0:00

I'm a sucker for lights

0:02

. I guess I'm

0:04

a simple man . Give me some lights and some things

0:06

that are twinkling and I'm like oh

0:09

.

0:10

Same Kev same . This is

0:12

the Art of Network Engineering podcast

0:14

.

0:22

In this podcast , we explore tools

0:24

technologies and talented people .

0:27

We aim to bring you information that will expand

0:29

your skill sets and toolbox and

0:31

share the stories of fellow network engineers

0:33

. Welcome

0:35

to the Art of Network Engineering

0:37

. I am Tim Bertino and I

0:39

am joined by Permit

0:41

IP Andy , andy , andy Laptev what's

0:44

up , my friend , hi Tim .

0:46

It's up , my friend . Hi

0:50

Tim . It's so cool to be here on a random Tuesday evening . We have some exciting

0:52

news and some exciting information , so we're here on an odd night .

0:54

How you doing , buddy ? I am living the dream , my friend

0:56

. Good to see you on a Tuesday , although I'm going to

0:58

wake up and think it's Friday . But that's fine , that's

1:00

fine .

1:07

I never know what day it is . My kid will ask me some like random question like daddy , what was the

1:09

moon phase when the sixers won their first championship ? I'm like , bro , I don't know what today is

1:11

I . I can't tell you anything about , like it's who you're dealing with I never know what day

1:13

it is for exactly , exactly , jinx

1:16

and we also

1:18

have adjacent node .

1:19

Kevin . What's happening , buddy ?

1:21

hey guys , how's it going's

1:24

going to be a fun episode .

1:25

And with that , let's talk about it . We are

1:27

hoping to give you some

1:29

tips and tricks this week for

1:32

attending Cisco Live . It is that

1:34

time of year to start preparing for it , so

1:36

let's jump right in . Andy

1:38

, I think you've got some news to share .

1:47

I do so . Why , in God's green earth , after 150 episodes , are we doing a how to

1:49

prep for Cisco live episode ? Um , the art of network engineering

1:51

. The show is uh , we are

1:53

attending Cisco live as a

1:55

team Um , unfortunately not all

1:57

the folks . But uh , right now we have

1:59

a handful of folks that are registered , have

2:01

their hotels , have their passes , and

2:04

I went in today and started to . I

2:06

think what might have kicked off this episode is

2:08

I bothered the hell out of you

2:10

people with a plethora of questions

2:13

what do I do and what

2:15

is the session and what can I get into ? And

2:18

, yeah , I'm kind of overwhelmed at

2:20

the sheer size , I guess , of the conference

2:22

and where to start and what's the best

2:24

way to you know , have the best experience

2:27

at Cisco Live . So I know that you

2:29

two have been to one , if not many

2:31

. So , yeah

2:33

, the art of network engineering will be at Cisco Live

2:35

. Super excited . I've never been to a live . I've

2:38

been in tech 15 years and love me some

2:40

Cisco and I've never been . So I'm really excited

2:42

to get there . But I'm hoping what we can

2:44

do in this show is run down the list of

2:46

best practices for lack of

2:48

a better term on how to have the best

2:51

Cisco live experience possible . So

2:53

I don't know where we want to start . I

2:55

mean , you guys have been there , have you did

2:57

you ? What are the mistakes you made

3:00

? Everybody says comfy shoes , right . I mean , I know we have

3:02

a format we're going to follow here , but what's the number

3:04

one tip before we get into our list

3:06

of things ?

3:07

So I will tell you that I made all the mistakes

3:09

the first time , all of them , and

3:11

I think the first mistake I made was really

3:14

not understanding the gravity of

3:16

the event the first time I went was in Gravity

3:18

, like the size , yeah .

3:19

Is that like , yeah , yeah .

3:20

First time I went was in 2017 and

3:22

I didn't get registered till late . It was kind

3:25

of a last minute thing that I was going

3:27

to get to go . So I didn't really prep

3:29

, didn't do a great job at looking at the sessions

3:31

and was just kind of like it's

3:33

a conference , what's the big deal ? And

3:35

when I got there , it's just if

3:37

you're not prepared for it , it's an

3:40

awesome event , but it can be overwhelming

3:42

. So I think my biggest

3:44

piece of advice is is

3:51

to just take some time , do a little research and and

3:53

uh , I won't say this much on this show , but listen to us

3:55

, we'll provide some advice . I think my biggest thing .

3:57

Kevin , I think my biggest thing was my first

3:59

year at least . I wanted to do everything . I

4:02

loaded my schedule up with back-to-back classes

4:04

, I

4:12

tried to attend every like social event and I was just running back and forth and it made it so I was

4:14

not enjoying it whatsoever , I was so stressed out . So like

4:16

my anxiety was up here because

4:18

I was trying to get everything done . And the

4:20

next years after I just kind of like I've slowly

4:22

peeled back each year where

4:25

I kind of I have a new strategy now

4:27

where I fill my schedule up and then maybe

4:29

go to a third of the classes or a third of the sessions

4:31

and just if I'm in a social

4:34

environment and I'm talking , I'm having fun , then

4:36

I just skip , I just don't go . There's

4:38

no , there's no downside . Everything is a pre-recorded

4:41

or everything is recorded afterwards and available

4:44

online . So if you miss a session that you're

4:46

really into , no problem , just relax .

4:47

I do think it's important that you said

4:50

to go ahead and schedule

4:52

your sessions to make sure you get in , because

4:54

once you're there it's

4:56

too late . I mean , they're

4:59

all pretty well full . This is a pretty popular

5:01

event I shouldn't say pretty . It's a very popular

5:03

event . The sessions fill up and

5:05

, like Kevin said , look

5:07

in ahead of time , schedule the ones that you

5:09

think are interesting that align to your

5:11

schedule . But I agree , I

5:14

don't think you necessarily have to live

5:16

by that schedule because there's so much going on

5:18

. And I'll say it right

5:20

away at the beginning of this To me

5:22

the biggest part of this event is that

5:24

it's a networking event . But people

5:27

networking is a big one . You

5:29

will meet a lot of cool people If

5:31

you're open to it . The world of solutions

5:34

, where kind of the main event is , is

5:37

just full of really cool people and

5:39

vendors and booths and that kind of stuff

5:41

. So you want to make sure you make time

5:43

to just kind of take it all in and

5:45

that means that you're probably

5:47

not in sessions every second of the day .

5:49

I'm so glad you said that , like I hear , like

5:51

what you're really saying is just be present for the experience

5:54

, right , and be , you know , there for the people

5:56

, just roll with it .

5:57

Just roll with it , Like whatever it takes you . If you're

5:59

, if you're feeling extremely social that day and

6:01

you've met some cool people and you're having a great

6:03

conversation , but you have a class coming up , you can

6:05

skip the class . You don't have to leave and

6:08

just try to run away . You can just relax

6:10

.

6:11

Your boss isn't listening , it's fine .

6:15

Well , I

6:17

would say that people I would hope my

6:20

boss or whomever's boss wouldn't send

6:22

people just for the classes , just for the

6:24

sessions . You

6:28

know , you get , honestly , you get more out of talking with people and networking with people and people

6:30

who are in the same industry , and tips and tricks they've learned and like , oh

6:32

, I had this problem with the switches . Like , oh , I had the

6:34

same problem and I learned this . You're like , oh , that's a really great

6:36

tip . Stuff like that happens when and that is more

6:39

valuable to me than learning about . You know , the newest

6:41

, latest , greatest Wi-Fi access point

6:43

is coming out soon . That kind of stuff .

6:45

Well , and to your point , Kevin , you

6:47

can still learn about that stuff , because all the sessions

6:50

are recorded and the presentations

6:52

, the PDFs or the PowerPoints

6:55

, go up on the Cisco Live site . And

6:57

I'll tell you , those are so good . Some of

6:59

the , to this day , some of the best technical

7:01

documentation I've ever come across has

7:04

been from Cisco live sessions . So

7:06

, yeah , that stuff's going to be there .

7:08

And being in person is is , I

7:10

mean it's it's better because you have the people

7:12

right there . You can , after the session's over

7:14

, there's always they linger around and

7:17

you can talk to them , ask questions , um

7:19

, and there's also a chat room that when

7:21

you , after your session's over in the WebEx

7:23

, you can ask questions and talk to people

7:26

who are in the same session as you and that kind of stuff , and bounce

7:28

things off , and so it is . It is beneficial

7:30

to do it in person , but I'm just saying don't , don't

7:32

stress , don't , don't kill yourself .

