Eric Stewart: Running Off At The Mouth

Cisco Live this year was in San Diego.  It was nice this year to actually be able to go outside without bursting into flames.  Indeed, the weather was beautiful – “shorts and a hoodie” weather for most of the trip (pants at night, just in case).  Coming from the humid 90s of Florida and remembering the dry 100+ of Las Vegas, it was, in short, bliss, weather-wise.

Aside from that, it was what potentially many people get out of live: Informative, educational, and fun!  I flew in early Saturday – some “irony” being that, for all of the years I’ve gone to Las Vegas for Cisco Live, only for my first one did I get an early morning direct flight to Las Vegas.  This year, taking an early morning flight to San Diego had my layover in, yes, you guessed it, Las Vegas.  If I’m lucky enough to go next year (we’ll be back in Vegas), bet you anything I’m stopping in Phoenix on the way out.  Usually the rest of my work-crew likes to take a later (and if possible, direct) flight, so other than a brave Jose, the rest of them didn’t land until the evening.  Jose and I got checked into the hotel and took the opportunity to meet up with a Cisco Live buddy Alan and the three of us wandered through the Midway for the afternoon.  As a Navy Brat who once thought he might be a pilot some day, this was a bit nostalgic for me and tickled an interest that I had gotten a way from a while ago.

As for actual Cisco Live, I took a Sunday seminar and a hands-on-lab on Monday (in addition to an ENARSI attempt which I will discuss later).  I participated in Tech Field Day Extra on Tuesday, which ate up the whole day (hopefully multiple blog posts will follow soon about that).  The Wednesday Celebration was an interesting change from previous years – still mainly ballpark food, but a wonderful expansion to some areas behind the ballpark (rather than just in it) was nice.  Didn’t pay much attention to THE KILLERS but I’m not a huge fan (wouldn’t have minded it, but had better things to occupy my time).

The thing is, over all, the convention felt a little … poorer … this year.  Not enough to put me off going 100%, but definitely enough for me to not rely on Cisco AT ALL for the social aspect.  It just seems like there was a severe culling of experienced staff – not just Social Media Maven Kathleen Mudge, but even non-social areas just seemed … less thought out.  The whole of the thing (the lounge, even NetVet lounge, and to a extent World of Solutions) just seemed not as polished as previous years.  I gotta say, the lack of a “Social Media Hub” and the … possibly questionable … layout of the replacement “Social Lounge” was annoying (though the upheaval and fracturing of “social media” could easily give a business the opinion that it’s not worth the effort any more).  The seating wasn’t really … socially conducive.  There was, as far as we can tell, no “closing photo” at the sign (which, honestly, seemed a little smaller, and the addition of an LCD is … interesting).

And of course there WAS a leader board, but it was Twitter (no I will not call it the other thing) focused, and there are those of us that don’t like the idea of supporting the current figurehead of the company in question.  Add to that the … lack of awareness of the Cisco Live account made some question who was behind it.

About my ENARSI attempt: I say my failure was 50% me, 50% the exam.  When you spot errors or typos in the question (not germane to the question itself, but they’re there), you start to doubt the whole thing.  A lot of the questions seemed needlessly wordy.  I get that part of Cisco’s shtick with this is to be a little tricky, but when you see what you think is the only viable answer to a question but the “router” you’re supposed to apply the fix to being the WRONG ONE, you start to wonder if they typoed the answer or if you’re just an idiot.  It being me, again, we’re talking 50/50 either way.  Oh well, I know some of the things I need to study up on for my next attempt, which will probably be in another few months.

Finally, I did pick up some version of Con Crud which I am currently on the recovery from – no fever, but coughing, sneezing, and both eyes and nose leaking constantly.  This is the first day I’m feeling like a human so I’m taking the opportunity to pay bills and get this blog post written (and hope over the next few days to write a few more – there was a lot about TFDx that was interesting).

So, am I looking forward to next year?  OF COURSE!  There are friends I only get the opportunity to see there (and while some of us are unhappy being back in Vegas again, I’m … ambivalent).  But will I be surprised if fewer of them show up?  No, I will not.  “It’s not the same any more” is not something you say when things “get better”.