Cisco Live 2012 Social Media

I knew it was going to be hard to top the great time I had at Cisco Live 2011, but I had great hopes for this year. I flew into San Diego early on Sunday morning. I figured I didn’t do much on Saturday the year before, so Sunday would be a great arrival time. I didn’t even make it out of the airport before I ran into Bob McCouch (@bobmccouch) in the Super Shuttle van. We caught up as we made our way to our respective hotels. The hotel situation in San Diego has been the source of some real consternation, even causing some folks to not be able to attend due to high lodging costs. I think the San Diego area hotels realize that they have their visitors at a premium, so they are charging appropriately for the privilege of staying so close to the convention center and the Gaslamp entertainment area. I’ll definitely be more considerate of places like San Francisco and Las Vegas in the future. Sunday was a bit of a whirlwind. I had been working with the great Cisco Live Social Media Team to try and schedule some times for the people that communicate together on Twitter to meet up and have a little time to catch up before we started the conference proper. I showed up to the convention center and checked in to receive my bag and materials. I then ran into Tony Mattke (@tonhe) and Jeff Fry (@fryguy_pa). We talked for a bit while deciding what to do. I knew the tweetup was going to be at 3 p.m., but I also wanted to take some time to check out other areas, like the NetVet lounge. One of the benefits of coming to Cisco Live as often as I do it the NetVet status. This allows for things like priority seating and access to special lounge. Inside, I picked up my free NetVet Cisco Press book, NX-OS Switching. I’m sure I’m going to need some more stick time on that particular subject. I also quickly linked up with the Cisco website team, as they setup in the NetVet lounge to do surveys and get feedback on the user experience. I work with them frequently as well, so it was good to see them in person once again. I realized that I didn’t have enough time to grab lunch before my scheduled exam, so I rushed over to get in line. I have started taking my exams on Sunday or Monday to cut down on the pressure to find time to study during the week of Cisco Live, as that’s usually impossible. This year, I wanted to attempt the CCIE Data Center Beta written exam, as I’ve blogged about the certification before. I figured it was about time to put my money where my mouth is, even though I’ve got less familiarity with the various platforms (hence the NX-OS book).

It was here that I had my first strange moment. As I was talking with Amy Arnold (@amyengineer) and others, someone came up and told me that they read my blog all the time and thanked me for all the writing that I do. I have to say this was a humbling experience. I still think of myself more as an occasional prognosticator and part-time snarky tech analyst. To have someone approach me out of the blue and give me good feedback about what I’m doing here makes me feel great. Afterwards, I jumped in and took my best shot at the beta. While I can’t disclose what was there, I can say that the test was a great indicator of what will be covered on the exam and I now know where some of my weak areas are when it comes to figuring out what I’m going to need to work on. I got out of the test just in time to get down to the Tweetup area. The Cisco Live team moved things from where I thought we were going to be to a more suitable area. We ended up having about 50-60 people show up, which was a great turnout. The Social Media team provided some refreshments in the form of Frappucinos and Red Bull, along with cookies and other sugary snacks. I had some great conversations and met some outstanding people that I hadn’t talked to before on Twitter. We stuck around for about three hours, since some fellow tweeps were coming from Techtorial sessions. We also wanted to wait for Jay Franklin (@jay25f), as he was taking his CCIE lab on site. Once everyone had caught up, several of us went into the Gaslamp district and had dinner at Mary Jane’s. One thing I will say for social media gatherings: while it’s great to catch up and hang out at dinner together, it’s a bit of pain to try to find a table for 25-30 almost anywhere. Better planning next year, I suppose. The staff at Mary Jane’s was great, and I had an opportunity to talk to @grinthock. After dinner, I went on a mission to a local grocery store to acquire supplies for a joke that would play out on Monday. A walk back to the hotel tired me out enough to make me turn in well before midnight.

Monday started off with me bolting out of bed at 5:15 a.m. local time. Guess my internal clock wasn’t quite adjusted to PDT. I grabbed all my supplies for the day and headed down to the convention center. Breakfast wasn’t served until 7 a.m., so I had a bit of time to catch up on some email and other tasks. After breakfast, I headed up to the NetVet lounge and spent some time talking with the web team. It was there that Jeff Fry and I were told that none other than Carlos Dominguez (@carlosdominguez) wanted to meet up with us and ask us some questions. Opportunities like that don’t come around every day. I skipped my 10:00 session but we were unable to meet up, as Carlos is a very busy guy. Back in the NetVet area, I ran into Shannon McFarland (@eyepv6), who’s class on IPv6 Enterprise Deployment is always good. I was afraid my afternoon schedule might cause me to miss a portion of his class, so I decided to let him in on my joke. I told him on Twitter a few weeks before that I was coming to his class to heckle him. He responded in jest that I was free to do so as long as I didn’t throw fruit. I replied that I was bring watermelons and cantaloupes, and his retort was that was fine so long as I didn’t throw coconuts. Remember my Sunday night trip for supplies? Guess what? I had two coconuts in my backpack. I reminded him that if he didn’t bring the good stuff in his session, I was more than willing to send the projectiles his way. We had a good laugh and set off in separate directions. Alas, I ended up missing his session, as I was called away to do an impromptu Packet Pushers episode. Greg Ferro (@etherealmind) and Ethan Banks (@ecbanks) had come out to Cisco Live to record some great Cisco Virtual Symposium material with Omar Sultan (@omarsultan) from the Data Center and Virtualization team. I just happened to get invited to something a little different. I walked into a podcast with Greg, Ethan, Amy, Wendell Odom (@wendellodom), Scott Morris (@ScottMorrisCCIE), Russ White, and Natalie Timms. The brainpower around the table was overwhelming. We spent a good amount of time talking about certifications, and I was pleased to have a chance to share thoughts with some real stars in the certification arena. I also stayed over to record a Virtual Symposium show with the Packet Pushers team.