7:34

My favorite part of the live events we've done so far

7:36

are getting to meet the people

7:38

that I've quote unquote met you know

7:40

over the years on socials or in the podcast

7:43

, or man . To be in a room with somebody , give

7:45

somebody a hug , that you know , like it's just there's just really

7:47

something magical about , about

7:53

being together . So I'm I'm really looking forward to that and and to be present

7:55

. Like you said , kev , I'm kind of , you know , I like to over plan and over analyze

7:57

and like I'm going to have this , you know I am going to

7:59

create the perfect Cisco live experience for myself

8:01

. Right , I mean , I know this right . This

8:03

is why I've kind of been bothering you guys in the discord

8:06

like with all this insanity , and you

8:08

guys are probably like , yeah , bro , I get it it makes

8:10

sense now .

8:10

Yeah , it's going to be okay .

8:13

Take a deep breath and listen up . So I don't know if we want to

8:15

start a high level . I'm assuming anybody

8:18

listening to this knows what Cisco Live is

8:20

, but would it be helpful for like somebody brand

8:22

new or listening for the first time , Like what is

8:24

Cisco live ? Why should you care ? Why

8:26

are we excited ?

8:27

Yeah , I think there's a . At least when I was in

8:29

the business or first starting out in the business , I

8:32

thought Cisco live was just like a marketing thing , like

8:34

you go if and totally if you're not in like

8:36

a Cisco environment , something like that . It's just

8:38

it's . They're just selling you stuff . They have a

8:40

key point talking about all the technologies are coming out , sort

8:42

of like the apple keynote . You know . They

8:44

just kind of talk about new stuff coming out and

8:47

it's so much more than that . But at first I was like that's probably

8:49

all it is , I don't care about , I don't want to hear about , I

8:51

don't be sold to , for you know , three to four days

8:53

, that's not fun . But yeah , it's . Uh

8:55

, it's a lot more than that and it's I

8:58

don't know . I would describe it as a a

9:00

place where you can come together with a bunch of other

9:02

network engineers and networking people and

9:04

talk , shop and connect

9:06

and , as a side note , learn

9:08

about new technologies coming out and how to

9:11

better utilize the technologies that are currently

9:13

out there . Which would you guys say ? That's an accurate

9:15

description .

9:16

Absolutely , and it's really not just Cisco

9:18

. I mean , cisco puts it on , it's the Cisco

9:20

live conference , but we alluded

9:22

to the World Solutions , which is basically just

9:24

a huge multi-room area

9:27

that vendors have booths

9:29

so you can talk to any , any

9:32

number of different vendors , and learn about

9:34

different types of technology , not just

9:36

related to Cisco .

9:38

So can you talk to everyone if you

9:40

have like , if you're one of the poor people

9:42

with an Explorer pass , right

9:45

, because again , I tried

9:47

to . I'm getting ahead of our , ahead

9:50

of myself , but I tried to sign up for some sessions

9:52

and I could sign up for some and then I couldn't sign

9:54

up for others and I'm not . I think

9:56

there's a filter when you're searching . I was doing it on mobile

9:58

, don't do that . But I think there's a filter

10:00

where you can . So , like world of solutions

10:03

that the poor people are allowed to go to , right

10:05

Like , am I allowed to get there ? Am ?

10:06

I . I don't know how

10:08

to answer that without

10:11

sounding like an asshole , but I'm

10:13

just trying to be funny so

10:15

I have the explorer pass right .

10:16

It's way more affordable , it gets you in the door , but

10:19

I'm not exactly sure what the gate is on what

10:21

I can and can't do .

10:22

Well , you uh , you nailed it . It gets you in the

10:24

door , and that door includes the world of solutions

10:26

, so you can absolutely have the explorer

10:28

pass . You could spend the entire time

10:31

in the world of solutions and probably not

10:33

hit every vendor booth , not talk to every

10:35

person you want to talk to .

10:36

So the World of Solutions is where all

10:39

the vendors are right , that's that list of vendors

10:41

on there . Yeah , it's sponsored , okay , cool

10:43

. So

10:47

is the main restriction ? Just like breakout sessions or what are people paying

10:49

six times as much to

10:51

get access to ?

10:52

Yeah , it's the breakout sessions and

10:56

there's even another tier higher

10:58

than that that allows for , like some , some

11:00

labs and that kind of thing , some more okay

11:03

, some more in the weeds stuff . But yeah

11:05

, the I would say the big difference is the

11:08

being able to attend those sessions , those

11:10

breakout sessions and all that .

11:11

And you may not have an answer to this . I'm actually coming at you

11:13

now as if you're running the event , but like , can I ? Can

11:16

I schedule a ?

11:17

free exam for my employer .

11:21

I mean I even want to know , like , can I schedule an exam

11:23

Right ? Like I never got around to Encore and I'm like , oh

11:25

, I mean I spent years studying that stuff

11:27

. Like maybe I'll try to brush up and take Encore there

11:30

, but I'm not exactly sure if so

11:41

, these are some things I'm trying to navigate , which is how I was spinning earlier , like what can I do ? I don't know I can get in Steve

11:43

McNutt's but not Alexis . And like can I do a ? So I think I'm just in the crazy early stages of it's

11:45

so big . There's all this stuff I want to do . And then I realized the Explorer pass is kind of limiting

11:47

a little bit . But I got to tell you all the feedback I've

11:50

been getting on socials . And then our discord . Everybody's

11:52

like dude , the Explorer Pass is great , you'll be fine

11:54

, don't sweat it , it's not , you're not going to have

11:56

less of an experience , you know .

11:58

Yeah , I think it was our Cables

12:00

to Clouds buddies that were saying in our chat that

12:02

the biggest part of this that

12:04

they agreed was being able to network

12:06

with your peers , and the

12:08

Explorer Pass gets you all of that .

12:10

All right , so we might have touched on the next point

12:13

in our notes here Registering for Cisco

12:15

Live . What do on the next point in in our notes here , registering for Cisco live , what

12:17

do you need ? Pass levels ? Um , what I didn't know is when

12:19

you go to register for Cisco live and

12:21

get your pass , you

12:26

can get your hotels in there and they are way discounted , because I went and looked

12:28

before I booked the hotels through there and like they have incredible discounts If you book your

12:30

hotel at the same time with your , with your pass

12:32

. That seems to be the way to go .

12:34

Andy , I do want to go down the list real quick

12:36

and because I'm researching on

12:38

the fly it's , I'm a professional and

12:41

I want to tell you what the Explorer

12:43

pass will get you , Thank you , it

12:45

will get you access to the keynotes the

12:48

world of solution , the Cisco live

12:50

celebration . So that is the concert

12:52

on the one night .

12:54

That's surprising , actually .

12:55

Yeah , I didn didn't realize that . And who is

12:57

it , by the way ? Is it elton john ? Or did I dream ?

12:59

yes , oh my god I hope

13:02

he plays rocket man , sir elton that

13:05

is your jam .

13:06

Um , and it does you're yours you

13:08

did the you remember I , she

13:11

packed my bag I

13:14

do remember that I might still

13:16

have that feather boa somewhere oh

13:18

, bring it please .

13:19

I'm gonna bring a tim bertino dressed up

13:21

as elton john sign and hold

13:23

it up at the concert .

13:26

Sorry , so this was one , I think kevin

13:28

uh brought this up in the last week or so . I

13:30

didn't realize this , but you do . There are

13:32

, uh , breakfasts and lunch that

13:34

are there , and the explorer pass does get you access

13:36

to that , so you do get access to the meals that are theres and lunch that are there , and the Explorer Pass does get you access to that , so you do get access

13:39

to the meals that are there , and , obviously

13:41

, the Cisco on demand library . So , andy

13:43

, I hate to break it to you , the complimentary

13:45

exam is not part of that , right

13:47

, which is fine . But let's , let's dig in

13:50

a little more to the registration . You touched

13:52

on it , andy . If you go through the registration process

13:54

, kevin , you've done

13:56

it recently , so maybe at the time

13:58

of this recording there's because

14:00

we're getting closer to Cisco Live . At this

14:03

time we're towards the end of April there

14:05

may not be as many hotel

14:07

blocks still available , but that was

14:09

one thing that I remember when I registered last

14:11

year is that the process

14:14

was just so easy . You could do everything from

14:16

the Cisco live site as far as

14:18

booking the conference and the

14:20

lodging , and you really just had to do flight

14:23

or whatever . Your travel was on

14:25

your own , but everything else was there in the registration

14:28

. I mean , they've had many years to practice this

14:30

and really have it figured out .

