s a lot of content to be consumed at the conference. So much, in fact, that in recent years the sessions have started to be recorded and posted for consumption after the fact. You can now have access to a library of any topic you could ever want. Which comes in really handy when your boss decides in November that you’re going to be the new phone person…

Because all this content has been recorded and published before, transitioning the content to a virtual format is almost seamless. The only wrinkle is that people are going be recording from their home instead of a blast freezer ballroom in the Mandalay Bay. That means you’re going to need tighter control over things like environment and video recordings. Your people are going to have to get good and talking and setting up their screens to be effective. Most good presenters can do this already. Some need some coaching. Most are going to need a few takes to get it right since they aren’t going to be editing together their own video. But the end result is going to be the same. You’re going to have great content to share with people to be consumed over the course of days or weeks or even months.

Keynotes are a little bit harder to quantify in this content category. They are definitely content, just not for tech people. Keynotes are analyst and press fodder. It’s a packaging of the essence of the event in an hour-long (or longer) format designed to hit the important points for tweets and headlines. Keynotes are very, very, very rehearsed. No one tends to go off the script unless it’s absolutely necessary. Even the off-the-cuff remarks are usually scripted and tested for impact ahead of time. If a joke fails to land, just imagine the three others they tried that were worse.

But keynotes at a virtual event can be more impactful. Because you can do some editing you can put together different takes. You can inject some emotion. You can even use it as a platform for creating change. I specifically want to call out the Cisco Live keynote from Chuck Robbins this year. It wasn’t about tech. We didn’t really hear about protocols or hardware. Instead, Chuck used his platform to talk about the drivers of technology. He stood up and told the world how we need to use our talents and our toys to build a better world for ourselves and for everyone around us. Chuck didn’t mince words. He postponed Cisco Live by two weeks to highlight the struggles and causes that are being shown nightly on the news. He wanted us to see the world he and his company are trying to help and build up. And he used the keynote slot to push that message. No flashy numbers or sparkly hardware. Just good, old fashioned discussion.

Virtual Hallways

Every positive thing should have something corresponding to balance it out. And for virtual conferences, it’s the stuff that’s not about content. Ironically enough, that’s the part that I’ve been so steeped in recently. Sure, Tech Field Day produces a lot on content around these events. I’m happy to be able to be a part of that. But the event is more than just videos and slide decks. It’s more than just sitting in uncomfortable chairs in a meat locker nursing a hangover trying to understand the chipset in a switch.

Conferences are as much about community as anything else. They’re about seeing your friends in-person. Conferences are about hallway conversations about random topics and taking a taxi to a bar halfway down the Vegas Strip to meet up with a couple of people and some person you’ve never even heard of. It’s about meeting the co-workers of your friends and pulling them into your circle. It’s about sharing hobbies and life stories and learning about the crazy haircut someone’s kid gave themselves right before they left.

Community matters to me most of all. Because a conference without a community is just a meeting. And that part is missing virtually. I did my best with an attempt to do Tom’s Virtual Corner with our community. I was shocked and pleased at the number of people that joined in. We had over 50 people on the calendar invite and over a dozen connected at any one time. It was wonderful! But it wasn’t the corner that we know and love. It’s not that it wasn’t special. It was totally special and I appreciate everyone that took time out of their day to take part. But there are some things that are missing from the virtual experience.

I’ll take myself for example. I have two problems that I have to overcome at events:

  1. I’m a story teller.
  2. Other people need to talk too.

If I get on a tear with number one, number two won’t happen. At an in-person event it’s easy enough for me to deal with the first one. I just pull interested people aside for a small group conversation. Or I wait for a different time or another day to tell my story. It’s easy enough to do when you spend sixteen hours around people on average and even more well into the night with friends.

However, those above things don’t really work on Zoom/Webex/GoToMeeting. Why? Well, for one thing you can only really have one speaker at a time. So everyone needs to keep it short and take turns. Which leads to a lot of waiting to talk and not so much for listening. Or it leads to clipped quips and not real discussion. And before you bring up the breakout room idea, remember that mechanically there is a lot of setup that needs to happen for those. You can’t just create one on the fly to tell a story about beanbags and then just hop back into the main room. And, breakout rooms by their very nature are exclusionary. So it’s tough to create one and not want to just stay there and let people come to you.

