Collaboration Notes from Cisco Live: Monday Wrap-Up

The games have begun! It’s the official start to Cisco Live 2015 here in sunny San Diego. I started my morning with digital calisthenics to prepare my digits for the keyboarding ahead. And it was a good thing I did because there was plenty about which to tweet. If you’re looking for the collaboration perspective of goings on throughout the show, I’m here to provide it via Twitter (@ciscokima) and nightly wrap-ups of the day’s activities. Read on for: Opening Keynote with John Chambers, Captain of the New Guard, Collaboration in the World of Solutions, What’s Up for Tuesday?, and #MEOW.

Opening Keynote with John Chambers

Despite the fact that it outsized a football field — or a futbol pitch for that matter — the room was full long before Chambers ran on stage. Although it was his final keynote as CEO, he focused on the future and what organizations need to do to next. In ten years, it’s predicted that 40% of today’s enterprise companies will no longer exist. Chambers points to four reasons. Companies that fail:

Miss market transitions
Do the “right thing” for too long
Don’t reinvent themselves
Get too far from their customers

So what’s his advice? He provided plenty. Disrupt or be disrupted. Have the ability to make a change before the rest of the world knows it’s possible. Just because you won in the last information age doesn’t mean you’ll win in the digital age. (Honestly, it was a fiesta of tweetable and bloggable soundbites.)

In fact, while 87% of executives think going digital is crucial, only 7% actually have a digital strategy. And it’s about everything becoming digital. Next: 75% of businesses will become fully digital by 2020, but only 30% of those will succeed. But it wasn’t a Doomsday prediction. Chambers focused on what companies need to do to succeed. Innovate, reinvent. Transform. Execute and prioritize. Capitalize on the inflection points. Think exponentially.

It’s as much — or more — about culture and leadership as is it about technology.

On the technology side, it’s about the architectures more than individual products. Let’s take a collaboration perspective. That’s where we bring in the experience — every room, every desk, every pocket. The architecture lets you do what you need to do, when you need to do it, where you need to do it, on the device you want to use. It’s about integrating the products and bringing the technology together, but not because it looks good on a slide (and you know we love slides at Cisco). But because we’re creating experiences that let you focus on your interaction and collaboration and mission instead of the tools. Simplicity.

Captain of the New Guard

After a great demo with Jim Grubb and a cast of characters (played by one true character), Chambers brought Chuck Robbins on stage and basically interviewed him. So it wasn’t about a scripted presentation with slides and splash, but a conversation between two CEOs. Robbins talked a lot about moving quickly, simplifying what we do, operational excellence, and culture. “At my heart I’m a geek and I love technology, but we don’t create technology for technology’s sake.”

Collaboration in the World of Solutions

After the keynote, the World of Solutions opened to much fanfare, swag, and noise. The Collaboration booth was packed with people checking out our latest gear — all of which is supported by Collaboration System Release 11. As John Chambers talked about, it’s about the architecture vs. the individual products. Release 11 is a good example of how we’re applying that to our product portfolio. Also new to the portfolio: additions to the 8800 series IP phones — HD video, Intelligent Proximity, great pricing. The booth is a great place to check out the latest gear, ask questions, and get fingerprints on the DX Series touchscreens. Video you can see, hear, and touch…

If you haven’t yet, check out 13 Reasons to Check Out Collaboration at Cisco Live and 11 Reasons to Visit Collaboration in CLUS World of Solutions.

What’s Up for Tuesday?

10:30a Luminary Keynote: Dr. Peter Diamandis
Diamandis delivered one of the best keynotes I’ve ever attended, so I’m not going to miss this one — and neither should you. His bio is impressive, but impressive bios aren’t the stuff of good keynotes. It’s all about perspective, insight, and delivery. So, make time for this one if you can. Details about how to watch online.

Collaboration Presentations
Check out presentations from some of my CTG colleagues in Room 11a or 11b.
9:00 – 10:00 a.m. Cisco Mobile Collaboration Solutions
1:00 – 2:00 p.m. Providing a Total Customer Experience
4:00 – 5:00 p.m. How American Century Investments Improved Service without Increasing Contact Center Staff

#MEOW

And just to close out tonight’s post, a cat video. It had to happen eventually, right? Cats have discovered Cisco Collaboration. And they dig it. #meow

https://youtu.be/Tx6aG-Kj22M

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