14:32

And I have to tell you the email that they sent . So

14:34

I just registered today and then

14:36

I my kids were off so I haven't had any

14:39

time . So thank you for doing the research

14:41

for me , tim , that I should have done myself . But

14:43

, um , the welcome emails they sent

14:45

were were really really good . You know , check

14:47

your attendee dashboard to look at your hotel

14:49

stuff and then they give you a link to the session catalog

14:52

and , um , you know , there's a link for labs

14:54

and seminars , so it's , I feel like

14:56

the communication has been really good so far . Again , I'm

14:58

, like you know , eight hours in since registering

15:00

, but , um , it

15:02

seems like there's a lot of information that did

15:05

they send out um ?

15:06

so they also have a blogging

15:09

um thing where they have past

15:11

. People who attended have written blogs

15:13

about you know what to expect your first cisco

15:16

live and all that of stuff . Do they send out links to those when you

15:18

registered ?

15:19

I got to look . It's been a day , but

15:21

I did see something on LinkedIn . Somebody

15:24

posted a really great , like you know , cisco

15:26

live 2024 for noobs Like

15:28

here's . You know everything you want to know

15:30

. Yeah , I think on the .

15:31

Cisco website , at least on the Cisco lab website , there's

15:33

a list of a bunch of blogs

15:35

that have been written . I wrote

15:37

one last year so check mine

15:39

out . But about

15:42

what to expect and the

15:44

basics of the conference .

15:45

I'll find that link and we'll put it in the show

15:47

notes for people to get . I think that would be really helpful for

15:49

me as well as , I guess , anybody who's

15:51

never been there before .

15:58

Yeah , and something else communication-wise is there is a Cisco live

16:00

app , um , that is really helpful . It's got you

16:02

know . Some of the highlights for me are a

16:05

map of the area , so it'll show

16:07

you where everything's at , I believe even down to

16:09

the point , um where world

16:11

of solutions . It'll show you where each

16:13

of the vendors is at , which is really cool

16:15

If you've got .

16:16

hey , I really want to go talk to XYZ

16:18

.

16:18

You know easily where to go because

16:20

you can wander around there for 10 minutes

16:23

and get lost and not get all the

16:25

way around it . So

16:28

the app's really good for that . It

16:31

also gives you access to the

16:33

session materials if you go into the sessions

16:35

the stuff that you need , so

16:37

it's it's a really helpful app .

16:39

Yeah , I did download that today and I think that came

16:41

through one of those emails , Tim . So there's been really

16:43

good communication so far and , yeah , one

16:46

of them was the app which I don't think it becomes

16:48

active until a couple

16:50

of weeks before the event .

16:51

But OK , so we've talked about scheduling

16:54

sessions . Let's get into

16:56

Kevin . What

16:58

are your tips for the day before you leave ? You're

17:00

packing your bags , you're getting ready

17:03

to go . I got to know what

17:05

goes in Kevin's bags , so

17:07

this might be TMI .

17:09

That didn't sit , nevermind Sorry . Before

17:11

we get super uncomfortable , how detailed do you want

17:13

to get , tim ? Yeah , this could be .

17:15

We should put guardrails on this . There may be children listening

17:17

Right before we jump into Kevin's bag , tim , like

17:19

can you give me a high level ? Like

17:22

, what are the sessions ? Are

17:24

they just anything Like

17:26

? I saw McNotts , it was some kind of like DevNet

17:28

thing and I mean , is it just ? Are they technical

17:30

?

17:30

I know , alexis is doing one on .

17:32

I think like branding and like what are

17:34

the sessions right ? What's expected

17:36

? Everything .

17:38

No , but there are all different kinds . Yeah

17:40

, it's experts in their fields and

17:43

like technical sessions . I

17:50

believe , kevin , you can correct me , but I believe , if memory serves me right , that

17:52

when you're going to book your sessions , it also gives

17:54

you like a I'm not going to say this right but like a difficulty level

17:56

. Not difficulty level , but kind of a what's a I'm not going to say this right but like a , a difficulty level . Not difficulty

17:58

level , but kind of a what's the word

18:00

I'm looking for ?

18:01

They know . You're there , um , it's

18:04

graded like a college course where

18:06

you'll have classes that are sessions

18:08

. I keep calling them classes . I'm , I'm came , I'm coming from

18:10

the university before this , um , um

18:13

, sessions that are like , uh

18:15

, labeled at one , 112

18:17

or something like that , and that's a lower level session

18:19

that you don't need to be as experienced

18:22

to understand what they're talking about and

18:25

you have 200 level and 300 level and 300 are

18:27

like the expert layer

18:30

kind of more previous

18:32

knowledge required , so

18:35

that's kind of the judge or the guide

18:37

you can go on and they actually have a experience

18:39

level . I think it's like beginner , intermediate , expert

18:42

kind of thing , labeled on each class

18:44

or session . I'm

18:46

not going to stop doing that , just know that when I say class

18:48

, I mean session .

18:50

That's really helpful and smart , though , right , you don't want to wind

18:52

up a beginner in a 300 level and you're like what ?

18:54

am I doing here ? Yeah , I know want to wind up a beginner in a 300 level and

18:56

you're like what am I doing here ?

18:57

yeah , I know exactly , yeah , and and I want to walk . I was , I was being funny

18:59

earlier . Right , I want to walk back my whole like boohoo explorer

19:01

, because I'm looking at the sessions now so there's 1310

19:04

sessions total and with

19:06

explorer you get 505

19:08

, like access to 500 sessions . So

19:11

that's more than enough to keep

19:13

me busy . So not to poo-poo the

19:15

explorer , I was just trying

19:18

to make a little joke .

19:19

Well , and there are a fair amount of

19:21

I don't know . Yeah , I think

19:23

there are . They do call them sessions in the

19:25

world of solutions . That will happen throughout

19:28

the day too . I know

19:30

, yeah , last year John

19:33

Capobianco , he did sessions

19:35

. I believe in the World of Solutions area

19:38

.

19:39

I'm warning John now . When I see him

19:41

, I'm giving him a bear hug .

19:44

He's going to hit you before you hit him .

19:48

Well , this is why I'm going to surprise him , because

19:51

I know if he sees me coming , it's over . John

19:54

, I'm coming for you . I want a hug .

19:58

There's also in the World of solutions just capture the flag and there's some

20:00

like games that you can play . That

20:02

will just suck up your time , if you , if you're really into it

20:04

, um , so I mean , you will stay

20:06

busy the entire time and I'm afraid

20:09

I'm gonna miss something , you know , that's why I'm trying

20:11

to over plan , because I'm like , oh man

20:13

, what ?

20:13

like , what are the ? What are the definite things

20:15

you should do ? I guess it depends on the person . You just need

20:17

to accept it . Yeah , yeah , right , right

20:19

, you just have to go back again .

20:21

Yes , you've got to get logged in

20:24

on all of the socials with the A1

20:26

account and you've got to get us on the big board

20:28

, the social hub

20:30

big board that's .

20:31

AJ's problem .

20:33

We've got to get it . He

20:40

was on it last year . He wasn't even there , he did . I kept walking around

20:42

the world of solutions I saw aj's face on the screen like the entire .

20:44

So aj's been telling me how great of a job and what a big deal . The

20:46

whole social experience is there

20:48

. So what ? What is that board you refer to

20:50

and like ? Is that an engagement thing like

20:52

?

20:52

yeah , 100 , whoever .

20:54

Whoever tweets the hashtag the most gets

20:56

a lanyard they

20:58

take it so seriously , andy

21:00

.

21:01

In the social media hub they have

21:03

a long table of

21:05

people that are live

21:07

tweeting things as they happen . If you

21:10

tweet something with that hashtag , somebody

21:13

will most likely respond to you and

21:16

call somebody out or just say , hey

21:18

, thanks for the shout out .