Tom’s Take

This is just a small part of the missing aspect of virtual conferences. Sure, your feet don’t hurt at the end of the day. I’d argue the food is way better at home. The lack of airports and hotel staff isn’t the end of the world. But if your primary focus for going to events is to do everything other than watching sessions then the virtual experience isn’t for you. The dates for Cisco Live 2021 and Aruba Atmosphere 2021 have already been announced. I, for one, can’t wait to get back to in-person conferences. Because I miss the fringe benefits of being in-person more than anything else.

Tom’s Virtual Corner at Cisco Live US 2020

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One of the things that I look forward to most during Cisco Live is the opportunity to meet with people. It’s been quite a few years since I’ve been to a session during the conference. My work with Tech Field Day has kept me very busy for the past several Cisco Live events. But at the end of the day I enjoy strolling down to the Social Media hub and talking to anyone I see. Because people make Cisco Live what it is.

The Legend of Tom’s Corner has grown over the years. It’s more than just a few tables in a place where people hang out. It stands for a community. It means a lot to so many different people. It’s about meeting new friends and catching up with old ones and feeling like you belong. For so many, Tom’s Corner and the Social Media Hub is the center of Cisco Live.

And yet, we now live in extraordinary times. The plan we had for what Cisco Live would look like for us earlier this year is radically different right now. Prohibitions on travel and meetings in large groups means we will be experiencing Cisco Live from our homes afar instead of the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas. The sessions we attend will be online. The keynotes streamed without seating and traffic directions. Although the office chairs at home will probably be more comfortable than conference seating.

But what about that in-person aspect to things? What about meeting up at the Social Media Hub and hanging out with all our friends? Well, the social media aspect to the event is going to be even more important now. Twitter and Slack and iMessage are going to be our primary forms of communication. We’re going to be twice as social even without being able to be around people thanks to the need to use programs to connect. But it’s not going to feel the same without being able to see someone.

A Virtual Corner

Because things are so crazy and because we’re not all going to get to be in the same place this year to hang out at Tom’s Corner, it’s time to bring Tom’s Corner to the virtual landscape of Cisco Live. Thanks to the power of Zoom and the patronage of Tech Field Day, we’re going to be holding Tom’s Virtual Corner at Cisco Live US 2020!

With the power of the revolution of technology and video chat we’re going to have the option to hang out and chat just like we always do! Granted, we’re not going to have to fight over places to sit this year so it may be better this way. Also, less walking! We’re going to have the meeting running from about 8:00am PT through 1:00pm PT so don’t worry if you can’t join right at the start. I’m sure there are going to be people coming and going all day.

In order to be a part of Tom’s Virtual Corner at Cisco Live US 2020, you’re going to need to send me an email at tom@networkingnerd.net or a DM on Twitter with the email address you want the calendar invitation sent to. Yes, that’s a very manual process. But given the number of people that like to invade Zoom calls this is a necessary precaution. Just send me an email with the title “Tom’s Virtual Corner Invitiation” and I’ll make sure you’re on the list. After that we can get everything going just like if we were hanging at the actual corner.

This is supposed to be a fun time to hang and enjoy the company of each other in a format that is hard to replicate, so a couple of ground rules:

  • Disruptive attendees may be kicked at the discretion of the hosts.
  • Follow Wheaton’s Law as the Prime Behavior Directive. If you have a question about whether or not you’re violating that law, you probably are.
  • Be respectful of your peers and friends. Make this a positive experience for everyone. I don’t want to have to be the fun police but if that needs to happen so be it.

It’s that simple. Be cool, act cool, and we’ll have fun.

Tom’s Take

I’m going to miss the Social Media Hub this year. I’m going to miss my friends and I am also going to regret not getting to make new ones. But maybe we can salvage a bit of that spark this way. We might miss the sign pic or the crazy antics that happen with giant Lego figures or tiaras or unicorn masks. But we’ll be there in spirit and that’s what counts. And, if nothing else, the tenth anniversary of Tom’s Corner next year is going to blow the roof off the place!