Once out of the podcasting, I made it down to the opening of the World of Solutions. I knew that I was going to be running short on time, so I made my way over to the Certifications Lounge to get my CCIE ribbon and spiffy CCIE hat. They once again had the tattoo artist. There were many that were calling for me to get my infamous tattoo once again. There was even talk that Carlos wanted to stop by and see me getting it.  The fates decided to conspire against us and Carlos was delayed. That might have been for the best, as I was going to try to convince Carlos to get one too. Right before I needed to leave for a briefing, I was able to talk Blake Krone (@blakekrone) into doing it with me. We had a great laugh or two and more than a couple of pictures were taken. We sent Twitter buzzing once again with pictures that no one really wanted to see. At this point, though, it’s practically tradition. After a briefing, I finally had a chance to unwind with some friends. Monday night is historically meetup party night, as it’s the only night without an official party scheduled. I had three of them on my calendar and managed to only make the tail end of the INE event. I made it up to the roof just in time to have a quick drink before people started heading for the door. We ended up hanging out with the IP Expert team as well, and many bourbons were had with lots of laughs and good discussion. Little did I know that I would pay for that fun.

Tuesday morning was someone I was both looking forward to and dreading at the same time. Colin McNamara (@colinmcnamara) decided to put together a charity 5K run to benefit the Wounded Warrior Project. Being a wounded warrior himself, Colin understands the benefits of helping out. I had been working my way towards running a 5K for many weeks, so I figured I’d put it all out on the line for such a great cause. Alas, 6 a.m. came early for me after a night of revelry. I managed to make it down for breakfast before rushing over to the run course along the oceanside. Colin and the fellow runners were great fun. I pushed myself to keep going the whole way, and Colin helped out by pacing my the whole way. We both crossed the line to the cheers of the assembled runners some thirty minutes or so after we started. I felt drained but exhilarated at being able to do some great things for a deserving charity. Colin was also able to exceed his hopes for funds, as he ended up raising $1700! I know it will go a long way to helping out. I grabbed a quick shower before heading over to the John Chambers keynote address. Mr. Chambers is still a dynamic speaker, and his talk about the directions that he wants to take Cisco in the coming year really set a tone in some areas. I was also interested that the big demo this year involved Location/ID Separation Protocol (LISP), which is a much-discussed technology for reducing routing table size and increasing mobility. You can check out a very in-depth discussion about LISP on Jeff’s Blog. After the keynote, we met up for lunch before heading back into the World of Solutions. I spent some time walking around, but I had to go back to the Certifications Lounge and get a new CCIE Ribbon. Seems they aren’t as water resistant as I might have liked. While in there, I managed to work my magic and talk Marko Milivojevic (@icemarkom) and Colin McNamara into getting my famous CCIE tattoo. I’d managed to increase the CCIE Tramp Stamp club membership by 50% in just a single day, so I was mighty happy to post for yet more pictures. I got a quick chance to meet Amy Lewis (@CommsNinja) of the DCV team and her roving reporter Josh Atwell (@Josh_Atwell). They are a hilarious duo that had me in stitches for a bit.

I really wanted to attended my Nexus 5500 architecture class, but I had to miss it due to the CCIE NetVet reception. I walked over to the event with none other than Terry Slattery himself, which is always an honor and a privilege. We rode up to the Ultimate Skybox and enjoyed some refreshment before Mr. Chambers arrived. I got up to go to the restroom, and when I came back John was sitting in my spot. I couldn’t very well ask him to move, so I knelt down beside him as he started asking our group if we had any questions. This really floored me, as the CEO of a major networking company was having one-on-one discussions with engineers about issues that affected them. While he normally has a Q&A, the personal attention this year with a small group really set a tone for things. While I respect the setting and the candor with which the discussion takes place, I can say that Mr. Chambers is very aware of many of the pressing issues that we all feel and things are being examined even as we speak. After our discussion, we headed back to the Tweetup area to gather people before our trip to the CCIE party at the USS Midway museum. We got a chance to get on board a floating aircraft carrier and walk around. There were even some pretty impressive planes on the flight deck that many people were taking pictures next to. While this party was better than the Wax Museum the year before, there were still some issues. San Diego can be chilly at night, especially on the water. The flight deck was a bit cold, even under the provided heaters. The lines for food were also longer than expected, and many people were going back to the end of the line right away, as some portions weren’t large enough to satisfy. I’m still trying to think of logistics on the scale of the CCIE party, and no easy answers come right to mind. Still, I know that Cisco tries hard to have fun and do interesting things for their flagship engineers. We decided to jump out a bit early and head over to Brian’s 24 to meet up with Amy Lewis and the rest of the Data Center team for a “bacon & waffles” tweetup. This consisted of hanging out with a smaller group in a great little diner and stuffing our faces full of breakfast food. Thanks to a warning from Ethan, I manage to not order a large portion of food, but the Stuffed French Toast that I did get was like eating a plate-sized club sandwich. I packed away what I could before calling it a night and heading back to the hotel. Blake Krone’s hotel was so far away that I told him he could room with me, as I had two queen beds and ample room to save him the long walk back to his hotel.