21:19

Whatever I mean , they are dedicated to

21:21

this being a social event is

21:24

the reason why I have twitter , like it's my

21:27

first cisco live .

21:28

I didn't know , and it was cisco live

21:30

.

21:30

That was like everyone's on twitter . There's twitter

21:32

stuff everywhere , so I gotta join and that

21:35

is awesome didn't make it to the board . It is really hard

21:37

to make it on the board . People are just on there

21:39

just going on .

21:40

That's the thing , kev . I'd rather be present and

21:43

give my time and attention to the people around me

21:45

. I don't want to be . I don't want this

21:47

to be my Cisco live experience , right , like

21:49

I really don't . So I don't think

21:51

I'll be on the leaderboard , but I'm sure aj , aj

21:54

, aj has it . Does tom still do dom's corner

21:56

? What's tom's corner ? And is

21:58

he going to be around ? Because that's like a thing , right

22:00

? Yeah ?

22:01

I , I , I'm not sure

22:03

. I I'm sure he will still

22:05

have an area um . I

22:07

didn't see him a ton last year

22:09

because they do the , the

22:12

, they essentially do tech field day while they're

22:14

out there .

22:15

Oh gotcha .

22:16

And have their area where they do

22:18

that . But yes , I did get to see him and

22:20

talk to him . So , yeah , you do need to seek him

22:22

out , okay .

22:23

He's usually there for the tweet ups , like the

22:25

initial tweet up and the final tweet

22:27

up , or whatever the tweet goodbye

22:30

. I don't know what it's called .

22:31

Are you saying tweet up and not meet ?

22:32

up .

22:33

X up .

22:38

X up sounds terrible . X up , tim . You stop with the X , all right , so let's

22:40

jump back into Kevin's bag . I'm sorry to divert us , but

22:42

I just wanted to get some clarity on sessions . So

22:44

, kev , what's in your bag , bro ?

22:45

So it depends on where it's located

22:47

.

22:48

So this year it's at Vegas .

22:50

It's in Vegas , so

22:53

there'll be lots of underwear , the the

22:55

humidity and the heat . I'm not , I'm

22:57

a florida boy , man , I , I , I'm used to

22:59

wait . There's no humidity in

23:02

vegas right , it's dry , there's no humidity . It's

23:04

like I'm used to swimming when

23:07

I walk around like it's . I live in a swamp

23:09

, um . So chapstick , definitely

23:11

, um , and lots of underwear

23:13

because dang um

23:15

, that's only if you go outside , though honestly you could . You

23:18

could be in the conference and on

23:20

the strip and never leave a hotel or

23:22

casino like it's . It's one of those things where you

23:24

don't have to see the outside if you don't want to , okay

23:26

are we bringing gym clothes ?

23:27

are we gonna get pumped up ?

23:29

you know , every year , every single year

23:31

, I bring gym clothes and I think I'm gonna , before

23:33

breakfast , I I'm going to wake up early , get

23:35

the gym , get the day started , right

23:38

. You know , and I've never gone to a gym

23:40

there . I just I'm so

23:42

exhausted and usually the nights are late

23:44

because I'm socializing , hanging out with a nightcap

23:46

or whatever . At the hotel bar I

23:49

just meet someone , we're talking , time gets away from

23:51

me and it's like two o'clock in the morning . All of a sudden

23:53

. There's no way I'm waking up at six o'clock

23:55

in the morning to go to gym well , that's why I'm asking .

23:57

I'm going to bring stuff so I can run there , but I'm pretty

23:59

sure I'm going to be so tired by the end of the day

24:01

. It's not gonna happen .

24:02

So draining , like we don't really do anything . I feel like you

24:05

do a lot of walking um and it's a lot

24:07

of sessions and talking and socializing , but

24:09

I feel exhausted after every

24:11

day and you .

24:12

You brought up like exercising , and

24:14

just being at the event is an

24:16

exercise in and of itself , because you're moving

24:18

around so much , and Daniel

24:20

Pelfrey called it out in the chat a little bit ago that

24:23

, like the first time he went , he

24:25

felt dehydrated . So that's , that's

24:27

a big thing .

24:28

I mean , take your own just plastic

24:31

bottle of water , and they have

24:33

stations everywhere to

24:35

refill and take care of yourself

24:37

, tim not that you asked me , but something

24:40

I pack when I go out west is like

24:42

a mini humidifier

24:44

for , like my hotel room , because a

24:46

couple of times in Cali my sinuses

24:48

and the dry air and like it really

24:51

jacks me up they make those things , andy

24:53

, I'm not trying to be

24:55

a , but I'm not trying to be a butthead , but that is

24:57

.

24:57

Nobody has ever told me that in my life .

25:01

Leave it to Andy . Well , a man who

25:03

suffers sinus problems , who goes to a

25:05

dry place like Vegas , I need

25:07

to moisturize my own

25:10

.

25:10

I'm adding it to my Amazon account right now .

25:13

I'm telling you . So mini humidifier

25:16

in underpants Got it ?

25:19

The essentials .

25:20

So how redressing ? I guess it's just

25:22

a bunch of nerds and like jeans , bad

25:24

sneakers and golf shirts or polos . Is

25:26

that basically this ? I

25:28

have a I bought . I bought

25:30

a um , what are they called ? Like a sport coat , for

25:33

the last thing we did for a

25:35

one . It's still in the plastic . I never

25:37

wore it . So now it's a conference and I'm like , oh

25:39

, I'm gonna wear a sport coat . I see jason ghouli in a sport

25:41

coat . I'm probably not . So my question

25:44

is like how are we dressing ? It's dressed

25:46

for comfort , right , because it's just a lot of walking

25:48

and yeah it's going to be comfortable , right , it

25:50

varies so greatly .

25:51

You'll see people in flip-flops and a t-shirt and shorts and

25:53

you'll see people in like work clothes , um

25:55

, dress shirt and slacks . Uh , it's

25:57

no matter what , you'll fit in , um

26:00

. I do say that , like last year was my

26:02

first year that I actually wore fancy clothes

26:04

or work type clothes , because

26:07

I would go out at night after the conference

26:09

and rub elbows with people who were

26:11

you know , I felt like I had to dress

26:13

up , for whether I actually did or

26:15

not , I I don't know , but hold on hold on , we're

26:17

going to dig into this .

26:18

Who are the people that you were trying to impress ?

26:20

I'm not name dropping now but , um

26:22

, chuck Robbins , no , not that big

26:24

, not that big , I'm a peon man . I'm

26:26

a peon , no , um , but

26:28

just just , I don't know . I felt like I should

26:30

dress up and I will say it came in handy . I bring

26:33

, at least in my opinion , a couple of nice pairs

26:35

of clothes . That way , if you do go after

26:37

the conference , you can go to a bar , and

26:39

if you do get , you know , a chance

26:41

to talk to someone or have a an event or

26:43

be on the Cisco live , uh , social media

26:46

team . they have a lot of cameras and interviews

26:48

and that kind of stuff . You never know you might , might end up . So

26:50

I , I at least bring one , at

26:52

least bring some a collared shirt and some slacks

26:54

. My opinion .

26:55

I'd love to see you in the jacket , but that's just me .

26:58

In just the jacket Whoa , it's Vegas

27:02

, it's Vegas . So .

27:04

I'm comfortable at the conference . Do I have

27:06

time to walk 300

27:08

miles to my hotel room ? Get dressed for like

27:10

the fancy stuff . Where's your hotel ? Which

27:13

one ?

27:13

Yeah , it depends , or do you not want to

27:15

say this ?

27:16

live on you .

27:16

I think it's called the Suck . What's the room number ? I

27:19

think somebody referred to it as

27:21

the Sucksore oh . Luxor , yeah

27:24

, honestly , I didn't say that , sam , I've never

27:26

been there .

27:27

I have never had a problem with Luxor I stayed there last

27:29

year .

27:29

I stayed there last year . It was fantastic , it was

27:32

great .

27:33

No crickets , no , it was close enough

27:35

where I could walk and not

27:37

have to run or hurry or be late

27:39

or anything . And

27:42

honestly it's closer to the restaurants , like in between Mandalay Bay

27:44

and Luxor . There's like a strip mall kind of

27:46

looking area .

