Collaboration at #CLUS, Day 2 Wrap: IT Superheroes in Flight

Tuesday was another day of talks, tech, and more tech for the 28,000 attendees in Las Vegas, not to mention the even larger online audiences. A stat I heard today: 11,000 of this year’s event attendees are first-time attendees. That’s a lot of new faces at the so-called “summer camp for nerds.”

In the morning technology keynote, Cisco execs Chris Dedicoat, David Goeckeler, and Rowan Trollope set the stage for more discussion into the technology behind the intuitive network — and some of the ways we’ll experience change going forward.

Technology Vision Keynote
Goeckeler started with a deeper dive into Cisco DNA in his opening section of the keynote. It’s a combination of intent, context, and learning – all secure. He brought up Sachin Gupta to explore more about Cisco DNA Center, the control center for the entire network, and TK Keanini to dig into the security side of things.

“For over 30 years, Cisco and many of you have been at the core of shaping the internet and unprecedented opportunity.”

Rowan Trollope

Trollope focused more on the impact of the evolving network and how it’s at the heart of the transformation to a new data economy. This new economy is a huge opportunity for every company in the world. The organizations that come out ahead will be those with the most the data – that can then analyze that data and connect it back to action for the business.

As much as we focus on the bits and bytes and elements of technology, Trollope reminded the audience that most people running businesses don’t care about the technology itself – they care about what the technology can do for them. Learn more about Cisco Jasper Control Center 7.0 and the new Cisco Kinetic, the IoT operations platform, in Rowan’s post “The Network for the Next Billion Devices: Cisco DNA Meets IoT.“

The mayor of Las Vegas joined Rowan on stage toward the close of his talk. I’ll just say that she definitely added an unexpected dimension to the keynote.

Catch the full Technology Vision Keynote on demand.
(Goeckeler starts at 14:22 and Trollope starts at 51:30)

In case you missed Monday’s session from Jens Meggers, “The 90s Called, They Want Their Workplace Back,” here’s the replay for you.

https://youtu.be/OrfdOh-T4Gk

Cisco Champions in full force
As part of my job, I’m fortunate to be the collaboration lead for the Cisco Champions program. The Cisco Champions are a group of dedicated technologists. Whether from an end customer or partner organization, they’re the people who “get their hands dirty” working with our products every day.

I was fortunate to be trusted with a live microphone to moderate a panel in the World of Solutions today. It wasn’t hard to do: Champions Scott McDermott, Jake Snyder, and Josh Warcop, discussed the pros and cons of generalization vs. specialization when it comes to tech careers. Trust me, these guys know their stuff and had the full attention of a standing-room audience. Bonus: they didn’t kick me off the stage.

Collaboration Partner Village
In addition to an eight-foot-tall stuffed bear, this campground themed area within World of Solutions is stuffed with companies that work with our collaboration products. A quick list of who is there to share: 2Ring America, Akkadian Labs, Altocloud, Approved Contact, Arcana Networks, Bucher + Suter, CallPlease, IntelePeer, Jive Communications, Kore.ai, Kurmi, Local Measure, NVT Phybridge, Pegasystems, PromptWorks, QWASI, Synergy SKY, Telstra, Upstream Works, Vyopta, WWT

What’s up for Wednesday?

10:30a PT: Security Keynote: Ensuring the security of data and communications is now a mission-critical priority that dictates broader strategy and investment decisions. Join Theresa Payton, Former White House CIO & Cybersecurity Authority on CBS’s ‘Hunted’, and John Stewart, Cisco’s SVP, Chief Security and Trust Officer.

Visit CiscoLive.com/us to view the full broadcast schedule and for more conference information.

Missed the Day 1 wrap? Say it ain’t so! Fear not, it’s right here: Collaboration at #CLUS, Day 1: Keynotes and Bears, Oh My