We recently had a very big day in the world of Cisco Spark. We announced enhancements to the base platform and interface, a new endpoint in the form of Cisco Spark Board, and more. In a development environment in which we’re constantly iterating and improving our products, it’s exciting when we have so much to say that we need to proclaim it from the mountaintop. (Or, in this case, a historic hilltop in San Francisco.)
In case you missed anything, or want to dig deeper, here’s an overview of “all the stuff about Cisco Spark” we released yesterday – from blog posts to videos and product information. And if you want to get a sense of what it was like to be there with us, watch the announcement replay to see Rowan Trollope dump a wheelbarrow of antiquated (as of yesterday) conference room equipment on the stage. Oh, and demonstrate the latest and greatest Cisco Spark enhancements and the Cisco Spark Board – including a quick musical ditty from a high school choir in Oklahoma.
The Blog Posts
Rowan Trollope on The Best Meeting Never Ends: Today, Cisco took a huge leap forward in fixing the meeting problem. We launched Cisco Spark Board and Cisco Spark Meetings new hardware and software that make in-person meetings more productive, allow high-quality face-to-face meetings to extend beyond the conference room, and let teams maintain close connections when they’re not “meeting.” Spark Board and Spark Meetings are affordable, too. Our aim is for teams to have better connections and for some of those 82 million who don’t like their jobs to like them a lot more.
Rowan is SVP and GM of Cisco’s IoT and Collaboration Technology Group
Jonathan Rosenberg on White Boarding in Cisco Spark: Always Yours, Always Live, Always Secure: When we started working on the Cisco Spark Board over a year ago, we looked at what makes a regular analog whiteboard so effective. One thing we identified is that anyone can use it. You can walk into any conference room, walk up to a whiteboard, and use it. The whiteboard is there, it’s easy to use, and easy to make your own. But recent digital whiteboard attempts by others have failed to meet the same standard for ease of use. We knew we had to do better.
Jonathan is a Cisco Fellow and VP, CTO for Cisco’s collaboration business
Jens Meggers on Continuous Collaboration: Continuous collaboration means enabling teams to innovate before, during, and after meetings. Collaboration isn’t a series of discrete, unconnected events (like meetings), or one-off conversations (like phone calls), or even string of discussions in email. You have to have one continuous, robust workstream. We designed Cisco Spark for continuous collaboration. We’ve brought together every aspect of collaboration that you could possibly want in a single, consistent, integrated experience that embraces continuous collaboration.
Jens is SVP and GM of the Cloud Collaboration Technology Group (CCTG)
OJ Winge on You Can’t Schedule Innovation: Innovation doesn’t just happen at “9 a.m. next Tuesday.” Ideas are unpredictable. And with fast-changing markets, CEOs are worried about keeping their organizations relevant. So many companies are disrupting markets that every company urgently needs both to create new ideas and get things done fast. Do is the new disrupt. But you need the right tools to speed innovation, inspire collaboration, and engage teams. We are excited to be launching a magical experience with our Cisco Spark apps, the Cisco Spark Board, and the Cisco Spark cloud platform. It’s an experience that I believe will truly change the way people meet.
OJ is SVP of the Collaboration Video Technology Group
Tormod Ree on How Cisco Spark Board Enables Create-and-Do: A few weeks ago I invited my team to a cabin in the mountains for a work project. This is how we get stuff done in Norway. I plugged in a Cisco Spark Board and we were off. The Cisco Spark Board was really the only tool we needed to get work done right there and to bring in remote team members. The Cisco Spark Board is a team tablet for your wall. Think about it as a physical extension of Cisco Spark into conference rooms and huddle spaces (and cabins). There’s a lot of advanced technology behind the scenes, but it works a lot like a personal tablet. Hardware, software, and apps in one tool that is second-nature to use.
Tormod is Senior Director and GM of the Cisco Spark Device Experiences group
Gary Wolfson provides prospective for partners in The Future Is Now: Since we set out on this journey – three years ago – to make revolutionary collaboration affordable and available to everyone, we’ve been working hard to prepare you for the cloud collaboration opportunity. This past November at Partner Summit, everything started to come together as we accelerated “full speed” to cloud with the announcement of Cisco Spark Flex Plan, that bridge to the cloud and recurring revenue. Now, all of the pieces are in place.
Gary heads the Global Collaboration Partner Organization
Overview, pricing, ordering, and download information for the Cisco Spark app and meeting, messaging, and calling services.
Product information, data sheets, and more for Cisco Spark Board.
Cisco Spark Media Event – Jan. 24, 2017
Getting Started with Cisco Spark
Experience the Cisco Spark Board
We are a start-up that has developed a patented product that can enhance collaboration by Cisco Spark users. We offer the ability to add interactive multi-layered HD content to a Cisco Spark Collaboration session.
The company and product are called Skreens (www.skreens.com)
How do we engage in the Skreens ecosystem?
Marty — Great question! I’d suggest you start at the Cisco Spark Depot (https://depot.ciscospark.com/). Not only does include current bots and integrations, but also links to development resources and ways to submit your own apps and integrations for review. Best of luck!
Great recap Kim.
Thanks Bridgettte! Much appreciated.