Cisco Live 2019 – Rededicating Community

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The 2019 Cisco Live Sign Photo

Another Cisco Live is in the books for me. I was a bit shocked to realize this was my 14th event in a row. I’ve been going to Cisco Live half of the time it’s been around! This year was back in San Diego, which has good and bad points. I’d like to discuss a few of them there and get the thoughts of the community.

Good: The Social Media Hub Has Been Freed! – After last year’s issues with the Social Media Hub being locked behind the World of Solutions, someone at Cisco woke up and realized that social people don’t keep the same hours as the show floor people. So, the Hub was located in a breezeway between the Sails Pavilion and the rest of the convention center. And it was great. People congregated. Couches were used. Discussions were had. And the community was able to come together again. Not during the hours when it was convenient. But a long time. This picture of the big meeting on Thursday just solidifies in my mind why the Social Media Hub has to be in a common area:

You don’t get this kind of interaction anywhere else!

Good: Community Leaders Step Forward – Not gonna lie. I feel disconnected sometimes. My job at Tech Field Day takes me away from the action. I spend more time in special sessions than I do in the social media hub. For any other place that could spell disaster. But not for Cisco Live. When the community needs a leader, someone steps forward to fill the role. This year, I was happy to see my good friend Denise Fishburne filling that role. The session above was filled with people paying rapt attention to Fish’s stories and her bringing people into the community. She’s a master at this kind of interaction. I was even proud to sit on the edge and watch her work her craft.

Fish is the d’Artagnan of the group. She may be part of the Musketeers of Social Media but Fish is undoubtedly the leader. A community should hope to have a leader that is as passionate and involved as she is, especially given her prominent role in Cisco. I feel like she can be the director of what the people in the Social Media Hub need. And I’m happy to call her my friend.

Bad: Passes Still Suck – You don’t have to do the math to figure out that $700 is bigger than $200. And that $600/night is worse than $200/night. And yet, for some reason we find ourselves in San Diego, where the Gaslamp hotels are beyond insane, wondering what exactly we’re getting with our $700 event pass. Sessions? Nope. Lunch? Well, sort of. Access to the show floor? Only when it’s open for the random times during the week. Compelling content? That’s the most subjective piece of all. And yet Cisco is still trying to tell us that the idea of a $200 social-only pass doesn’t make sense.

Fine. I get it. Cisco wants to keep the budgets for Cisco Live high. They got the Foo Fighters after all, right? They also don’t have to worry about policing the snacks and food everywhere. Or at least not ordering the lowest line items on the menu. Which means less fussing about piddly things inside the convention center. And for the next two years it’s going to work out just great in Las Vegas. Because Vegas is affordable with the right setup. People are already booking rooms at the surrounding hotels. You can stay at the Luxor or the Excalibur for nothing. But if the pass situation is still $700 (or more) in a couple of years you’re going to see a lot of people dropping out. Because….

Bad: WTF?!? San Francisco?!? – I’ve covered this before. My distaste for Moscone is documented. I thought we were going to avoid it this time around. And yet, I found out we’re going back to SF in 2022.

WHY?!?!?!?

Moscone isn’t any bigger. We didn’t magically find seating for 10,000 extra people. More importantly, the hotel situation in San Fran is worse than ever before. You seriously can’t find a good room this year for VMworld. People are paying upwards of $500/night for a non-air conditioned shoe box! And why would you do this to yourself Cisco?

Sure, it’s cheap. Your employees don’t need hotel rooms. You can truck everything up. But your costs savings are being passed along to the customer. Because you would rather them pay through the nose instead of footing the bill yourself. And Moscone still won’t hold the whole conference. We’ll be spilled over into 8 different hotels and walking from who knows where to get to the slightly nicer shack of a convention center.

I’m not saying that Cisco Live needs to be in Vegas every year. But it’s time for Cisco to start understanding that their conference needs a real convention center. And Moscone ain’t it.

Better: Going Back to Orlando – As you can see above, I’ve edited this post to include new information about Cisco Live 2022. I have been informed by multiple people, including internal Cisco folks, that Live 2022 is going to Orlando and not SF. My original discussion about Cisco Live in SF came from other sources with no hard confirmation. I believe now it was floated as a trial balloon to see how the community would respond. Which means all my statements above still stand regarding SF. Now it just means that there’s a different date attached to it.

