Cisco Live Melbourne 2019 – A year of ‘firsts’

Melbourne was bustling with technology enthusiasts for the renowned annual Cisco Live conference during the first week of March – opening the doors of the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre to welcome Cisco’s customers, partners and collaborators. Cisco Live provides the foundation for a digital future by providing attendees with education, connections and inspiration.

This year, the program expanded its reach to include the broader Asia Pacific, Japan and China (APJC) region, providing customers and partners with access to Cisco executives and insights.

Cisco Live Melbourne expanded its reach this year, with lots of innovation and many ‘firsts’.

2019 saw the highest attendance, with over 8,400 people registering for the conference, 17% year on year growth. 650+ sessions were delivered in the Education Program, and more than twice the Cisco Certification exams taken this year compared to last year. Cisco’s technology was blasted over national news, and Live Broadcast across APJC, translated into four languages in real-time. The Live Broadcast was viewed over 2,500,000 times in 14 countries. Find out more about Cisco Live Melbourne’s year of ‘firsts’ below.

Program Highlights Across the Architectures

Cisco Live includes a focus on awareness and technology insights across the architectures, around the key lines of business: Enterprise Networking, Data Centre, Workplace Transformation and Cybersecurity.

The theme this year called for people to ‘Imagine Intuitive’, reflecting the IT industy’s unique position to shape and develop the future, with endless opportunities limited only by the imagination.

The World of Solutions offered the latest demonstrations of Cisco’s solutions within industry scenarios, as well as partners with innovation talks and meet the experts, connecting IT vendors with its target market – the tech industry. Highlights included stands on topics such as multicloud, the network, the power of data, cybersecurity, the internet of things, and much more.

Expanding from Australia to APJC for the first time

For the first time, Cisco Live Melbourne was expanded to include a broader regional focus, incorporating APJC as part of the conference. The regional element attracted Cisco executives, customers and partners from around the world.

The Opening Keynote was hosted by Miyuki Suzuki, President APJC, and Irving Tan, Senior Vice President, Operations. Scott Harell, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Enterprise Networking, hosted the Technology Keynote.

To recognise the first Cisco Live APJC Broadcast, regional teams in Japan, Korea and Hong Kong hosted viewing parties on site, streaming content live from Melbourne. Dedicated events such as these help strengthen relationships and share knowledge about Cisco’s products and solutions with customers.

President APJC, Miyuki Suzuki, at the opening keynote

Broadcasting Cisco Live to the World

Cisco Live Melbourne was live broadcast, taking the event to a global audience. Keynotes, innovation talks and technology deep dives were streamed with simultaneous translation into Japanese, Chines and Korean using Cisco’s telepresence for the translation services.

There were over 2,500,000 views on the live broadcast across seven platforms over 14 countries and Cisco.com had an average view time of 17 minutes.

The Opening Keynote by Miyuki Suzuki and Irving Tan attracted over 5,000 viewers onsite, and over 1,450,000 online.

You can live Cisco Live again by watching all the recorded sessions here: https://www.ciscolive.com/global/on-demand-library.html

Take your pick: the most add-on programs at any Cisco Live

Melbourne offered attendees the most choice of any of the Cisco Live conferences globally when it comes to add-on programs, in which specialists and product owners share diverse and targeted content. Of the 22 add-on programs, highlights included the regional Digital Summits, Workplace Technology Transformation Summit and Cisco Small Business Hub and Forum.

Digital Summits was the first add-on Cisco Live program tailored across five industries, focusing on Education, Retail, Financial Services, Healthcare and Transportation – all running concurrently with the public program. The two day summit provided an industry relevant approach with 51 industry specific speakers. The summit attracted over 330 decision makers across 15 countries and including exciting demonstrations at the World of Solutions showcasing the technology that brings autonomous vehicles to life, insights for a smart campus, asset monitoring and offline shopper analytics.

The Workplace Technology Transformation Summitoffered a dedicated full day event targeted at C-level Transformational Leaders to understand the trends and technology that aligns with workplace culture and workspace design to drive innovative workplace transformations. Customers included insights from the CIO of New Zealand Police and how they’re transforming the experience for police and citizens, and Transurban who led a virtual live tour of their office space in Melbourne via WebEx, a highlight of the day and the first of its kind. Days like these attract an audience beyond the technical experts that is typically seen at Cisco Live.