Wednesday was another packed day. We attended the Padma Warrior keynote discussing new technologies like Cisco’s approach to Software Defined Networking (SDN). There’s been some recent buzz around things like OpenFlow and network programmability, so seeing Cisco enter the conversation about them made me perk up and bit and start paying attention. This is certainly something I’ll be looking more into in the future. I also managed to get my picture on the big screen during Carlos’s introduction. Colin, Marko, and I were once again famous for our proud display of the CCIE logo in an embarrassing location. After the keynote, I had the chance to meet up with the Cisco Demo team for a small Q&A session. We talked about the pressure to have demos going off without a hitch on stage and the fun that can be had making new technology accessible to a big audience. I also got the chance to meet Jim Grubb (@jimgrubb) as well as Padma Warrior (@padmasree). I even managed to finally catch up with Carlos! We had a great time, and I supplied Jim and Carlos with little Twitter ribbons for their conference badges to show the power of social media to Cisco Live. I went back to the World of Solutions after lunch to try and grab a t-shirt or two before yet another briefing. My hectic schedule was really cutting into my session time, but the valuable information that I lucked into is going to help a lot down the road. I jumped back into the WoS Social Media lounge to meet up with Mike Fratto (@mfratto) and Narbik Kocharians (@NarbikK). I always love chatting with my good buddy Narbik and picking his brain about some challenging scenarios. With the Customer Appreciation Event looming, I elected to go to dinner with the website user interaction team and give them some feedback about things. I made sure to draw on some of the things that my friends and readers had been telling me in the past few months that have been bothering them about the website. Here’s hoping that we can have some positive changes down the road. However, that made me about two hours late to the CAE, well into the start of Weezer’s program. I worked my way up to the exclusive CAE Tweetup skybox and enjoyed a view of the stage from the comfort of a chair. The CAE ended about 10:30 or so and a good time was had by all. A few of us ventured out into the wilds of San Diego, but I quickly realized that a noisy bar packed with people is not the place for me. I came back to the hotel and crashed due to an 8 a.m. session the next day.

Thursday was a much slower day thankfully. I managed to catch my 8 a.m. class, a great discussion about the CCDE exam as well as the Cisco Certified Architect exam. I’m thinking about writing a blog post specifically about this session, as there were a lot of things discussed that I want to talk about. My session ended and I headed back to the World of Solutions to record a special edition of the Packet Pushers Podcast. With many of the great minds of social media in the WoS, Packet Pushers and the NSA Show thought it would be a great idea to do a kind of “round table interview” style of podcast to get some thoughts and discussion around the things we’d heard about at Cisco Live. I really liked the interaction of the assembled guests and the format worked better than I could have hoped. I’m really looking forward to seeing the final product, so stay tuned to the Packet Pushers. A quick lunch was followed by once again returning for a last swag run through the WoS. I didn’t really come away with much this year, but that’s fine, as I’m still on t-shirt probation with my wife anyway. The closing keynote this year was from none other than the Mythbusters, Adam Savage (@donttrythis) and Jamie Hyneman (@jamienotweet). There were some great stories from them, as well as a couple of special videos that hadn’t been seen before. It was a special chance to hear from some real “geek” legends that inspire people to dig deeper and not accept things at face value. Afterwards, we hopped over to the tweetup area to enjoy a refreshment or two before walking down to the Cisco Live sign to take the picture above. I was really happy to see that this year’s picture was even bigger than last year, even if it didn’t include the occasional random person.

I want to take an opportunity to say a special thanks to the Cisco Live Social Media team for making all of this fun possible. They worked their tails off to address issues and answer questions all week. They were the driving force behind the Tweetup area and the lounge in the WoS. Without their support, this year’s corner wouldn’t have been nearly as successful as it was. I was once again humbled that people were referring to the area as “Tom’s Corner”. However, without the amazing people that I am friends with from social media, it would just be a guy sitting in a chair making snarky comments on Twitter. I’ve said it time and again: Cisco Live is the best because of the people. Whether it be the army of Twitter or the tireless efforts of the social media team, I think we showed the top people at Cisco this year that social media is a big part of what we do. I hope someday to have participation like EMC World or VMWorld. I know that every one of you in the picture above, as well as many others out there have really stepped up to help make the networking pieces of social media such an amazing place. I am once again honored and excited to know each and every one of you and I can’t wait until June 2013 to see you all again in Orlando.

Now that Cisco Live is upon us, I figured it was due time to show you where all the fun social media stuff is going to happen.  I’ve already told you about it before, but a picture is worth a thousand words.  Or, in this case, a map.

On Sunday, June 10, there will be a tweetup happening on the upper level of the San Diego Convention Center (SDCC) at 3 p.m.  I know there’s a lot of stuff going on that day.  People are arriving and checking in.  There are techtorials and tests and all manner of things.  This event will be casual and come-and-go so as not to crimp anyone’s schedule. It’s mostly a chance for the social media folks to get together and hang out before the craziness of the week starts up on Monday.  Here’s where we’ll be (look for the circled area):

It should be labeled as Lounge 2 on your maps, either on your tablet/phone or in the map you get at check-in.  We’ll be there for a while, so don’t worry if you can’t make it right at 3 p.m.  I’m usually the last one to leave, so if you are worried about not making it be sure to ping me on Twitter and I’ll tell you what’s going on.

During the event, starting Monday at 4 p.m., the World of Solutions (WoS) will be open for attendees.  This is where the Cisco Social Media Lounge will be located.  During the hours the WoS is open, I’m going to be in the Social Media lounge most of the time.  Consider this “Tom’s Corner” for Cisco Live 2012.  I’m sure the couches will be more comfortable than the chairs from last year.  Here’s our spot on the big map:

Right by the entrance.  And, conveniently located by the t-shirt booth as well.  I’ll be in the Social Lounge when the WoS opens on Monday evening.  Right after I go to the Certifications Lounge and get my CCIE ribbon.  I plan on mingling and hanging out as much as I can and meeting new people, so don’t be afraid to stop by and say hello.  There’s a lot of great discussion that goes on when a few engineers get together.

