Cisco Live Europe 2018 – Day 5 #cleur

And so ends Cisco Live Europe 2018 … Day 5 has been and gone, and let me tell you … what a fantastic week!

The Best Bits

Can I put a finger onto the #1 best part of my time in Barcelona for Cisco Live? Those who know me might think the answer is the new Apple Watch 3 that I won on Day 2 … but actually, you’d be wrong.

20180201 - My New Apple Watch
20180201 – My New Apple Watch

The answer is, overwhelmingly, “the Networking Opportunities”!  Only in an industry event such as Cisco Live do you get the concentration of Subject Matter Experts and Senior Executives into a single location.  I’ve met other IBMers that I’ve worked with “virtually” for years, and I’ve been able to engage 1:1 with both  technical subject matter experts and executives alike.

Not All “Just” Work

The use of Virtual Reality continues to push out of the gaming platform into a “quasi-useful” state.  I saw it first on-stage at VMworld 2017 Europe, know of its use in the CCIE Lounge area, and I even managed to try it out on the concourse between buildings.  It continues to feel like we are moving towards a “Minority Report” era of role execution and even data analytics/management!

Of course, the was plenty of activities and themes throughout #CLEUR to keep everyone interested and engaged.  Gameifying the World of Solutions and other event areas was fun, and took you into the heard of the vendor stands … not an accident me thinks!

Social was front and centre with the Cisco CLEUR Social Media team at the centre of The Hub, was awesome to get to meet the team in-person.  It was a social media competition that won me my Apple Watch 🙂

Home Safely

You’ll note that my “Day 5” post is a little delayed.  After a busy morning on that last day with last-minute meetings and education sessions, it was straight to the airport for home.

20180202 - Home Time
20180202 – Home Time

The excitement of seeing the kids and having them pour through the swag I picked up was an awful lot of fun.  I spent the weekend spending time with the family, and catching up with friends, with a wee dose of work to keep me entertained late of an evening when the rest of the house was in bed.

20180202 - Swag
20180202 – Swag

Until Next Time

Thank you, and hope to see you next year Cisco 🙂