Next week I’m off to San Diego for Cisco Live US 2012. My previous experience with Cisco Live was definitely positive: It’s a whole world of networking fanatics and lots of ecosystem companies. Plus, last year included an amazing party hosted by yours truly (in disguise!)
Cisco Live is both a trade show and conference. Although there’s definitely a Cisco slant, it’s one of the key shows in the data networking space (along with Interop), so there’s a wide variety of companies present. You won’t find Cisco’s biggest competitors there, but you will see lots of variety, from storage to security, to servers.
That’s one of the things I like best about Cisco Live: The variety. As a storage-focused guy, I go to all the storage shows and see the same companies again and again. It’s so nice to get out of my little box and see how other parts of the datacenter work. That’s why the keynotes are interesting to me, too, regardless of whether or not they contain actual surprises to the CCIE’s in the room!
The networking folks are another reason to attend. They’re a rowdy bunch, whether they’re talking Ethernet switches, datacenter fabrics, wireless networking, or just about any other topic. And they really know their stuff! I learn more in a few minutes at a show like Cisco Live than in hours online.
Then there’s the “being there” aspect. You just can’t beat meeting in person, and sometimes some craziness can result. In Vegas last year, Jennifer Huber and I hosted a Casablanca-themed party at Paris (get it?), complete with period costumes. We decided we just couldn’t top that this year, though we did consider it!
Instead, I’ll be joining up with the Networking Tech Field Day delegates, No Strings Attached crew, and the Packet Pushers for lots of content creation:
- We’re recording a sequel to our Cisco Virtual Symposium on Tuesday, focused on the announcements sure to come at Cisco Live!
- Packet Pushers is recording a series of podcasts Tuesday and Wednesday
- As we prepare for Wireless Field Day 3, I’m hoping to get the No Strings Attached folks for some recordings too
- I’ll be roaming the halls with my portable recording rig for more ad-hoc videos – contact me if you’d like to be included!
Watch for lots of great content here at my blog, as well as on Twitter, Vimeo, Flickr, YouTube, and everywhere else I go!