For the first time in the region, Small to Medium Businesses (SMBs) had a dedicated program at Cisco Live. The program showcased Cisco’s effort to support the small business community, through education, awareness and access to leaders in the industry. SMBs and partners had a dedicated space in the World of Solutions with the Small Business Hub featuring 17 Tech Talks. And, the Small Business Forum offered an afternoon event for SMB attendees to hear first-hand about Cisco’s vision and investment in the digital economy, bringing a new focus to Cisco Live.

Cisco Stand + World of Solutions

SMB Digital Maturity Index launched at the Small Business Hub

Cisco Live: for the C-Suite

In addition to Cisco’s customers and partners, dedicated programs for C-Suite executives are offered, including the VIP Program, Executive Symposium, IT Management, CIO and COO Roundtables.

IT Management Program

The IT Management Program provides an interactive educational experience that helps customers master their business and technology initiatives so they can lead their organisation successfully into the future and position themselves as extraordinary business leaders. The program targets Chief Information Officers, Digital Transformation Leaders, Heads of Business, IT Vice Presidents and Directors, and the IT Management level.

Participants were offered a two day interactive program at Cisco Live and also had access to the technical stream to attend deep dive sessions including the new Cisco on Cisco track,in which Cisco IT share how they have implemented our product solutions in our own environment, sharing best practices, learnings and even challenges. The team also pioneered the use of the Webex Board on the big stage, which has not been done before in any of the IT Management programs across the globe.

For the first time this year, attendees were offered a unique experience with a Melbourne Cricket Ground Tour, to see first-hand the innovative technology of this stadium and hear about a major transformation to digitise their operations.

The IT Management Program exceeded its registration target with 411 attendees.

Chief Information Officer, Cisco ANZ, Julie Canepa hosting the IT Management Program.

Cisco Live in the media: ‘first’ features

The Cisco Live Melbourne press program objective is to ensure the highlights and main headlines are featured in the media. Hosting 21 journalists from across Australia, New Zealand, Thailand, Malaysia, Hong Kong and China, they covered local announcements, keynote presentations, launched studies including the APJC CISO benchmark study, APCJ SMB Digital Maturity Index, technology demos, award ceremonies and also included 32 exclusive 1:1 interviews with Cisco global, regional and ANZ executives.

In Australia and New Zealand media, Cisco Live Melbourne was featured in 246 articles, broadcast features, newsletters and mentions on social media accounts of media outlets, sharing Cisco’s strategy and news.

The conversation in the media focused on Cisco’s innovation and commitment to building a digital future for Australia. This resulted in national media coverage in Sunrise with a story on how Australian technology is leading the way in world innovation to bring connected vehicles to life, highlighting Cisco as a leader in transport innovation to a large mainstream audience. An article published in Forbes also supported Cisco as a technology leader to a global business audience of 71 million, entitled ‘Cisco Waits for the World to Catch up to its Strategy’.

The majorityof tech and business coverage tied back to Cisco’s recent $61 Million investment, painting a holistic picture of Cisco’s role in supporting Australia’s digitisation transformation.

Partner Xperience

Cisco live offered a dedicated stream for its partner community, offering the biggest partner event to attend in the APJC region for partners.

Run over three days, the stream shared information dedicated to enabling partners to leverage Cisco services to accelerate their customers’ digital transformation.

The program included a keynote speech from Senior Vice President of the Global Partner Organisation, Oliver Tuszik, on thriving in the era of digital transformation. On the Tuesday, a deep dive into the ANZ Theatre Insights session featured an announcement on transforming SMB with NBN from Vice President, Cisco Australia and New Zealand, Ken Boal, and Chief Executive Officer of NBN, Stephen Rue.

The Partner of the Year Awards were also presented to the top performing partners for the year. Partners were selected for excellence across innovation, business growth, customer satisfaction and competitive differentiation, with the winners viewed here.

The first ever ANZ Innovation Challenge was announced for the partner community, offering a $250,000 USD winning prize for partners in Australia and New Zealand. The challenge is cross architecture and designed to drive an innovative solution to solve a business problem using Cisco programmable technology. Find out more here.

Partner Xperience had over 1,000 attendees from 18 countries including channel partners, distributors, marketing employees, ecosystem consultants and sponsors.

Cisco’s CSR focus

Cisco’s focus on supporting its local communities through corporate social responsibility was part of the action at Cisco Live, with multiple programs for attendees to learn from and participate in onsite.