I can barely contain the excitement that I have for Cisco Live this year.  All of my friends from social media made Cisco Live 2011 the best conference ever.  Now that everyone has shown me the power of social media, let’s do the same for Cisco.  I want the most talked-about thing from Cisco Live 2012 to be the amazing time that everyone had during the tweetups and in the Social Media Lounge in the WoS.  Let’s send the message the Cisco Live really is the best place to be social!

With less than a month to go until Cisco Live 2012 in San Diego, we’re learning more and more about the festivities every day.  From the closing keynote speakers to the Customer Appreciation Event (CAE) band, it’s shaping up to be a very exciting event.  One area that I’m particularly excited to learn more about is the social side of things.  Last year was the best Cisco Live event I’ve ever attended, due in large part to all the people that I interacted with from Twitter and other social media sites.  We spent so much time hanging out together outside the registration desk that our group of tables was nicknamed “Tom’s Corner”.  I still blush a little bit when I think of that moniker.  It was wonderful having a place for everyone to come and sit down for a bit and just hang out or discuss sessions or speakers.  Even if we did have to fight for table space or chairs from time to time, I feel that having a place set aside for everyone to meet is a wonderful idea.  For Cisco Live 2012, the great folks at Cisco that are behind social media realize that too.  That leads to a couple of exciting new opportunities this year.

Social Media Lounge

The first thing that I’m excited about is a specific area set aside in the World of Solutions (WoS) for social media!  I always hear about “blogger lounges” and other such places at other vendor events or trade shows.  Cisco must have heard about them too, because we’re going to have our own spot at Cisco Live.  Much like the NetVet Lounge or the Cisco Certified Lounge, social media will finally have a hangout to call our own.  Based on some information that I’ve seen, it’s going to be a nice place to congregate and relax.  Couches galore, TVs all around, and even perhaps some entertainment options like an XBox or two.  This will also be the place where Cisco’s social media team will likely be hanging out as well, so if you want to interact with them then this is the place to be.  I’m already planning on moving myself in the second the WoS opens up.  I wonder if they’ll let me hang a banner…?

CAE Tweetup

Since last year’s CAE Tweetup was such a rousing success, there’s going to be another one this year.  I’m excited for all the same reasons that I’m thrilled about the social media lounge.  The CAE Tweetup is going to be even better though.  I’ll give you a hint why:

That’s where we’re going to be!  Originally, the Western Metal Supply Company building was going to be torn down when Petco Park was being built in 2004.  Since it was such a historic piece of San Diego, the park designers found a way to incorporate it into the actual architecture of the park.  The Western Metal Building has now been converted into a section of luxury suites with balconies and even a viewing terrace on the roof.  During the CAE, one of those suites will house the Tweetup.  It’s going to be a great time for sure.  I’ll post more info about the CAE once my Cisco Live moles feed me more information.

Other Tweetups

Since the WoS (and social media lounge) will only be open from Monday evening to Thursday afternoon, there’s been discussion of what to do about meeting up with people around those hours.  It’s always great to get in and hang out with everyone on the first day, especially since many of us don’t get to see each other unless we run into one another at Cisco Live.  Since I’m arriving around lunchtime on Sunday, June 10, I was talking to the Cisco Live folks about having an impromptu tweetup that afternoon, say around 3 p.m. or so.  The event schedule for Sunday looks fairly light, so having a tweetup around that time would give us all a chance to stop by and say hello before wandering off to parts unknown.  There’s still not a firm place nailed down for the meeting, so once again I’ll be relying on my Bothan spies to get me the information as soon as possible.

Another idea being kicked around is a farewell tweetup sometime on Thursday.  The closing keynote runs from 2:00 to 3:00, but afterwards there are going to be many people that either don’t have sessions or just want to hang out one last time.  What would be a good time to have this last Twitter party of Cisco Live?  Last year we all hung out at Tom’s Corner until they came and took our tables away before heading off to dinner.  This year, I was thinking we could use the final meetup to take an awesome picture next to the Cisco Live sign like this one from last year:

The Cisco Live 2011 Twitter Army

There were a few folks that couldn’t make it to the photo session last year for various reasons.  This year, I figured it we got it all planned ahead of time no one would be left out. If you have any good ideas for the Thursday tweetup, either time or location, leave me a comment.  I’ll be sure to forward it on to the Cisco Live folks and make your voice heard.

Tom’s Take

Social media is a wonderful and powerful thing.  As you can see, Cisco is putting a lot of extra effort into social media and its participants this year.  From having our own lounge in the WoS to having a luxury box at the CAE, there’s no denying that it’s going to be a great time.  If you haven’t already, make sure you’re on the Cisco Live 2012 Twitter List.  That way, we can all link up easier and put names and faces to Twitter handles.  You should also log into your Cisco Live account and be sure your Twitter handle is there so it can be printed on your badge.  Let’s face it, most of us are more familiar by our handles and avatars than we are by our given names.  Hopefully, that will change with all the amazing opportunities that Cisco has given us to hang out together at Cisco Live 2012.  I can’t wait!