Orlando is a better town for conventions than SF. It’s on-par with San Diego with the benefit that hotels are way cheaper for people because of the large amount of tourism. I think it’s time that Cisco did some serious soul searching to find a new venue that isn’t in California or Florida for Cisco Live. Because if all we’re going to do is bounce back and forth between San Diego and Orlando and Vegas over and over again, maybe it’s time to just move Cisco Live to Vegas and be done with the moving.

Tom’s Take

Cisco Live is something important to me. It has been for years, especially with the community that’s been created. There’s nothing like it anywhere else. Sure, there have been some questionable decisions and changes here and there. But the community survives because it rededicates itself every year to being about the people. I wasn’t kidding when I tweeted this:

Because the real heart of the community is each and every one of the people that get on a plane and make the choice time and again to be a part of something special. That kind of dedication makes us all better in every possible way.

Finding Value in Cisco Live 2018

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The world famous Cisco Live Sign picture, 2018 edition

Another Cisco Live has come and gone. Overall it was a fun time for many. Catching up with friends. Meeting people for the first time. Enjoying the balmy Orlando weather. It was a chance to relive some great times for every one. But does Cisco Live 2018 dictate how the future of the event will go?

Packing The Schedule

Did you get a chance to attend any of the social events at Cisco Live? There were a ton. There were Tweetups and meet ups and special sessions galore. There was every opportunity to visit a lounge or area dedicated to social media presence, Boomerang videos, goofy pictures, or global outreach. Every twenty feet had something for you to do or some way for you to make an impact.

In fact, if you went to all of these things you probably didn’t have time for much else. Definitely not time for the four or five keynote addresses. Or a certification test. Or the classes and sessions. In fact, if you tried to do everything there was to do at Cisco Live, you’d probably not sleep the whole week. There’s almost as much stuff to do outside the conference sessions as there is to do in them.

But is it too much? Are the activities around the learning sessions taking away from the conference itself? Think about something like the Big Ideas theater this year. In theory, it’s a great way to get people to attend sessions that are not specifically related to tech. You can introduce new ideas, especially those that are focused more on changing the world. But you’re also competing for time away from sessions that are focused on new products or building better architectures.

Every booth in the World of Solutions is designed to draw you in and keep you there. For the sponsors of the event it’s important to have conversations about their products and solutions. For Cisco people, it’s almost like they’re competing with the sessions to give you different content or a chance to interview people. Is that how things should be? I can understand the desire of DevNet wanting to change the way people look at programmable networking, for example. But every other little booth like Cisco Advanced Services or the Emergency Response Vehicle? Those feel more like attractions designed to show off rather than educate.

Paying the Piper

And what does all this cost in the long run? Sure, I love having extra features around the conference as much as the next person. But to what end? Things don’t pay for themselves. Every conference has a budget. Every piece of entertainment and every showcase booth costs money in some way or another. And how does that all get paid for? By us, the attendees.

It’s no secret that attending conferences isn’t cheap. A full conference pass for Cisco Live is around $2,000. In the past, there were cheaper options for just attending for the people networking aspect of things. But, with the growth of DevNet and other “included” options at the conference, Cisco needed to find a way to pay for them this year.

I’m not going to spend a lot of time going into the Imagine Pass issue right now because I want to sit down and have an honest discussion with Cisco about the pros and cons of the approach. But it is very important that we examine what we’re getting for the increased cost. There has to be a significant value for people to want to be a part of the event if the costs go up. The way to do that is to create compelling reasons to want to be at Cisco Live.

The way not to do that is to lock the content behind gates. Some of the things at Cisco Live this year were placed in areas that were not easy to access. One of my personal pet peeves is the NetVet lounge. I’m going to start this off by saying that I was a NetVet for many years before I moved to Tech Field Day. I’m no longer a NetVet. However, until 2013 the NetVet lounge was one of the de facto social hangout places. Now, it’s another area where you can get coffee and snacks.

Why does the NetVet lounge bother me? Because of the placement. Front and center across the aisle from the on-site Cisco Store (which took the place of the Social Media hub from 2013). Why does the NetVet lounge get to be outside the World of Solutions? Aside from the historical reasons, I can’t think of a good reason. You need to have a full conference pass to achieve NetVet status. A full conference pass gets you into the World of Solutions. Why not have NetVets meet there?