27:48

Yeah , that's a good point , and it has a bunch of bars , a bunch of restaurants

27:50

, a lot of good places and that's where everyone ended

27:52

up after the conference to have a drink or whatever .

27:54

So I was right there .

28:04

And afterwards I could stumble back to my room . It's perfect . So , andy , are you in the tower , part of

28:06

luxor , or the pyramid ? And the reason I ask is , if you're in the pyramid , you got to be prepared for

28:08

the elevator because it does go at an angle once you get to like past the second floor yeah

28:10

, bring headphones if you , if you're in the pyramid or

28:13

um earplugs pyramid yeah

28:15

, so you get the cool elevator if you're above the

28:17

second floor . It's a sideways

28:20

elevator , so it starts up , and then the

28:22

second floor . It angles with the pyramid .

28:24

It's not bad , it's not a lot .

28:27

But you're also closer to the casino floor , you're

28:30

like right outside the thing , so you

28:32

can hear like the ching , ching , ching , ching , ching , ching . Sometimes .

28:34

Oh great .

28:41

Dude hey , it's fine , it's fine you're the , the gentle drone of your humidifier will take

28:43

care of that noise .

28:44

The white noise , I like it oh , I

28:46

should also mention I have a white noise thing

28:48

app on my phone that I also use to sleep

28:51

, but I use brown noise .

28:52

Kevin of course but I use .

28:54

But I use brown noise because it's a lower

28:56

frequency what is brown noise ?

28:58

that sounds it's a lower frequent oh tom I noise that sounds it's a lower frequent

29:00

.

29:03

I make brown noise every night . We're talking about oh

29:10

boy all right , I do like brown noise more than white

29:12

noise . It's deeper . Oh , after you bust on

29:14

it now you're coming around , but tim

29:18

, check out the brown noise , it's really good .

29:21

Is that ?

29:22

a band . It would be a good band name , though it's nice so

29:24

we got through the packing .

29:26

Any other packing tips ? Dress for comfort

29:28

, very comfortable sneakers , I hear . Make sure

29:30

you're hydrated .

29:32

I'm going to bring my jacket for Tim . Have

29:35

plenty of room . Do

29:37

not pack bags

29:39

too tightly because there is so much

29:41

swag and you don't

29:43

have to come home with any of it , but sometimes there's there's

29:45

some pretty cool stuff there , so it's always

29:48

good to leave room in in

29:50

any luggage you take for stuff that you'll

29:52

bring home , because if you want to , you

29:54

can bring home a lot .

29:56

And you will get a free backpack . So with

29:58

a laptop , you know , get a free backpack . So with a laptop , you know , laptop backpack

30:01

and stuff . So I've stopped bringing mine

30:03

and I just have my laptop

30:05

on a carry-on like a little sleeve and

30:07

then use the one at the conference I'm glad

30:09

you mentioned that .

30:10

I was wondering like do people walk around ? So

30:12

I'm guessing I'm gonna need a battery pack or two

30:14

, because my phone's gonna be getting slammed

30:16

the whole time and it's a long day yep

30:18

, that's a good idea .

30:19

So do people walk around with ?

30:20

backpacks .

30:21

Yeah , I always did the cisco

30:23

live backpack and I was going to say pack

30:25

something that you can attach to your bag to

30:28

market as yours , like , uh , something

30:31

simple like a ribbon or a keychain or something like

30:33

that , so that , because you will see the same backpack

30:35

, yeah , everyone has the exact same backpack and they're

30:37

all to see if people to same backpack . So

30:40

if you put your bag down and look away and come

30:42

back , there's like six backpacks . Now

30:44

I'll look the same .

30:45

So get the the Dan Richards

30:47

howdy packet face sticker and

30:50

just put like 15 of them on your back .

30:53

I'm either going to hang a screaming goat for mine or maybe

30:55

my Tim Ross little bobblehead

30:57

. I got that'll

31:01

be . Uh , all right , so I think our next bullet

31:03

item is arriving .

31:04

I'm not exactly sure . Uh , that's , that's the easy part if

31:07

you get there . If you

31:09

get there , you won yeah , you

31:11

land if you're , if you're flying , getting a uber

31:14

or a taxi , and get to your hotel and check

31:16

in .

31:17

Thanks for that insightful bullet point .

31:18

AJ .

31:26

Well , I'll be getting there late Sunday night because my son has a soccer tournament and

31:28

I'm going to try to stay for as much of it as I can

31:30

.

31:31

I guess on Sunday there's some stuff

31:33

, maybe there's the add-on labs

31:35

, if you pay for extra

31:37

labs and you can check in starting Sundayay

31:40

. So if you do get , you know , if you

31:42

land early sunday day before

31:44

you can check in , get everything sorted , get your backpack

31:46

, get your pass , all that stuff , so that you can check

31:48

into the conference yeah , yeah , okay

31:50

, you can't get into anything , nothing's open yet but

31:52

at least you can get your pass and all that stuff . So that so

31:55

on monday morning you're not waiting in line

31:57

and having to do that kind of stuff . You can go right

31:59

to breakfast .

32:01

You can kind of chill out a little bit and if you do get there earlier on Sundays

32:03

I know I'm sure we

32:06

have some listeners here that are part of the

32:08

Cisco champion program they usually

32:10

have stuff that Sunday in

32:12

the afternoon , just kind of meetups and

32:14

stuff . Kevin , I know you're Cisco champion .

32:16

I'm a new champion , so I don't know anything , but that's good

32:18

to know you get a ribbon .

32:19

You know the , the ribbons on the , on

32:22

the uh name tags . There is

32:24

a cisco champion ribbon .

32:25

You get one of those and speaking of ribbons , do we

32:27

want to say that we're , we're , we will be giving

32:29

away ribbons as well , do it ?

32:31

oh yeah , already just do it , you did it . What's

32:33

what's the thing ?

32:35

I think there's some giveaways we're doing , but I forget

32:37

what it is there's two ribbons there's some giveaways

32:39

that we're doing , but I forget what it is . There's two ribbons there's an art

32:41

and engineering ribbon and then there's the . It's always

32:43

part of the journey Discord ribbon

32:46

I think we might .

32:47

What was the name of that ? Discord again man ?

32:49

the acronym is so long yeah it's like

32:52

six letters . I came to the acronym .

32:55

It's all about the journey .

32:56

I think there are some cables

32:59

to clouds ones being made as well , oh nice

33:01

.

33:01

Yeah , and what are they ? The ribbons that you put on your

33:03

name . Tag your

33:05

.

33:05

ID , yeah , and some

33:08

people have . It's like every CCIE

33:10

. You know , for each CCIE you get a thing on there

33:12

. If you're a net vet status or whatever you get , there's

33:15

people walking around with like 10 or 15 ribbons

33:17

and then you're like

33:19

Whoa , that guy's important .

33:21

That guy's a cool guy . I look at my one

33:23

, my one , my participation

33:25

ribbon for showing up Ribbon envy .

33:27

Yeah , I'd have to find it somewhere , but I thought

33:29

AJ posted something about if we

33:31

see you wearing Art of Net

33:33

End swag at the conference

33:36

, you get entered to win something

33:38

. I don't know if we're doing like prize packs or something

33:40

. I gotta try to find it yeah , I know we're doing

33:42

some type of giveaways .

33:43

I just don't remember what it is I don't want to say anything

33:45

officially , so I'm not going to say anything , but I

33:47

just did . Well , you didn't get the

33:49

details .

33:50

I had the , I think that was good I'm not going

33:53

to say it yeah oh , you know the details

33:55

, but you're withholding them . Is that what you're saying ?

33:57

I don't I want to , after I just ruined the ribbon thing

33:59

, so now I can't hang on , hang on it's

34:01

gonna be .

34:02

It's . It's gonna be bigger

34:04

than a paper clip and smaller than

34:06

a porsche is what

34:09

kevin's alluding to .

34:10

Yeah , exactly , you could just tell us , because I'm scrolling

34:12

our twitter now trying to find aj's announcement

34:15

.

34:15

I don't know if you put it on twitter . Yeah , I don't all right

34:17

, I think it's just in our little private chat .

34:19

Oh , I gotcha Okay , so I've just broke NDA

34:21

A1 NDA .

34:22

My bad AJ is

34:24

always pissed at us anyway , so it's fine .

34:28

All right , so the conference . Do

34:30

we want to jump into that , Tim ? Yeah

34:33

.