It’s that time of year again.  Cisco Live 2012 in San Diego is coming up in June.  I will once again be attending for my seventh event.  After last year’s event, I realized for the first time that networking with my peers is just as important as attending breakout sessions.  With that in mind, I chose carefully this year when I build my Cisco Live conference schedule:

Monday
10:00 AM 12:00 PM		CUG-1002	Unified Communications Product Direction – Large Enterprise
1:00 PM 3:00 PM		BRKARC-3452	Cisco Nexus 5000/5500 and 2000 Switch Architecture
Tuesday
10:00 AM 11:30 AM		GENKEY-4346	Keynote and Welcome Address
4:00 PM 6:00 PM		BRKCRT-9344	IPv6 for Cert Nuts
Wednesday
10:00 AM 11:30 AM		GENKEY-4347	Cisco Technology Keynote
12:30 PM 2:30 PM		CUG-1008	Cisco Collaboration User Group Open Forum
4:00 PM 6:00 PM		BRKSEC-2006	It is 2012, Why Do You Keep Getting Hacked?
Thursday
8:00 AM 9:30 AM		BRKCRT-8862	Cisco Certified Architect: How to complete the journey from CCIE to CCDE to CCAr
12:00 PM 1:30 PM		CUG-1010	Cisco Collaboration User Group Business Meeting
2:00 PM 3:00 PM		GENKEY-4358	Closing Keynote: An Afternoon with Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman

Most of my unified communications sessions this year are going to be taking part in the Collaboration Users Group.  I like the small focus and immediate response to feedback I get from being a part of this users group.  I’m also going to be checking out some IPv6 and data center sessions, as I feel that much of what I’m going to be doing in the next couple of years will focus on these technologies.  Of course, having a security session is almost a requirement, so I found an interesting one in the list.  I’m also going to check out the Cisco Certified Architect briefing.  I’m nowhere near qualified to sit for the exam, having neither my CCDE nor the requisite experience in architect projects.  However, I think it will be interesting to see what’s going on with this certification since I was around for the initial formation discussion groups.

The keynotes are usually fairly interesting affairs.  John Chambers will likely have something to say about the new, slimmer Cisco and how they are doing in the market.  Padma Warrior will also likely be talking about the data center and the advantages that UCS offers to Cisco in this space.  The closing keynote appears to be the one that most people are talking about.  Discovery’s Mythbusters will be delivering a talk to the assembled crowd.  The closing keynotes are always interesting affairs, as you can never be quite sure what the guests will have to say to Carlos Dominguez.  I’m really looking forward to it.

If you’re headed to Cisco Live, feel free to leave a comment.  The Twitter and blogger contingent is usually fairly large and always great to hang out with.  The more people we know about at Cisco Live, the better the party will be.  See you in San Diego!

The results are in, and the Ultimate Cisco Live Attendee…isn’t me.  Bummer.  Congrats to Carole Warner Reece from Chesapeake NetCraftsmen for taking home the gold!

In all honesty, I never really figured I was going to win anyway.  There are people that have been going to Cisco Live since it began.  People that are way more involved in tons of aspects that I’ve never even seen.  And yet, I was named a semi-finalist along with my good friend Jeff Fry.  Jeff was a no-brainer because he did some great PR work with Cisco Live leading up to the event.  He was even a recommended read for all the first-time attendees this year.  You can’t knock the guy for being that popular.

I probably wouldn’t have entered the contest if it hadn’t been for the awesome time I had hanging out with all my friends.  Yes, crazy things happened.  Yes, I brought some of them on myself.  However, it all added up to make a great event and give me lots of interesting fodder for my submission video.  All of those things happened to me this year.  Except for my wife threatening to leave due to my overwhelming desire to collect t-shirts (that happens every year).

Here’s my submission video in all its glory direct from Cisco’s Youtube account.  For the record, I did record it on my Cius.

The Cisco Live 2011 Twitter Army - Thanks to Hank Yeomans

It’s a bittersweet morning for me. I’m sitting in McCarren Aiport in Las Vegas about to leave to head home after Cisco Live 2011. Cisco Live is the annual convention that brings together Cisco customers, partners, and employees for fun and learning. I have been an annual Cisco Live attendee each year since 2006, so I’ve been everywhere from Anaheim to Orlando. This year, however, was the best Cisco Live ever. This is thanks, in no small part, to the amazing people I met in my short six days. I’m going to break things down by day simply because there was so much that happened that it would look like a trainwreck otherwise.  Although, it’s probably going to look like a trainwreck anyway.

Saturday

I arrived Saturday around noon and immediately ran into Jeff Fry. After we collected our baggage and hailed a cab to the Mandalay Bay, I deposited my luggage in my room and decided that watching TV wasn’t the most exciting thing to be doing. Jeff and I grabbed lunch by the Cisco Live registration desk and got to register early when the desk opened about 30 minutes ahead of schedule. Jeff is kind of Cisco-famous thanks to an excellent guide he wrote for first-time Cisco Live attendees, so when we found Leslie, one of the coordinators, she handed both of us a special ribbon for our name badges that allowed us to display our Twitter handles for the world to see. I had my own little addition to the conference badge, a little insert that had the Packet Pushers logo and denoted me as one of the hosts. I figure a little advertising never hurts, right? Once we got the new conference bag, we walked over to the tables just outside the registration desk and just hung out for a bit. I knew that some of my tweeps were coming into town, so I decided to let them know where I was so they could stop by and say hello. I ran into Jon Nelson, my old nemesis from the Cisco Collaboration Code game from last year, where Jon took home an iPad. We chatted with Jon and Jeff and lots of other people that just dropped by to meet me. I even had someone come over from the registration desk because he recognized my voice from Packet Pushers and wanted to tell me how much he enjoyed listening, which always makes me feel good. Darby Weaver stopped by to congratulate me on passing the CCIE, something that a lot of people would do throughout the week. We finally wound down a lazy day one by hitting the buffet. Little did I know what was going to happen…

