Throughout my career I have been fortunate enough to be able to go to Cisco Live numerous times. This year it will be my 7th time to go! Even after all those years I’m still very exited and it is one of my highlights of the year. Plus, this year is my first year to attend as a Cisco Champion, so I’m definitely excited about that!
Every year I learn something new about Cisco Live. One year it was all about Cisco Umbrella for me, which I rolled out a couple of months later at my job. Take note employers, there is tangible benefit to send your IT to Live!
Given we are only a few months out, here are my tips and tricks:
- Shoes. I know I know every blogger talks about how comfortable the shoes must be! So, I’m just one of them too. It is indeed the probably most important part of Cisco Live. You don’t want to be in pain on Wednesday, because you have blisters on your feet. I usually wear Sketchers with memory foam, but to each their own.
- You will need a POWERBANK! Depending on your activity and despite plenty of outlets, my phone is usually done before 4:00pm. Good thing is you might pick up some free power banks at World of Solutions.
- Classes and Sessions. Scheduling is already open for NetVets, but I usually focus on a topic and have several breakout sessions for that topic versus all different topics. I might check into ACI this year, as I have much to learn. If you can you should always! attend a Network Detective session by Denise Fishburne (Fish).
- I usually try to register for the Cisco Live NOC Panel discussion as well but didn’t see it on the scheduler yet. This is a great discussion with the people behind the scene, who make Cisco Live possible (There are a lot of switches, routers and APs involved).
- For first time attendees there is a New Attendee Orientation (NEWGEN-1001) on Sunday 4:00pm-5:30pm. I was on that panel a few years ago and highly recommend it. Good chance to get the lay of the land at Live + light food and drinks!
- Customer Appreciation Event (CAE), is now Cisco Live Celebration. Front liner this year will be great
(more to come). Foo Fighters with opening act Weezer! - No question about it, I’ll be there and so should you!
- Donate 30 minutes to help in the social impact zone. This year Cisco partnered with GV2GT to help the homeless in San Diego.
- Engage with the Social Media Team at Cisco Live. No matter if you blog, tweet, use Facebook or other media, it’s fun and the guys and gals like to interact.
- World of Solutions; probably one of my favorite parts of Cisco Live. Every year I spend so much time at WoS learning about new products and technologies or hitting up an engineer of a product I’m already using with question. I foresee many hours will be spent at WoS again
- Take advantage of the free exam. A good way of saving money and another reason to be sent to Live. I will need to get re-certified this year, so I scheduled my exam already. There is still time to schedule, but seats are limited.
- Lastly Walk in Labs. If you are like me who runs a smaller shop, you might not always be able to get your hand on new or bigger tech. Take a lab and you get to play with systems you usually don’t get to play with AND you have a SME there to help you if you get stuck.
That’s my list of tips and tricks. Anything that should be on it and I missed? Shoot me a message and I’ll add it. Hope to see you in San Diego soon!
Learn more about Cisco Live here!