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Packet™ Magazine Archives, Fourth Quarter 1998 Overview: The Best of Networkers By Joanna Holmes, Editor-in-Chief, Packet™ magazine Chances are good that right now, throngs of Cisco users, employees, partners, and industry experts are assembling in Singapore to spend several days at one of the internetworking community's most highly esteemed events: Networkers. And what these Singapore attendees will take away from this event is the same valuable experience they would get from any of the other eight locations worldwide where Networkers took place this year: a gold mine of technological insight, one-on-one time with experts, hands-on demos of new products -- and a party to tell their grandchildren about. What Is Networkers? If you're still unfamiliar with Networkers, Cisco's international user conferences, perhaps this issue of Packet magazine will help give you a sense of what they're about. If you're already a Networkers aficionado, then you probably understand why we've chosen a "Best of Networkers" focus for this issue. Given the timing, this focus makes a lot of sense. The Packet team set out last May to learn through exhaustive research how well the magazine was meeting Cisco users' needs. The news was encouraging: readers worldwide gave us an overall satisfaction rating of 4.38 on a scale of 1 to 5 (where 5 was "very satisfied"). But -- lest we become complacent -- you readers were very clear on one point: the more technology we provide, the happier you'll be. So we turned to an obvious source. With our survey results coinciding with peak season for the '98 Networkers events, the top-rated sessions for these conferences promised top-notch material for Packet. Seven Hot Topics We qualified this issue's seven topics based on registered attendance for the 90-plus technical sessions at this year's US Networkers events. Then we asked our seven presenters to help us distill each of their lengthy sessions down to its essence. To make the articles as valuable as possible, we added "Further Reading" lists to each, as well as e-mail addresses for the presenters so you can contact them directly. A Place to Learn... Our goal in producing this issue is to provide some of the benefits of actually attending a Networkers event -- especially if you've never been to one. To keep sight of that goal, I spoke with a number of users who attended Networkers this year and asked them what they think those benefits are. Most users told me that primarily, Networkers is a planning tool for them. It educates them on technology directions, letting them hear first-hand from industry pundits about what's coming up -- both in the standards bodies and from Cisco. "We've always brought back a lot of new ideas," says Dave Levandowsky, Senior Network Engineer for Arizona Public Service Company. "And we've always ended up using those ideas at some point. At Networkers, we learn not just what the industry is doing, but what our peers are doing -- what works and what doesn't." "Networkers lets us find out what new hardware is coming out and when," says April Merryman, a network engineer at the National Institutes for Health (NIH) Center for IT. Merryman cites the Product Showcase in the Networkers Pavilion, where attendees can get demos of all Cisco's new products and meet with product experts in a relaxed environment. Even Cisco CEO John Chambers, in his keynote address, incorporates product demos such as live voice over IP. ...And a Place to Revel But like others I spoke to, Merryman also admits that the parties -- Cisco's famous customer appreciation events -- are her personal "Best of Networkers." Held at locations as exotic and diverse as Monte Carlo, Universal Studios in Florida, and the Royal Palace in Barcelona, these parties have developed a reputation throughout the industry. Each of the nine Networkers locations has its own style of soirée, ranging from buttoned-down elegance in China to a wild hoopla in Australia.

Networkers Events Cisco customers are invited to attend: Singapore, October 22-23, 1998 Cannes, France, December 14-16, 1998 Gold Coast, Australia, March 24-26, 1999 Tokyo, Japan, April 20-21, 1999 New Orleans, Louisiana, USA June 15-18, 1999 Vancouver, BC, Canada, July 13-16, 1999 www.cisco.com/networkers

About the Hats... At the US events, those famous hats (some of which grace these pages) are standard evening attire. "In an industry as dynamic and diverse as ours, the hats are a way of unifying everyone for a common celebration," explains Sarah Stokes, Cisco's Manager of Event Marketing. Arguably, that same dynamic nature and diversity are the essence of Networkers. Our industry grows and redefines its business almost annually, as does Cisco. Packet readers' and Cisco users' information needs also grow and change constantly. By bringing you our "Best of Networkers," I hope this issue of Packet gives you a jump on some of your networking challenges. And, should you get the chance to actually go to Networkers, jump on it! Joanna Holmes Editor-in-Chief, Packet magazine joanna@cisco.com

Top Networkers Sessions -- A Worldwide Sample Networkers Australia, March '98 Router Architecture and Performance IP Mobility Firewall Design Dialup and Access Solutions Catalyst Switch Family Update WAN Switching Products The Basics of Telephony Networking * Introduction to MPOA and LANE Solutions * * Two topics tied for seventh place Networkers Japan, April '98 Gigabit Technology Advanced LAN technology Security and Firewalls Network Management Internetworking Fundamentals Small Office/Home Office (SOHO) Networks Voice Integration Fundamentals Networkers Paris, November '97 Building Intelligent Switched Networks Large-Scale WAN Design Campus LAN Design LAN Switch Architectures Troubleshooting ATM Router Architecture and Performance The Emergence of Gigabit Ethernet US Networkers May/June '98 * (Highlighted in this issue) Router Architecture and Performance Advanced IP Routing and Switching BGP: Configuring and Troubleshooting ATM Troubleshooting IP Routing Technologies Designing High-Performance Intranets with Layer 3 Switching Configuring Cisco 7200 and 7500 Routers * Denver and Philadelphia

Top of Page Table of Contents Posted: Thu Feb 4 17:11:34 PST 1999 Copyright © 1998 Cisco Systems, Inc.