Sunday

Sunday was interestingly busy. I didn’t have any sessions until the late afternoon, but most everyone else was in Techtorials for the whole day. Left to my own devices for once, I walked back down to the tables outside registration and just parked myself there, hoping to meet some more tweeps arriving that day. What shocked me is the amount of people stopping by to meet me and then sticking around to hang out. I honestly thought it would be a quick “hello” followed by people wandering off to look around. Instead, we got a Tech Field Day-style hangout area that just kept growing and growing throughout the week. Right around lunch, I even got to meet Amy, who remarked, “You’re taller than you sound on Twitter.” After lunch with Amy and her crew, I resumed my post at the registration tables, which quickly became the Unoffical Tweetup location for the first couple of days. This was especially funny, as I had tweeted before the conference that while there might be an official tweetup at the Customer Appreciation Event on Wednesday night, the unofficial location would be wherever I happened to be drinking. As Sunday wound down, those of us registered for the Cisco Collaboration welcome session and reception started filtering to the breakout rooms. We probably should have avoided the session, as Amy, Doug Bineti and I spent more time heckling people than anything else. The reception, on the other hand, was wonderful. Instead of being herded into half the Eyecandy Lounge, we got to spread out and occupy the whole thing. It was also better this year because I wasn’t battling Jon for Collaboration Codes. After we wound that party down, my friends from Wireless Field Day told me I should come hang out with them. After walking all the way to the Bellagio and back, we settled on a few beers at New York, New York and eventually back at Eyecandy. This would be the first of many nights where sleep was merely a suggestion.

Monday

Monday I found out that the Unofficial Tweetup location had been renamed to “Tom’s Corner” in honor of me sitting there for the past two days. It was a little humbling to say the least, but the name caught on like I couldn’t believe. I had a couple of sessions during the day, but I was really looking foward to the opening of the World of Solutions (WoS). I was a little sad this year, though, because I found out that my favorite game, the Cisco Challenge, wasn’t going to be around this year. I ran into my friends from the Cole Group that have done such an amazing job every year doing the Challenge, so at least I got to catch up with them. Monday was also the day that I discovered that my phone was dying rather fast due to my constant use to keep upon Twitter. I usually had to go back to the room and charge it at some point.  Just glad I reverted it to iOS 4.3.3. I recorded a special Cisco Live edition of Packet Pushers with Greg Ferro and Tony Mattke just to let our listeners know what was going on here this week. At noon, I ran into Stephen Foskett hanging outside the registration desk. I walked over and spent some time catching up with him and told him I was excited to attend his party later that evening, a themed affair called “Everyone Comes to Rick’s”, after Casablanca. After more chit-chat with Stephen and Jennifer Huber, the Wireless Queen, I bounded off to take my CCDE written exam. I figured since I had a free shot this year with no pressure to recertify anything, I’d give this exam a shot since it had bested me since I took the beta version two years ago. This time, I squeaked by about twenty points above the mark, so I finally got to best this challenging test. I headed back to my corner to await the WoS repception. At 4:30 on the dot, a sea of nerds streamed into the WoS for free beer and t-shirts. I made a beeline to the Certifications Lounge to pick up my all-important silver CCIE ribbon and glass mug gift. I noticed they were doing airbrush CCIE logo tattoos for a little bit of fun (more on this later). I collected the conference t-shirt, which was once again back to the “US Tour” design this year, a very welcome change. I walked over to the Cisco Collaboration Booth and ran into the people there than recognized me from my previous battle last year. They encouraged me to play the game, and I obliged by entering some codes. Thanks to the experience I had from last year, it didn’t take long for me to find all the codes I could and put them in for a chance to win a Cisco Cius. I departed the WoS and headed up to Paris to hang out at Rick’s (actually Steven’s). Before I departed, I ran into CCIE #1026, Terry Slattery. I always enjoy talking to Terry, and I invited him to Stephen’s party just in case he wanted something to do. Stephen’s party was a great time. I bumped into lots of people I knew from Packet Pushers and Tech Field Day, as well as some new people. Fun was had. Wine was consumed. Pictures were taken of my bald spot (once again). In fact, the pictures from Stephen’s NEX-5 camera were so good, many of them ended up becoming new Twitter avatar pics (mine included). I ended up chatting quite a bit and closing down the reception. After thanking Stephen and Jennifer for such a great time, I caught a cab back to the Luxor with Terry Slattery himself. As we walked through the Luxor, I got a chance to talk shop with this legend and learn quite a few things. It was another humbling experience to get to talk to such a great person, one that was greatly appreciated. On the way back to the Mandalay Bay, I ran into Brandon Carroll, Chris Jones, and Tony Mattke and turned around to go to Ri Ra, a great little Irish Pub in Mandalay Place. After a few more drinks, including some I had to chug in one sitting, we finally called it a night around 2 am, ready for the pain that was coming the next day.

Tuesday

Tuesday morning was better than I thought. I wasn’t hungover, just a little tired. Guess Stephen’s parties aren’t the draining after all.  Either that, or massive amounts of bourbon are a good thing.  I went to my morning session like a good boy, but ended up leaving a little early to head down to Tom’s Corner. Since yesterday, they had made a sign for our tables denoting they were for “Tom and his Twitter Friends”. Kellen Christianson even made Tom’s Corner a 4square check in location. I got a big kick out of that one. Once the John Chambers Keynote got started, I finally got to have a great seat on the floor with the other CCIE NetVets that are annual attendees like myself. The keynote was good, as usual, with John laying out some new areas of focus and talking about his vision for Cisco. After the keynote, we raided the WoS once again for more t-shirts and backpacks. I got a text message from Kira, the wonderful person in charge of the Destination: Collaboration game this year. She told me that she “might” have a cool prize for me and that I should stop by and see her. Once I arrived at the booth, she told me that I had won the first Cisco Cius giveaway! I was elated to be holding this new unified communications endpoint in my hands, as I had seen a big push from Cisco to turn this into a central hub for voice, video, and data communications in the coming months. And now I had my very own to play with! I ran back to the room to start charging it while I recorded yet another Packet Pushers episode with Greg, Ethan Banks, Kurt Bales, and Nicholas Michel about the CCIE exam. My useless hotel internet connection cut out a few times in the recording, but we had a great time overall.  I returned the World of Solutions for a little more exploration and saw that the Learning@Cisco folks were offering a free CCIE t-shirt to anyone willing to get the CCIE airbush tattoo on their lower back, a look commonly referred to as a “tramp stamp”.  When I asked the artist, he said that he hadn’t don’t one yet.  After speaking with Julia, I decided that I would give it a shot.  Once I jumped in with both feet, Marko Milivojevic sacrificed some of his pride as well and got a matching tattoo.  Several pictures were snapped, but little did I know what was in store for me.  I went back to my corner to await another perk of being a CCIE NetVet, the reception with John Chambers. Jeff and Hank Yeomans went with me and we had a good time. While I won’t divulge what was discussed out of respect for John’s candor, I will say that my first CCIE NetVet question was met with a round of applause. I even got to take my picture with John and my new Cius!