34:34

Something else that Daniel just posted in

34:36

there too , just kind of a housekeeping item . So

34:42

the badge that you have they give you a lanyard , they give you a name

34:44

tag , it's the badge that you carry that needs to be present on

34:47

you , and if you do lose it there

34:49

is a fee to replace it . So

34:51

guard it . Thanks for that , Daniel . Appreciate

34:54

it . What just happened ? It's like a smart license .

34:58

I was wondering why you're laughing . I was waiting for it .

35:00

Sorry , yes , so the conference

35:02

.

35:02

Yeah , I think that's an overarching subject

35:05

that we just We've been in . We'll come back to it . Bullet item

35:07

from AJ yeah , Sorry , aj .

35:09

Well , so , okay , there's sessions

35:11

that we talked about . You can learn stuff . There's all these people

35:14

you can meet and hang out with

35:16

and make connections with . There's

35:18

a world of solutions , which are all the cool

35:20

vendors that are there with tables , and you can learn

35:23

all about the cool stuff that's happening this

35:25

year . Ai , I

35:28

guess . There's food . There's breakfast and lunch , which is pretty sweet

35:30

, and there's entertainment , right , I guess ? When's the show

35:32

? Is that Wednesday , like the last day ?

35:34

the big shit is at the end

35:36

basically Wednesday night and then Thursday there's

35:38

still . There's still sessions . So

35:41

tip there don't schedule an 8 am session

35:43

on Thursday if you're going to the event

35:45

, because you will not want to wake up for that my

35:48

apologies if you are hosting

35:50

and leading . Yeah , in session they

35:52

they have to know that it's

35:54

it's a bad time slot . They

35:56

have to know and I , a lot of people

35:58

don't go to the things if you're not a huge

36:01

Elton John fan or if you're just not a late

36:03

night person . There's a lot of people there . I got COVID

36:05

one year from the customer appreciation event , so

36:08

there are people who don't go . I know there are people who

36:10

also , under black

36:12

market , sell their passes . So

36:16

I mean , if you can make a buck Andy you're good .

36:24

Going to eBay , right ? So I mean , if you can make a buck going , to ebay right now .

36:25

You had my interest , now you have my . So that's the customer appreciation event . Kev the

36:27

big party at the end . That's the thing , okay

36:29

free food um free

36:32

beer and wine , that kind of stuff .

36:33

Um , oh yeah , it's . It's

36:36

like it's in a stadium , so there's a bunch of stadium

36:38

food . There's also like some pretty decent food , some

36:40

good areas to sit . Uh , up top , all

36:42

the box seats are open . Um , they're

36:44

not like you walk in . Last year I sat in the box

36:46

for a little while and I was like , oh , these must be , you know , guarded

36:49

, or you know , you know places

36:51

where you can't sit because they're fancy you saw

36:54

through it into a box and it was like food

36:56

and there was no one sitting there because I think everyone

36:58

had the same thought . I did where you know , it's

37:01

not for the general public , it's like a special thing

37:03

. But no , they're open . So at least if

37:05

it's the same as last year , go to the boxes

37:07

. You get a great view . There's no one there

37:09

. Food's right there , beer's right there . It's great .

37:11

Kev , I love your style .

37:21

Like just walking , like you own the confidence , this is your place . Are you gonna question that guy

37:23

? Well , so I made a mistake a couple times where , and on wireless solutions , there's these little

37:25

booths for each vendor each , but it has like a private booth or like you

37:27

can talk to them , make deals . I don't know what they do in there , all

37:29

all this stuff . But I was like I

37:32

need to check my email , I need to take a couple minutes

37:34

and check in with work , which I don't recommend

37:36

, but I had to , um , so I just walked

37:38

in one of these booths and sat down and started doing my work

37:40

and then , all of a sudden , these people started gathering around

37:42

and looking at me and I was like , oh

37:44

, that's kind of awkward , but I'll just keep working . And

37:47

it was all the vendor to people . I stole

37:49

a vendor's booth and they were like

37:51

what are you doing ? And I , you need to like start banging

37:53

on the window and get out and all that stuff . I was like , oh

38:00

of stuff . I was like , oh , my bad , sorry , just walked away like it's I just I just walk into places

38:02

I don't know . I wait till people tell me to go away . So fake it like you make it long

38:05

story short anyway

38:07

, so I don't recommend doing that . There are there

38:09

are booths in the world of solutions .

38:11

Don't go into those but along

38:13

with the big customer appreciation

38:15

event , there are other events after

38:17

hours . All week , a big

38:19

CCIE party . There's

38:22

a program called NetVet . If you've

38:24

been to Cisco Live multiple times

38:26

, I can never remember how many years

38:28

you need to go .

38:29

I think it's three out of the last four years

38:31

.

38:32

Three out of the last four

38:34

. Okay , last year there was a special area in the

38:36

world of solutions . If you had NetVet status

38:38

you could go hang out . They had refreshments

38:40

, that kind of stuff . I will say to

38:42

all the customers out there that are

38:45

going , a lot of the

38:47

partner organizations that you

38:49

may work with send people to Cisco

38:51

Live . The partners like to have their own parties

38:53

. So definitely there's not

38:55

a shortage of things to do after

38:58

the conference every day .

38:59

Yeah , usually you can get an invite . There's always a plus of things to do after

39:01

the conference every day . Yeah , usually you can get an invite . There's always a

39:03

plus one too for a lot of those parties . So if you know somebody or make friends

39:06

, you usually can get in . And

39:08

if you make friends with a vendor , there's usually vendor parties

39:10

and after stuff that are happening all the time that you'll

39:12

get invited to .

39:14

So , like the World of Solutions , sessions aren't recorded . That's

39:19

a helpful piece of information from dan palfrey .

39:20

I didn't know that any other major uh points from from the conference

39:22

itself .

39:23

Um , anything stand out , damn it guys explorer pass

39:25

doesn't get a free backpack , so kevin's telling me to

39:28

go and don't bring a backpack . I've

39:31

never had . This goes like here's your backpack

39:33

, andy . Yeah , I never had the common path ? I don't

39:35

know , I'm just , oh , you don't have a common Pass this year

39:37

either .

39:38

No .

39:39

He just called you the Common man , yeah you're

39:41

the Plebeian Pass or whatever

39:43

.

39:45

We made a terrible mistake bringing this highbrow

39:48

fancy pants guy onto the show . Tim

39:50

. Now he's just giving it to me

39:52

.

39:53

That used to be Dan's job , at least you know the torch

39:55

has been passed to Kevin .

39:57

I know where I stand . I know where I stand .

39:58

I would have given you my laptop sleeve . That

40:03

would have helped , I'll

40:06

put a Cisco sticker on it .

40:11

But yeah , I think that covers the actual events going on . But there are also some really

40:13

cool areas that are not

40:15

vendor booths . At the World of Solutions

40:17

, we talked about the social media hub

40:20

there's also . Last year there was like

40:22

a sustainability section there

40:24

is . If you're into training and certifications

40:26

, the cisco training certifications

40:29

group usually has a big area you can

40:31

go hang out and learn more about the

40:33

, the training insert offerings they have . So

40:35

there's there's tons of stuff there .

40:37

That's cisco u theater cisco

40:39

u theater capture the flag . It was

40:41

a thing last year , I think they .

40:42

I think they'll have it again this year , though I think it's been a

40:44

couple years last year andy you you

40:47

probably would have gotten um a kick out of this , being

40:49

a philly eagles fan they had a big

40:51

um so cisco and the

40:53

nfl partner and they had a big like

40:55

nfl section and like football

40:57

stuff . It was really cool .

41:00

And the big tunnel . I

41:03

wonder what the I'm curious what the social media lounge

41:05

will have as the main thing . Last year they had

41:07

a kaleidoscope-looking tunnel .

41:08

That thing was trippy man , I couldn't get too close .

41:11

No , I loved it , man , I think I have like

41:13

10 different sessions of pictures I had in there

41:15

. I love that thing . I'm really , really

41:17

. I'm curious what they're gonna have this year , if they can top

41:19

that . I'm a sucker for , for

41:21

lights . I guess I'm

41:24

a simple man . Give me some lights and some

41:26

things that are twinkly and I'm like , oh

41:29

, same kev same .

