Even while on a little vacation I have been flooded with email asking how can people get a reduced price to attend Cisco Live? Many have said due to the economy and job losses that companies don’t want to spend the money on both an entry fee to a vendor event and travel cost. Doing the virtual thing is ok as one person put it, but being there is much different.
I myself might just skip it this year, I was going to go as part of the media to blog the whole week. But I was told them have not made final arrangements for the media and it is an invitation only event. I also like to book well in advance to get good flights and hotels. Since I am paying my own way and I am not going to wait until a month before to book at a higher price, I will be staying home like many others.
Going back to all of the emails, I am a Cisco Partner and I am sure they will not like hearing this from me. But I think they could have really stepped up and reduced pricing in this recession. Let’s face it travel costs are high with airfare being high and hotels going for high prices in San Francisco a little help would have been nice. Many people who have emailed me said it just will not work, paying $1995 just to go? They said they would eat snickers bars week if Cisco would drop the price down to like $250.
I wonder what others in the Cisco Subnet Community are thinking about this, are you going to Cisco Live and did your company pay for the entry fee and all travel?