The obvious reason is that the World of Solutions closes. Yet the NetVet lounge does too. And the hours are pretty similar. Why not move the NetVet lounge into the World of Solutions and give that space to the Social Media folks. There are no restrictions on getting into the Social Media Hub. Why not have them front and center? Again, aside from the “tradition” of having the NetVet lounge outside the World of Solutions I can’t think of a good reason.

Tom’s Take

I love Cisco Live. I realized this year that I’ve been to thirteen of them. Every year since 2006. The conference has changed and grown. The focus has shifted. But the people remain the same. With the changes in the way that the pass structure the people may not be there much longer. We, as IT professionals, need to decide what’s important and give some feedback. We need to make it constructive and honest. Point out what works and what doesn’t. Don’t whine, but offer direct criticism. We can only make the conference we want by telling the people what we need. That’s how you make Cisco Live a place to be for now and for the future.

Cisco Live CAE and Guest Keynote Announcements

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As you may have heard by now, there have been a few exciting announcements from Cisco Live 2018 regarding the venue for the customer appreciation event and the closing keynote speakers.

Across The Universe

The first big announcement is the venue for the CAE. When you’re in Orlando, there are really only two options for the CAE. You either go to the House of the Mouse or you go to Universal Studios. The last two times that Cisco Live has gone to Orlando it has been to Universal. 2018 marks the third time!

Cisco is going big this year. They’ve rented the ENTIRE Universal Studios park. Not just the backlot. Not just the side parks. They WHOLE thing. You can get your fix on the Transformers ride, visit Harry Potter, or even partake of some of the other attractions as well. It’s a huge park with a lot of room for people to spread out and enjoy the scenery.

That’s not all. The wristband that gets you into the CAE also gets you access to Islands of Adventure before the full park opens! You can pregame the party by hanging out at Hogwarts, going to Jurassic Park, or joining your favorite superheroes for a picture or two for the kids. Access to Islands of Adventure isn’t exclusive, so you’ll be there with all the other tourists from around the world but it’s a great place to hang out before the party gets going!

Note that this year you will need the new Imagine pass or the Party Pass Add-on in order to access the CAE. There is no standalone social pass option or social add-on for conference passes.

Welcome To The Future

The closing keynote speakers have also been announced. Dr. Michio Kaku and Amy Webb will be on stage talking about the future of technology and how it will be impacting our society. Given the keynote that Rowan Trollope delivered during Cisco Live Barcelona, this comes as no surprise to me.

Cisco is very much trying to show that they are getting back on the leading edge of technology and driving innovation in the market. The problem with being the “800lb Gorilla” is that you’re also big and difficult to move. IBM faced the same problem before they shed their legacy and became leaner, more future-focused company. Others that tried to follow in their footsteps were less successful and either split apart or got scooped up in mergers.

Cisco is going through a transition period after the departure of John Chambers. Chuck Robbins is turning the ship as quickly as possible, but there need to be more outwards signs that things are being done to look toward a future where hardware isn’t as important as the innovation happening in software. By bringing in two of the most well known futurists in science and technology, Cisco is sending a signal to their audience of users and investors that the focus is going to be on emerging technology. This is a bit of a gamble for Cisco but it’s hoped that things pay off for them.

Note that there are also going to be other speakers in the Big Ideas Theater on the World of Solutions floor during the event. Access to the World of Solutions is restricted behind the new Imagine pass or full conference pass. There is no Social Pass option, and the party pass add-on does not grant access to the World of Solutions floor.

Tom’s Take

The Cisco Live CAE in Orlando is pretty much a known thing. It’s nice to see all of Universal this year with access to the new attractions at Islands of Adventure. People should be able to enjoy being outside in the Florida humidity instead of the blistering Las Vegas inferno. As well, the rides are going to be fun for a large number of the attendees.

It’s also good to see future-looking keynote speakers that are going to give their viewpoints on things that will impact our lives. With two speakers, I’m expecting another “interview” style closing keynote, which isn’t quite my favorite. But this is a step in the right direction. Here’s hoping that these additions to the event make Cisco Live a great show for those that will be attending.