Eric Stewart: Running Off At The Mouth

But of course I’m not going to tell you right away.  I have to leave you in “white” knuckled “uncertainty” for a little bit.  I’ve got a source that’s given me a little more information about certain goings on at Cisco Live this year, and they’ve slipped me a little more information.

Campus Game

This year, throughout the Cisco Campus, there will be “scoring zones” designated using BLE beacons that players can “check-in” at.  The game will be part of the Cisco Events app (scheduled for an update in mid-June).  You’ll log into the game in the app, opt-in, choose a team.  Every time you walk near a zone you’ll get a notification to check-in and score points for the team.  There may be additional ways to score more points through social media.  Zones are considered “captured” by the team with the highest number of points in it during the game sessions.  And of course, there will be a chance for prizes for top players and teams.  However, the prizes are awarded via a drawing, and wherever they decide to do the drawing, you must be present to win.  The final grand prize session will be sometime on Thursday, June 29, and will involve something signed by Bruno Mars.

The game thing sounds interesting enough to me, but it also sounds like it’s very early in the development stage (I don’t think it even has a proper name yet).  I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s more detail or minor changes to the game plan as time gets closer.  The general idea is to add a little fun to the process of meeting new people, and encourage attendees to explore the conference areas they might normally not bother going to.

He’s No “Hal” Any More

I’m hoping my source just typoed his name (Google is quite insistent about that – yes, I research a little to provide some semblance of accurate information), but when Breaking Bad started up and everyone was talking about who the lead was, it was hard to think that as the series went on, the same guy played “Hal” on Malcolm In The Middle … though Walter White at the very beginning wasn’t too different from Hal.

Yes, Bryan Cranston will be the guest keynote speaker at the closing keynote on Thursday.  No, I don’t think he’ll be telling us that the secret to success is to make large quantities of meth.  Though you never know; Kevin Spacey did suggest last year that stealing invites from little old ladies was acceptable if you wanted to get a part.