As the title suggests, I pulled the trigger and I booked my FIRST trip to Cisco Live US! The conference is scheduled for May18th – May 22nd in San Francisco, CA. By registering today and not waiting until January 14th or later, I saved $400 off the registration price (pre-registration discount). This might not seem like much to some ($400 has always been a lot to me), but when you look at the total cost of the trip which I estimate is going to cost $3600, it makes sense to save wherever you can.
The registration process was simple although it did ask a significant amount of questions about who I was, what I did, where I worked, what my interests are, etc. I guess they are trying to build a demographic of everyone that attends so I won’t complain. I also used their registration process to book a hotel room during my stay and ended up getting a really great rate! Apparently, they have a deal with some of the local hotels to provide discounts to attendees so why not try to take advantage.
Attending Cisco Live is one of my main goals for this year. I’ve been in the networking field for 3.5 years now and this is one of those events that I’ve followed and wanted to attend since I first found out about it. I’m not as lucky as some that have their employers pay for their trips, however, I view this as an investment to my career. I will be able to learn invaluable information from the break-out sessions (also provided for free at CiscoLive365) and make great connections with my peers in the industry. To be honest, the ladder is the part I’m looking forward to most. I’d really looking forward to meet the folks who write the blog posts or white papers that I read as well as the ones I interact with on IRC or social media sites like Twitter.
Since I’m a CLUS newb, I cannot really speak about anything that goes on at Cisco Live other than what I’ve seen and heard in the past from blog posts, podcasts, tweets, etc. Jeff Fry (@fryguy_pa) provided some great insight this past week ranging from things to think about when registering and booking your flights and hotels to sites to see during your free time in San Francisco. Check out his blog post here. I imagine there will be many more blog posts covering Cisco Live during the upcoming months from NetVets like Tom Hollingsworth (@networkingnerd), who always does a great job covering what happens so just stay glued to the blogosphere so you don’t miss anything.
I can’t wait to see you all there!
Take care,
Keith