Uncle John and I - Thanks to Jeff Fry

After the reception, we headed to the buses for the CCIE party. I was pumped to attend this year, as I had heard good stories about last year. We went to Madame Tussad’s House of Wax for food and drink and socializing. However, the number of people and guests overwhelmed the catering staff and the layout of the museum was not conducive to a living, breathing event. Lots of people knotting up to take pictures and drink beer led to stuffy conditions and more than a little disappointment.  The funniest part of the whole party involved that picture of Marko and me.  Thanks to tagging the original tweet with the Twitter hashtag for the CCIE party, every retweet kept showing up on the monitors there.  It wasn’t uncommon to see the photo four times in a row. We headed back a little early and ended up spending the night at Ri Ra once again, where I ate the largest order of fish and chips I’ve ever seen in my life (and I ordered the small). There was a little more sleep, but I was still running on a deficit.  The week was starting to catch up with me, and my batteries were running low. That would change on Wednesday morning.

Wednesday

Instead of going to my morning session, I was invited by Aneel Lakhani and Brian Gracely to head over and take a tour of the SuperNAP facility in Las Vegas. Besides knowing it was a datacenter, I knew very little about it. I’m going to have a separate blog post about it later, but suffice it to say that I was blown away by what I saw in there.  On the way back from SuperNAP, I found out that someone had created a Twitter account dedicated to my little slice of Cisco Live, @TomsCornerCLLV.  I was completely amused by this little sentiment.  It was once again humbling to see what your friends will come up with sometimes.  When we arrived back and the Mandalay Bay, Stephen and Jennifer showed me a box full of swag leftover from their party two days previous that they were trying to find something to do with.  I volunteered to take it off their hands because last year my coworkers devoured my leftover pile of trinkets before I knew what happened.  I figured 18 pounds of various stuff should be enough to keep them occupied for a few hours at least.  Upon arrival, I was informed the Carlos Dominguez had taken the CCIE Tramp Stamp photo and put it up on the main screen right before Padmasee Warrior’s tech keynote that morning.  Some people might have been mortified having their backside shown to 15,000 people on site and thousands more watching on the Internet, but not me.  Marko and I were happy that Carlos referred to us as “our two brightest CCIEs” in his description. I took my time on Wednesday afternoon, going to one class and lounging around in the NetVet area as well as the Corner.  I was invited to talk to a program manager for the Cisco support website over dinner and spent some productive time giving my opinion about some proposed changes that I can’t wait to see.  Afterwards, it was time to hop on the bus for the Customer Appreciation Event (CAE)!  We rode out to the M Resort just south of Las Vegas proper.  Once on site, we picked up our flashy new hats (literally) and I headed over to find the official tweetup spot in the Chill Lounge.  I spent most of my time there, shooting the breeze with the Twitter folks as they filtered in and out of the party.  Some of my fellow tweeps were lucky enough to have a VIP cabana right by the stage to watch OK Go and Train rocking the house.  By all accounts, this was one of the best CAEs in recorded history.  I had a blast myself just hanging around, occasionally venturing out to listen to some music.  I was later told there was a nefarious plot to introduce me to the pool in a most unflattering way, but I was luckily able to be conspicuously absent during this vile attempt to wash off my newest decoration.  After the buses ran us back to the hotel, we descended on Ri Ra once again to do as much damage to their stocks of beer and bourbon as possible.

Thursday

The last day of Cisco Live started out with one cracked eye and Herculean effort to drag myself into Shannon McFarland’s IPv6 class.  I’m glad I hauled my aching body there, as the talk was amazing simply due the amount of great information that was presented, not to mention the extra 140 slides hiding in the material that weren’t presented on.  I went back to the Corner as time ticked down to the closing keynote.  Around noon, all of the Twitter folks around the corner headed over to take a picture with the giant Cisco Live sign that you see at the beginning of this post.  While this is a fairly popular thing for people to do during the conference, I doubt that having 25 people in front of the sign is a common occurrence.  After lunch, we headed over to the closing keynote with Captain Kirk himself, William Shatner.  Literally seconds before Carlos got on stage to interview TJ Hooker, he spotted me in the crowd and ran over for a quick picture.

Hanging with Carlos Dominguez - Thanks to Leslie Hasvold

The Shatner keynote/interview was very good.  He wasn’t afraid to poke fun at his hosts and was a very funny guy overall.  He strikes me as a man that knows his audience and knows how to play to them.  Once we finished up with Denny Crane, I went back to my room and packed up all the swag I could fit into my suitcase in prep for leaving the next day.  I still ended up having to ship myself some things back, a first for me in six years of Cisco Live.  After shipping my junk off to parts unknown, I walked back over to Tom’s Corner for one last hurrah.  We closed the place down in style, only relinquishing our seats when the guy came to take them from us.  Afterwards, we learned that trying to seat 25 people at one restaurant in Vegas is like hitting the progressive jackpots – unlikely under even the best of circumstances.  We ended up splitting the group between two restaurants for one last tweep dinner.  As people left to pack up and get some rest, several Twitter folks gave our last regards to Ri Ra.  We even managed to chase Leslie out of her room for one last hurrah.  This might have been what we in Information Technology like to refer to as “a bad thing”, as Leslie was so entertaining that we ended up nearly closing down the bar.  Good times were had by all and it was a little sad to see everyone heading back to hotel rooms one last time.