41:31

Most of the reason I built a home lab was just to have

41:33

blinky lights .

41:34

I love that he was like . It was like a big build-up

41:36

to that .

41:36

I'm a sucker for lights

41:39

, I guess yeah , like it

41:41

wasn't anything special , but it was cool to me . I loved it , it

41:43

was cool , it was cool , I got

41:45

a high level question tim .

41:47

Yeah , sorry so I'm popping up a

41:49

couple levels like so why ? I mean , I know why

41:51

I'm going and the

41:53

podcast is is paying for me to go . Thank

41:56

, why . Why do employers

41:58

send their people Like why is Kevin's

42:00

employer ? What are the expectations

42:03

there ? Like , and it's probably different

42:05

. It depends , right , like yay , networking

42:07

. But why would an employer drop thousands

42:09

to send you to this conference ? Are their expectations

42:12

like hey , come back with useful information

42:15

, or I ?

42:15

think it'll vary , but I don't

42:18

think that it's uncommon at all for that

42:20

, what you just said , to be the answer .

42:22

I think the general expectation

42:24

in my experience has

42:27

been that we expect that you're going

42:29

to come back with something having

42:39

worked at a vendor for a little bit that anything you learn at Cisco live is published everywhere

42:41

and all of their marketing materials . Right , so you might get it three

42:43

days earlier at the big launch

42:45

keynote . But what's the

42:47

big ? I'm trying to figure out why .

42:50

So for me it's you get

42:52

four days of dedicated learning , all this stuff

42:54

. And I don't know about you guys , but when

42:56

I'm like a normal work week , I don't have time

42:58

to go above and beyond to research and to

43:01

deep dive into stuff . I'm trying to

43:03

catch up on projects and tickets and all that kind

43:05

of stuff . So , honestly , it's a great time

43:08

just to be solely in the experience and

43:10

you are dedicated to learning

43:12

and being in these sessions .

43:14

You can scale up right . That makes a lot

43:16

of sense .

43:17

Yeah , that

43:20

makes a lot of sense . Yeah , and the way I've approached it is that I look at what projects are

43:23

going to be um in the next year . It's going on in work and say like we're deploying

43:25

new , you know , catalyst 9800 , wireless land

43:27

control or something like that . So I will then

43:29

tailor my class that I'm , the sessions that

43:31

I'm taking , to wireless and

43:33

the , the controllers , so that like

43:35

I'm learning things that are applicable to

43:37

what I'm going to be doing in the next year and

43:40

I think that's what um at least it's

43:42

been successful doing it that way , because if you look at

43:44

the class schedule , you can segment

43:46

it by technologies and like wireless

43:49

, and you can get all those wireless sessions and

43:51

just focus and hone in on that one

43:53

technology that's going to be the most impactful

43:55

for you the next year .

43:57

So I think it's a lot of sense and you found

43:59

that helpful . Yeah , that's that's

44:01

um .

44:01

Otherwise I feel like I'm , I'm . I don't know about

44:03

you guys , but when I , when I'm learning , my brain

44:06

has to be like single focused , like I

44:08

can't be learning . You know , you know 10 different

44:10

technologies . I feel like I'm , I'm , you know , an inch

44:12

deep and a mile wide and all that

44:14

stuff , and I'd rather deep dive and just be

44:16

like , okay , this year I am into

44:18

wireless and I am going to be learning

44:20

the platform and all the stuff to need to to know it . And

44:23

to me , I think I get more out of

44:25

it at the end I've sunk in because

44:27

I've taken not only one class or one session

44:29

, but like several , and I need that repetitive

44:31

kind of going over the adjacent

44:34

information over and over again for it to really sink in

44:36

. I'm

44:39

going to get a third of the information and just

44:42

bring home the PowerPoint , the slides , and be like , ok

44:44

, this is kind of what I learned , and then I'm , there's

44:46

no point in me going . I just had the slides at that

44:48

point .

44:48

Yeah , I think it's a way to for

44:50

employers to to kind of

44:53

take care of their people as well , like if you

44:55

, if you've got good people , I mean

44:57

that can be seen to me , that can be seen

44:59

as a perk of that . Hey , we care enough

45:01

about you that we're going to send you to this we value

45:03

you and what you're going to learn out there

45:05

.

45:06

Yeah , you're going to learn a good time .

45:11

A hundred percent . That makes sense and it's a way to get people

45:13

away from .

45:14

My employer sent me to him . It's about their my retention

45:16

ability .

45:18

It's a way to get get people away

45:20

.

45:20

Um , I know , not everybody's going into an office per

45:23

se every day anymore , but it's just

45:25

a way to get somebody out of

45:27

their element and just kind of break up some monotony

45:29

a little bit too .

45:30

So that's kind of what I see it as it makes a

45:32

lot of sense , a lot of value there , then , for employers

45:34

. Okay , Thanks .

45:35

Also , I appreciate as an employee , it's

45:38

something that my employer is doing . They don't have

45:40

to do it . If don't , if I don't go , I'm

45:42

not going to be any less successful overall , um

45:45

, but it's something that they're . They're showing

45:47

that they appreciate what I do , they appreciate what

45:49

I bring to the you know , the company and I and they

45:51

appreciate me having a four day break where

45:53

I can hone in on on something

45:56

else . So I don't know , it's one of

45:58

those bonuses that I look for when I'm you

46:00

know , getting a new job or

46:02

my current job . if I'm valued

46:04

, they're going to stay there . And when I ask for things

46:06

like I don't ask for a lot , so

46:08

when I do ask for something , I hope that they accommodate

46:11

and they do so .

46:12

I wonder how many network people are on call during Cisco

46:14

live people getting called

46:16

away Not ideal .

46:19

I would not bring your work laptop or your work , your

46:21

work information information just because sometimes

46:23

you have to . But if you can keep

46:25

it at home , you will be tempted . I am tempted

46:27

to see an alert on my phone . I'm going to

46:30

log in and see what's going on .

46:32

But they might need me . I'm important

46:35

I am . I

46:42

do want to circle back to what we talked about it earlier , about just trying to be in the moment

46:44

. I've got a really fond memory . Last year I think it was the

46:46

last day , I think it was the Wednesday

46:48

, so the day before the last day we

46:51

just kind of got down to the end of the day . You could tell people

46:53

had been there multiple days . People were starting to get kind

46:55

of tired . It was up near the social

46:57

media hub . They had like couches

46:59

and a bunch of different chairs and stuff and I

47:01

just sat . A bunch of people were sat down

47:03

. I just kind of look around and I

47:06

see just all these people

47:08

that I've met in the

47:10

from the . It's all about the journey discord

47:12

and I look up and I see Quinn

47:16

and DeJuan and

47:18

it's just all these people are just right there

47:20

and it was just so cool to just kind

47:23

of take that in and just enjoy the moment . So that's my biggest advice is just enjoy your right there and it was just so cool to just kind of take that in and

47:25

just enjoy the moment . So that's that's my biggest advice

47:27

is just enjoy your time there . Andy , you

47:29

talked about you . Can you can make yourself

47:31

exhausted trying to plan the perfect trip

47:33

. And yes , I I am saying you know , do your

47:35

best to plan ahead , especially with , like , the

47:37

session scheduling and things that are time sensitive

47:39

, but once you're there , try as much

47:41

as you can to be in the moment .

47:43

Yeah , that happened to me in , like , where were

47:45

we last ? Knoxville , nashville

47:50

? Yeah , you know , and and and that's a little different because we were running an event and

47:52

a lot of stuff happening . But I remember being distracted . You know , there was

47:54

people that came to see us . I remember

47:57

feeling that pull between trying to manage

47:59

this event that we're running and also

48:01

being with people . And , you know , and I

48:04

had regrets after that , because there's people I wish I spent more

48:06

time with and gave more attention to . So

48:08

, yeah , I definitely I think that's

48:10

going to be top of mind for me , especially because I

48:12

drove myself crazy today trying to play in the perfect

48:14

scale and

48:16

you know there really isn't one . And I think if

48:18

I can just spend time with people that I

48:20

admire and meet new folks , you know , make those

48:22

connections , it'd be . It'd be really nice to spend time with

48:24

folks and learn some cool stuff , right , and

48:26

have some fun . I guess I'll go through

48:28

sessions tomorrow . Got to look and get

48:31

those books . They fill up fast .

