Learning, Friends and Social Networking at #CLUS

Cisco Live! has come to a close and I want my first Cisco Guest Blog post to be about my amazing week in Orlando. I am a Wireless Engineer based in St. Petersburg, Florida and I try to make it to Cisco Live! as often as possible (which has been every other year recently).

The Keynotes were great this year. I loved the Opening presentation by Cisco CEO John Chambers on the Internet of Everything but I think my favorite was the presentation by Dave Evans @DaveTheFuturist on the future of the IoE and how our world will keep connecting. The Closing Keynote with Sir Richard Branson was great. Check out the video of it and the other keynotes on Cisco Live 365! as well.

I also attended a Cisco ISE TECSEC-3671 Tech section on Sunday and it was filled with excellent information. If you are interested in ISE (Cisco Identity Service Engine) take a look at this two hour version of the class. You’ll need to register on the Cisco Live 365!, which is free. at Cisco Live 365! If you don’t know about ISE this PDF gives an excellent overview. In the course of the conference I had the chance to take some amazing sessions and the presenters are always leaders in their field so the Q&A is almost as good as the session.

All work and no play make for grumpy geeks though, so on Monday evening we all head for the World of Solutions opening reception. Food, snacks and drinks abound on the first night.

The mad dash for free swag is always fun to watch and to get caught up in, but the main reason we are there is to hang out with friends and visit vendors that can add value to our companies or make our jobs easier. Stat Seeker is always a good one, not just for the car giveaway, but for their presentation, the fantastic Aussie accents don’t hurt. The WOS runs throughout the conference.

In the past few years Social Media has become a huge part of Cisco Live! And this year was no exception. @CiscoLive is the person to follow on twitter starting in the winter all the way through CLUS they give us some scoop on the social networking scene, polls on the bands, backpacks, etc. and if you did not visit the Social Networking Hub you missed out. I spent every free minute there, met old friends, made new ones and had a ball watching videos being made and keeping track of the trends.

Cool tech is everywhere this week, the Virtual Mannequin at the Cisco Store was great I could watch her for quite a while; their selection was pretty amazing this year. @CiscoStore is another good one to follow.

The capper of the week is the Customer Appreciation Event. This year it was at Universal Studios as in years past. The vast majority of the park was open to us and everyone had a ball in their Minion hats. Free food and drinks kept the crowd going through this year’s musical act. It was so great seeing Journey, and getting access to the new rides. I loved Despicable me and Transformers!

Thanks so much for reading my very first blog post for Cisco. Please let me know your favorite memories from this year’s Cisco live in the comments below.