Tom’s Take

My previous Cisco Live events have all been fun.  Even so, I only knew five or six people there at best.  This year was nothing short of amazing.  I was hanging out with twenty and thirty people at a time.  There was always something to do or someone to talk to.  Lots of heckling and razzing for everyone.  The parties were that much better with people to hang out with.  And when we didn’t have a place to gather, we made one.  I can wholeheartedly say that this was the most fun I’ve ever had anywhere.  I owe it all to my friends, old and new.  As I said at our last party at Ri Ra, “Thanks to all my imaginary friends for making me want to come to Cisco Live, and thanks to all my new real life friends for making Cisco Live the best ever.”  I honestly can’t wait to go to San Diego in 2012 and see what is in store for us there.  As long as we all show up ready to have fun, I have no doubt that it will be just as amazing as Cisco Live 2011 was.

I would like to thank all of my tweeps that showed up to hang out with me at Tom’s Corner and other places.  In no particular order:

Amy Arnold, Brandon Carroll, Bob McCouch, Chris Jones, Tony Mattke, Aaron Conaway, Teren Bryson, Doug Bineti, Ed Weadon, Scott McDermott, Kellen Christensen, Blake Krone, Andrew von Nagy, George Stefanick, Jennifer Huber, Stephen Foskett, Terry Slattery, Pilot Mike, Darby Weaver, Chris Marget, Patrick Swackhammer, Mario Gingras, Jody Lemoine, Hank Yeomans, Jeff Fry, Dane DeValcourt, Marko Milivojevic, Steve Rossen, Oleg Konovalov, Erik Peterson, Jay Franklin, Ralph Olsen, Gideon Tam, John McAlpine, Ryan Adzima, Mr. Tugs, David West, Matt Reath, Shannon McFarland, Jon Nelson, Joe Papesh, Bryan Baize, James Key, Kira Swain, and last but not least Leslie Hasvold.

Since my friend Jeff posted his Cisco Live schedule, I thought I’d do the same so you could see what I’m going to be interested in when I get to Las Vegas in July.

SaturdayArrive at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas Sunday 4:30 PM 6:00 PM GENCOL-1001 Collaboration Welcome Session 6:30 PM 8:30 PM GENCOL-1002 Collaboration Welcome Reception Monday 8:00 AM 9:30 AM CUG-4663 IP Communications Product Direction 10:00 AM 11:30 AM CUG-4665 Unified Communications and Messaging Product Direction 12:30 PM 2:30 PM BRKUCC-2006 SIP Trunk design and deployment in Enterprise UC networks Tuesday 8:00 AM 9:30 AM BRKEVT-3304 Advanced CUCM – Tandberg Call Control Troubleshooting 10:00 AM 11:30 AM GENKEY-4700 Keynote and Welcome Address 12:30 PM 2:30 PM BRKNMS-2035 Ten Cool LMS Tricks to Better Manage Your Network Wednesday 8:00 AM 10:00 AM BRKUCC-3000 Advanced Dial Plan Design for Unified Communications Networks 10:30 AM 11:30 AM GENKEY-4701 Cisco Technology Keynote 12:30 PM 2:30 PM BRKUCC-1903 Migration and Co-Existence Strategy for Unified Communications (UC) or Collaboration Applications on Unified Computing Systems (UCS) Thursday 8:00 AM 10:00 AM BRKRST-2301 Enterprise IPv6 Deployment 2:30 PM 3:30 PM GENKEY-4702 Closing Keynote: William Shatner 4:00 PM 5:30 PM BRKUCC-2061 IPv6 in Enterprise Unified Communications Networks

As you can see, I’m going to be spending a lot of my time with voice and IPv6.  Voice is because that’s what I spend most of my time doing nowadays.  IPv6 because that’s what I expect to be spending most of my time doing fairly soon.  Plus, with all the IPv6 talk on Packet Pushers, I’m going to need to stay on the cutting edge if I want to be able to hold a conversation.

A couple of highlights:

– The sessions on Monday with a “CUG” are for the Cisco Collaboration Users Group.  This is a great program that I’ve been involved in for the past couple of years that allows me to have a say in the direction of the product lines in Cisco’s collaboration space.  It also gives me the opportunity to interact directly with the business units (BUs) and get early access to beta programs.  If you aren’t already a member of the Collaboration Users Group, head over to their site and sign up now.  You’ll get access to a great group of people focused on collaboration, and if you play your cards right, maybe even an invitation to a kick-ass part on Monday night!

– BRKUCC-1903 is a class about migrating CUCM from any 4.x or newer version to the current version (8.5 as of right now).  It’s taught by Brandon Ta, who is one of the smartest people I’ve ever talked to.  He knows the ins and outs of CUCM like no one else.  His migration strategies and recommended tools have saved me so much time in the past on the migrations I’ve had to do.  He also gives tips on Unity/Unity Connection, IPCC, and Presence, so don’t hesitate to sign up if you’ve got one of these migrations coming up soon.

If you’re headed to Cisco Live, make sure to hop on over to Dane DeValcourt’s Cisco Live Twitter page and check out all the tweeps that are going to be putting in an appearance.  There’s already a great list of networking people that have affirmed they are attending.  Make sure to let him know if you’re going as well so he can put your name on the list.