48:39

We said right Earlier yeah , okay , yeah . And if they is full and there's one that you really

48:41

really want to go to , there are going to be people like me who get distracted

48:43

and don't go and you can wait

48:45

. And if you have nothing else going on which

48:47

I know is kind of rare , but if you have nothing else going

48:49

on you really want that session , you can wait . And if it doesn't fill

48:51

up and you can get in towards the end of the uh

48:53

the entrance yeah .

48:55

Cause they do have people at all

48:57

the sessions that are standing outside that scan

48:59

your badge and something else to

49:01

take away for this . People that hold active

49:04

certifications , the the sessions

49:06

you go to . If you get your badge scanned and

49:08

you go in , you do get continuing

49:11

education credits for those that

49:13

apply to recertifying .

49:15

So and the amount of CE

49:17

credits you get is based on the

49:19

level of class or session . So

49:21

if it's a 100 level session , you

49:23

get less CE credits than , like , a 300 . Just

49:25

something to keep in mind .

49:26

And why do we care about CE credits ? Because that's the

49:28

way you can recertify or renew .

49:30

Yeah , it's an easy way of renewing and it's a lot

49:33

cheaper than taking the test .

49:35

And I guess you know . The last thing here , to kind of round this

49:37

out , is talking about post event

49:39

, and I think the biggest thing post-event is

49:41

to check out the

49:43

Cisco Live website to search

49:46

the sessions , ones that you didn't hit

49:48

or ones that really resonated . If you want to grab

49:50

the session materials , you can

49:52

get those . Again , I go back to those

49:54

are some of the best documentation materials

49:56

I've ever had . A few years

49:58

ago , setting up some catalyst

50:01

switches in stackwise configuration

50:03

, setting

50:06

up some catalyst switches in stack wise configuration , I did some Googling and one of the first

50:08

things that came up was a Cisco live session and it was just incredible . And when I was

50:10

studying for the CCMP , our

50:12

own Tim McConaughey had a session

50:15

where that he did on multicast

50:17

in Barcelona . I think it was

50:19

like literally days before the world shut

50:21

down . So that's a story he can tell you someday

50:23

. He did that right right

50:25

before COVID times but he had a really

50:27

good session . So there's just so much

50:29

good , good stuff out there and that's another

50:31

reason why you know really taking the

50:33

event . Go to the sessions you want to , but

50:35

you're not going to miss out on material

50:37

Cisco makes it available

50:39

to you at post event .

50:41

Could we do a lightning round before we're done ? Absolutely

50:44

God .

50:45

How much underwear .

50:45

Do you need to pack ?

50:46

Really no . If Dan was here , he'd kill me

50:48

. At least two today , business

50:51

cards are dead right . Because what I'm thinking is you're

50:53

going to go , you're going to meet people . Like

50:58

am I going to be at a booth and be like , hey , how do you

51:01

, if you meet somebody and you want to connect , or

51:03

I mean , you're not asking for ? Numbers like a date . They

51:05

don't do business cards . I'd like to make

51:07

connections there and and continue that

51:09

conversation later , and I don't know how to exchange

51:11

contact info vendors definitely do

51:14

the business cards yeah I've

51:17

gotten a bunch of contacts that way

51:19

, um , I bet .

51:20

I mean I feel like everybody uses their phone . They do that

51:22

like head or the okay , the

51:24

connectionless yeah yeah

51:26

, to give contacts , but , um , usually it's twitter

51:28

. Honestly , most of my contacts that

51:30

I make they I get their twitter handle and

51:33

that's how everyone talks to each other .

51:34

On on cisco live um , what is the exhibition

51:36

hall ? Is that the same as the world of solutions ? Do

51:38

you guys know , because I was going through documentation , no

51:41

clue , I don , I don't know , I would say so

51:43

.

51:43

Or maybe the exhibition hall is where

51:46

the keynote is . I don't know , not

51:48

sure .

51:48

Yeah , I don't know .

51:49

I think we touched on this best way to leverage social media

51:51

during the conference . It's Twitter right . Twitter Hashtag

51:53

.

51:53

Cisco live . It's Twitter , everything's

51:56

Twitter .

51:56

Yep , okay . Also

52:00

, I saw an attendee newsflash newsletter

52:02

. So again , as part of that communication

52:04

I got after registering , I saw something about

52:06

an attendee newsletter . So , um , I have

52:09

to go through all that and and look through

52:11

everything they sent me , but I guess registering

52:13

is the most important thing so that you kick off

52:15

all that communication and

52:17

guidance . It might be the end of my

52:19

lightning round , uh

52:21

yes , lightning round complete .

52:23

Someone in the comments said um . Last year um

52:26

someone had a qr code . That's a smart idea .

52:28

I was wondering like a qr code if you want to

52:30

. Andy , you want to set up like a link tree that's got

52:32

all your uh linkedin and twitter

52:35

and all that .

52:37

So yeah , we , so we have

52:39

. We have a qr code with the a1

52:41

on it . We made for this event that people

52:44

could scan and get sent to our link

52:46

tree . I guess I could also

52:48

make my own and point people to

52:50

me too .

52:52

Yeah .

52:52

Yeah , I don't want to be the guy showing up with business

52:55

cards . You're like yo , bro , what year is this Like

52:57

really business cards

52:59

, you know ? Yeah , so I guess it's all social

53:01

and the QR code isn't a bad idea .

53:03

I wouldn't look negative on someone who gave me a business

53:05

card though not at cisco like because there's yeah

53:07

I mean there's vendors that that are will

53:10

hand you paper .

53:11

I mean so that have

53:13

like specs of different equipment

53:15

, that kind of stuff that's not uncommon . So no

53:18

, I wouldn't paper data sheets and all . I wouldn't sweat

53:20

um business cards at all .

53:22

No , so should I make business cards or should I make a QR

53:24

code ? Tim .

53:25

A business card with a QR code on it .

53:27

Bam .

53:30

Playing 4D chess over here .

53:32

But that's not a

53:34

bad piece of advice .

53:38

Well , that might generate some questions

53:40

. Selfie on one side , a QR code on the other . Oh

53:44

yeah , that guy , I remember him now .

53:45

Somebody could easily take

53:47

it , scan it and then , if they lose it or get

53:49

rid of the card , it's not a big deal , because they got

53:51

your information now , Whether , if you give them a card

53:53

, they put it in their big bag and

53:56

they may never see it again .

53:57

Making business cards . Dan's going to tease me .

53:59

No , it's retro now , it's cool yeah , it's

54:01

in it all comes back . Yeah

54:03

, you guys got anything else uh

54:08

, if you , if you go to the conference , you see peter

54:10

jones there , he hands out a6

54:12

um from actual cisco

54:14

devices I recommend

54:17

yeah , peter jones , he's

54:19

um part of the people team that designs

54:21

the a6 in the cat series

54:23

um . So if you see him

54:25

, he's handed him out like candy . He just hands him out . It's

54:28

pretty cool , pretty cool paperweight I

54:31

want an asic I'll hook you up .

54:34

I'll get you in contact with him I don't think everything else

54:36

, tim , I'm glad we got to run this . This was

54:38

helpful for me and hopefully anybody

54:40

out there who has never been to

54:42

a cisco live who might be attending this . At least they

54:45

have some high level overview of

54:47

what to expect , what to do , how to prepare , so

54:50

hopefully this was helpful for folks . I know it helped

54:52

me . So thank you , too , for your service . I

54:54

appreciate it .

54:56

Well , listeners , thank you for joining us , and

54:59

folks that hung out in the live

55:01

viewing on YouTube . We really appreciate you

55:03

hanging out in the interaction . We got a lot of good questions

55:06

out of that chat , so thank you very much

55:08

. You can find us anywhere on the socials

55:10

, at Art of NetEng , on our

55:12

website , artofnetworkengineeringcom

55:14

, as well as cables2cloudscom

55:17

. We hope to see as many

55:19

of you as possible at Cisco

55:21

Live because the A1 team will be there . See

55:24

you soon . Bye , mate .

55:25

Hey there , friends . We hope you enjoyed

55:27

listening to that episode just as much

55:29

as we did recording it . If you

55:31

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55:53

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55:55

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55:57

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55:59

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56:01

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56:04

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56:06

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56:09

. Until next time , friends , thanks

56:11

for listening .