St Kilda Mums, a charity based in Melbourne; sort, clean and redistribute donations of essential nursery equipment, clothing, books and toys for babies and school age children. Cisco Live offered a production line to help pack gift bundles or provide a donation for much needed items for babies and children. Over 100 gift bundles were prepared for babies and children in need at Cisco Live, and additionally more than $8,400* was donated to the charity.

Cisco worked to help raise awareness for Orange Sky, a charity that positively connects those in need through free laundry services, showers and conversation. The van, enabled by Cisco technology, collected donations while showcasing the technology, with over 200 washes donated, and an additional $8,200 raised for the charity.

As part of Cisco’s AUSTEM2020 commitment and close partnership with CSIRO, Cisco Live proved to be the perfect platform to continue to raise awareness for their mentoring program – STEM Professionals in Schools, a free volunteer program that facilitates flexible, ongoing partnerships between STEM professionals and teachers in schools around Australia. Over 100 attendees expressed interest in joining the volunteer program. You can find out more about the program, here.

Cisco’s Tactical Operations (TacOps) team, helps to provide access to communications when disaster strikes, as crippled communication systems can hinder relief efforts. The team can establish satellite-based communications so government agencies and humanitarian organisations can coordinate relief efforts and speed food, water, and medical care to those in need. The team were on site to share what they offer to communities in need, with over 500 attendees visiting the pop up, and many expressing interest in volunteering for the program. You can find out more about the program here.

Global problem solvers drives the next generation of entrepreneurs, enabling three college students and recent graduates to share a technology solution to a social or environmental problem. Following presentations during Cisco Live, attendees voted for their favourite solution, with the final winner announced on the final day of the conference. Jara received $20,000 to invest in building a technological solution!

Packages for St Kilda Mums, the Orange Sky Van, Cisco Tac Ops.

Jara winning the Global Problem Solvers Challenge.

Empowered Women’s Network Highlights

Cisco’s support in the Empowered Women’s Network targeted the theme of “Imagine your Possible.” The key aim was to connect and celebrate women in technology, at Cisco Live.

The Empowered Women’s Network included a keynote from Marita Cheng, CEO and Founder of aubot, sharing her inspiring story about how she helps people live better lives, through robotics. You can find out more here.

The inaugural Women in IT Awards followed the EWN, with over 70 award submissions from a diverse range of Cisco’s partners and customers. It was great to celebrate and promote the achievements of women making valuable contributions in IT. You can find out more about the winners here.

It was the most successful Empowered Women’s Network event, with over 420 attendees joining the program. Supporting diversity in the technology sector is a key focus for Cisco. You can find out more, here.

Further to this, the Cisco Women of Impact, a program devoted to the professional development of women was live streamed to thousands around the world from the Cisco Live Innovation Theatre. You can find out more, here.

Winners at the Women in IT Awards, Cisco Live

Education and Certifications

As with every Cisco Live, certifications were offered onsite. There was more than double the amount of Cisco certifications in Melbourne (last year there were 132 certifications, this year there were 292), and lots of opportunities to network with peers, including ‘Beers with Engineers’.

The Technical Education Program supported the community to upskill their knowledge, with 650+ sessions including the DevNet Zone, Innovation Talks, Partner Case Studies sessions, Think Tanks and Lab sessions.

The program provided over 510 hours of educational content delivered by 250 + speakers, in addition to the add-on programs.

The Gateway: Online Customer Advocacy Platform

The Gateway, an online customer advocacy platform, launched at Cisco Live with Miyuki Suzuki calling for customers to be a part of this exclusive customer community. Gateway is an online community that enables customers to share their experiences, connect with peers, and earn rewards. A booth in the World of Solutions supported the launch, signing up 810+ customers in two and a half days at Cisco Live – the fastest recruitment of customers worldwide. By the end of Cisco Liv, customers completed close to 2,500 challenges, which included creating case studies, video testimonials, submitting product reviews, and sharing on social media. A key element of the program is the gamification of the platform.

Thank you to our customers. See you at 2020.

The popular customer appreciation event was hosted again on the Thursday night, transporting everyone to enjoy the neon nightlife, with Hot Dub Time Machine taking everyone through the classics from the 50s until now. It was a true Cisco Live celebration!

Make sure you continue to amplify the content from Cisco Live Melbourne to your customers and partners – it’s all available, for free, on Cisco Live Online!

Missed out? The daily highlights videos are a great way to watch all the action from the week!

Every Cisco Live is bigger and better. See you in Melbourne for 2020.

*All dollar figures are in US Dollars

Originally Posted at: https://apjc.thecisconetwork.com/site/content/lang/en/id/10476