Are you ready for CiscoLive US 2018? Ready for Summer Camp for Geeks?! I think it is hard to truly be completely ready for the experience nowadays. Why? Because CiscoLive US is just huge with so many options of things to experience as an attendee…. more options than you have time for. If you have been to CiscoLive US before… you KNOW this is true. And every year more and more …. and more and more … get added. For 2018 my favorite CiscoLive add is the new ‘Content Cafe’ session type (30 minutes). Other favorites of mine are the ‘Flip Sessions’ and the “Beers with Engineers”. 🙂
Deciding where to spend your time and energy during #CLUS can be overwhelming and daunting.
What is my absolute #1 suggestion to anyone going to a CiscoLive event? Easy – “Begin with the End in Mind“. Know what your priorities are and then schedule your week accordingly.
STEP #1: Create Your Cisco Live 2018 Priority List
Take your goals and translate them into a priority list.
STEP #2: Learn from the Past
If you have been to CiscoLive before… what lessons have you learned? Do you wish you had done things differently? Do you wish you had paced it better? Write it all down.
If you have never been to CiscoLive before I would suggest talking to a few people who have. Reach out to them.. ask tons of questions…. and learn from their past. I’m going to SharkFest in June for my first time ever… and I’m just reaching out now to 3 people to ask lots of questions and pick their brains.
STEP #3: Time to Hit the Session Catalog
- Come up with a list of key words or topics (e.g. ETA, StealthWatch, IPv6,…. whatever)
- Go into the scheduling system and find all the sessions that match theses keywords
- Read the abstracts.
- Get your “priority” classes worked out first and officially sign up for them
Pretty please with sugar on top… Read the Abstracts. 🙂 We do try to help you with what will be taught in this session so you can make the best choices based on what you are looking to learn. An example? I used to teach a session called “Techniques of a Network Detective”. It’s an introductory session and the abstract also says in the very first sentence: “This session presents an Introductory look at basic methodologies and approaches involved with being a Network Detective trying to solve a network “who done it” as quickly as possible.” It is not uncommon that people show up based on the title only and have expectations of the session that are radically different than what the abstract describes. 🙂 We WANT you to attend the session that is the best fit for what you are trying to learn. So I do suggest reading the abstract to get the best “R” (return) for the time “I” (investment) you are putting into attending the class.
STEP #4: Make Sure to Review Other CiscoLive Offerings
As I mentioned…. every year more and more … and more and more…. get added to CLUS. So I do suggest taking time to look at the big picture of the varying activities and look to see if anything calls to you.
STEP #5: Use a Calendar and Fill it All In
Ready for the next step? Take a calendar and put all of your activities in it. When you look at it… do you feel exhausted? I’m sorry to say that if you do…. this doesn’t bode well for whatever you listed as a priority for Thursday. What I do is actually block out time to recharge and relax. Everything that is a priority of mine for the week I want to be rested and fully present for energy wise.
So… here you go. My CiscoLive (CLUS) priorities and schedule for the week.
- Teach
- Recharge
- Learn
- Play and Have Fun
Categories: CiscoLive
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