Cisco Live Melbourne 2019
Attending Cisco Live Melbourne 2019 for the first time had been an eye-opening experience for me. I was particularly impressed with the quality of the event making the money spent worthwhile.
Rather than walking you though my day-to-day routine, I will break my experiences down into bite-sized sections covering the sights and sounds of Cisco Live Melbourne 2019.
Initial impressions
Even though this is my first Cisco Live, I do have some expectations partly because of what I have heard from my friends who have attended.
When I rocked up on the first day to attend a 10am Devnet Session, expecting a huge crowd, the exhibition ground was quiet with a small number of people walking around.
Initial impressions can be deceiving because on the second day the exhibition ground was filled with people waiting to get into the plenary for the Keynote speech.
Devnet, Breakout Sessions and Labs
The 3 main events that you can participate in are Devnet, Breakout and Labs; which unfortunately I wasn’t able to attend.
Devnet consists of both a technical talk and optional workshops which you can sign up for.
The Devnet session that I sat in was Coding 1002: Starting with Python covering enough stuff to get beginners started.
Before attending the breakout sessions, I was bracing myself for sales oriented presentations by the Sales team but to my surprise the breakout sessions were full on technical sessions presented by the Engineers/SMEs from the Australia and North America Business Unit themselves.
Here are photos of some of the breakout sessions that I have attended. As this is a pretty long post, I will include the breakout sessions that I have attended in a separate post.
World of Solutions
The World of Solutions is the centerpiece of Cisco Live where Cisco and their Cisco Partners/Sponsors have booths showcasing innovative products and services to attendees.
Besides wondering around World of Solutions marveling at the technological innovations set to disrupt our lives, scrumptious lunch and afternoon tea was also served there making it the place to go in between your schedule.
Keynote
The opening keynote by Irving Tan, SVP and Chief of Operations, talks about the new technologies that are currently disrupting the market and how Cisco can help customers capitalize on these disruptions.
While the technical keynote by Scott Harrell, SVP and General Manager of Enterprise Networking, identifies 4 key networking disruptors:
- Wireless
- Cloud
- IOT
- Network Programmability
He deep dives into each with Subject Matters Experts demonstrating how Cisco products can help customers capitalize on these disruptors to stay ahead of the competition.
There is also guest keynote speech but I will not touch on them as I fail to connect their topics to the entire theme of Cisco Live itself but don’t get me wrong, the stories related by the guest speakers were pretty interesting.
Customer Appreciation Event
Awesome party. Nuff’ said. Pictures will do the talking.
Final Thoughts
My first Cisco Live had been a fun and educational. I have also met alot of people in different networking role exchanging news on the latest developments in our respective industries.
If you are contemplating on attending Cisco Live, my advise to you is to GO! I know it’s alot of money involved but I can assure you that you will not be disappointed.