What's unique about Cisco Networkers?
And why should I go there? If you have never attended a Cisco Networkers event before, you certainly ask yourself these and similar other questions. Let me address some of them from a technical perspective. Cisco Networkers offers a unique combination of at least 3 major components: people, innovation, and practical experience.
- People: Cisco Networkers is all about technology experts like yourself! Where else do you get the chance to have 3500+ technology experts from the industry and Cisco in one place? There are over 300 Cisco engineers on-site, these are Cisco's senior engineers and architects, each one being a true experts in their technology and product area. Meeting opportunities are the "Meet the Experts", "Meet the Executive" program and the Design Clinics. In addition, we have 46 partners demonstrating their technologies and products in the World of Solutions. Birds-of-a-feather sessions and panel discussions are another nice way to interact with peers and industry experts.
Read what Dino Farinacci has to say about Networkers. Dino is a Cisco Fellow, Senior Software Engineer, and inventor of many areas in IP routing such as IP Multicast, EIGRP, IS-IS, PIM, MSDP, Multicast MPLS, IPv6, OTV, AMT, MoFRR, and most notably LISP. Dino attends Networkers every year dating back to 1991. He has participated at many levels by presenting technical material as well as going one-on-one with customers. He loves being part of the Meet-the-Expert program. A quote from Dino about Networkers when asked if he likes to talk to customers: "Bring em on, I want them to find my design and implementation bugs, that makes for a solid infrastructure and in the end the customer benefits with a stable network". Dino adds, "The best part of my job is interacting with customers. I love the exchange of ideas and the interaction between what are good and bad ideas. I really like putting the customer ultimately first because they are the ultimate judge of Cisco products". Please drop into the MTE area and have a chat with Dino, he does engage in impromptu discussions and really likes being approached. - Technology and product innovations: identify and discuss the latest trends and innovations in the networking space. Start wit the underlying foundation technologies, such as IP, MPLS, VPLS, IP Multicast, PVSTP, LLDP, PoE, WLAN, etc. Continue your journey via Data Center, Unified Communications, Security, Management & Operations, and see how the network can optimize applications and the end-user's experience. Alternatively, just pick one focus area, e.g. SP NGN Architectures and Technologies and drill deep! Cisco Networkers offers 9 technology tracks with a total of more than 200 sessions. Click here to see the track and session details
- Get practical: hands-on labs, Lab-Techtorials, and demos at the World-of-Solutions offer a great opportunity to get the real look-and-feel of products and gain some practical experience without having to install it all in your own lab at your office. Complete your Cisco Networkers journey with an onsite CCIE exam! Details of how to register for an exam are included in your delegate registration confirmation.
We look forward to meeting you at Cisco Networkers Barcelona!
Ralf Wolter
Ralf Wolter is a Senior manager at Cisco, he is Head of the Innovation Consulting Engineering Team in Europe and co-leads the technical content development for Cisco Networkers. You can reach Ralf at rwolter@cisco.com