Virtual "attendance" a trial run for the way Cisco might conduct event going forward
The dour economy is not the reason for Cisco excluding non-local press and analysts from Cisco Live in San Francisco later this month. Rather, Cisco just decided to “take a different approach” this year and encourage virtual participation so it can showcase its TelePresence, WebEx and collaboration technologies, a company spokesman said.
“We’re scaling down in general and encouraging folks to attend virtually,” the spokesman said. “For scale reasons, we’re not doing much in person for out-of-town folks.”
The one live event for SF press and analysts will be a roundtable session with CTO Padma Warrior and Doug Dennerline, senior VP and GM of Cisco’s Collaboration Software Group. The World of Solutions Expo will also be a live look, touch, feel, smell, talk experience for the lucky few.
“We’re taking a different approach this year,” the spokesman said. “This is the way we’re looking at conducting events. This is the way we want to approach it. Due to capacity restrictions…we’re doing everything through TelePresence and WebEx.”
Well, just get a bigger event hall in a cheaper city than San Francisco.
If virtual “attendance” is truly the future of Cisco Live and other Cisco events, it is unfortunate. Cisco likes to expound on the “immersive” experience of virtual participation and visual networking technologies like TelePresence and collaboration. But they fall far short of the totally immersive and comprehensive experience of live attendance.
How do you get to actually talk to anyone? How do you get a variety of diverse viewpoints — not just what Cisco wants you to hear? How do you flesh out your Cisco Live coverage without those diverse viewpoints and the different story angles and ideas that come from the powers of observation? How do you deliver the whole experience to your readers if you’re not allowed to be there?
Virtualization is not immersive. It’s limited. It’s myopic. The cynic in me believes it’s a way for Cisco to control coverage by putting blinders on us under the guise of “virtual” and “collaboration.” I hope I’m wrong about that.
Limiting physical access to Cisco Live is a mistake. Someone in Cisco PR needs to wake up — because the event’s exclusivity is quickly becoming the story.
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