A retrospective of my experiences

It has been a while since the last installment of Ron the Admin. Today’s post is going to be a bit different from the normal posts to which I write. Instead of documenting my experiences learning, implementing various network labs, topologies or covering various aspects of my professional life, I am going to discuss my experience attending Cisco Live 2018 in Orlando, Florida with my colleagues Kirkland Bailey and Jim Lin from Spectrum Enterprise. This post will be a retrospective of the event as I experienced it and I will discuss the Pro’s and Con’s on the event. As a disclaimer, these views are my own and doesn’t necessarily reflect the views of others nor have I received any compensation of any kind to post this blog.

 

Day 1, June 9, 2018

 

June 9, 2018 was the day to which my colleague Kirkland Jim and I have travelled New York City or Charlotte, North Carolina to Orlando, Florida. The day was perfect weather wise, and we didn’t experience any issues with our flights and arrived at the scheduled times according to our travel Itinerary. Shortly after landing in Orlando, Kirkland and I waited about an hour for Jim’s flight to land. Once we met, we went to get our Rental Car for the week. The car we were given was a 2017 or 2018 Ford Fusion hybrid sedan.  This car was all black with a black interior and for the most part was comfortable for what we needed to do for the week.

 

After we picked up our car, we went drive the 15 to 20 miles north to our Hotel in Maitland, Florida. Upon arriving at the hotel, we checked in and had lunch at a local Jamaican restaurant, where we had Jamaican Jerk Chicken. Once lunch was completed we went back to the hotel to relax as Cisco Live official start date is June 10, 2018. Several hours of relaxing and building an itinerary of Break out sessions, and points of interest to visit throughout the week, we received a notification to pick up our Cisco Live Badge, bookbag and Tee-shirt.

 

We spent some time deliberating if we wanted to pick up our badge today or if we wanted to relax for the rest of the day and pick it up tomorrow. Once the deliberation was done, we decided it was best to pick up the badge as early as possible so that we didn’t have to wait during the beginning of CISCO live to get in. At 4 P.M or so we left our hotel and travelled south to the Orange County Convention Center to pick up our badge, bag and tee-shirt.

Once we arrived at the center, we had to walk from the back of the center to enter the building, we had to use the escalators to go up a flight of stairs to walk to the front of the center. Next, we had to go down the escalators and the front of the convention center and then we walked a fair distance to the registration point while passing the Cisco Live Store and the Cisco Press Book Store.

 

The overall registration process was easy as compared to past conventions that I have attended. We scanned our QR code from the Pre-Reg email, they gave us our badge which had an NFC Tag on it and asked us what our Tee-Shirt Size was and gave us our shirt and bag.  While walking around the center, we made arrangement to where we were going to meet up with one of our Senior Network Engineer’s from our Central Florida office for dinner.  Once the arrangements were made, we drove back to the hotel to wait to go out to dinner.

 

Around 9:00 P.M we drove from our hotel down to the area where Universal Studio’s is for dinner at the Yard House. We met Pete at the restaurant and we had a nice dinner and discussed everything from work related projects to shooting the “bull.” Once we were done with dinner we drove back to the hotel and promptly retired for the night as it was after Midnight by the time we arrived at the hotel and the next day was the first day of the convention (or so I thought,) and I had an exam at 3:00 P.M

 

Day 2, June 10, 2018

 

On day 2, we woke up early and had Breakfast at the hotel. The breakfast was alright for a continental breakfast. While eating breakfast we talked about what we wanted to do for the day. As we each had our own exam to take, we decided to spend the day studying for our respective exams as we didn’t have any breakout sessions booked or session scheduled. Since my exam was later this day, I had to travel to the convention center to take the exam after doing some last-minute studying. I asked Kirkland and Jim if they wanted to go to the convention center and walk around and they declined as they wanted to study for their exams taking place on June 11, 2018.

 

I left to go to the convention center around 1:00 P.M. While driving to the convention center I got lost and had to make a 20-mile detour because my Bluetooth disconnected while driving for some reason. Once I was back on track I made it to the convention center on time and I proceeded to park in the west parking lot. Since I was there before 4:00 P.M I had to pay for parking which wasn’t too bad. It was 15 dollars for the whole day. I proceeded to enter the rear of the convention center, take the escalator and walk to the front of the building to where we picked our badges up since that was where the Exam Rooms are.

While walking on the 3^rd floor, I noticed the main expo hall (world of solutions) was still being set up, so it was a good thing that Kirkland and Jim stood at the hotel to study as the only thing that was going on was break out sessions and other pre-convention activities which we didn’t schedule in advance.

 

After making it to the exam room area, I checked into my exam and I was able to take it earlier than the schedule time as there was room. I did the normal present two forms of i.d. and take your picture. The proctor instructed me to power off my phones and smart watch and place them into my bag. Next, I had to attach my badge to my bag and the brought. Once that was done I was escorted into exam hall where to my surprise the room was huge. It contained two rows of tables each containing seven sections for a total of 14 banks of tables. Each of those tables had computers connected to a 24-port switch. To my estimation it looked like about 330 terminals available for testing.

 

I sat down to my terminal and the proctors signed me in and I began the test. The test took me about 40 minutes to take. It was the normal format as the other cisco tests I have taken. Once I was done, I clicked submit and waited for my score. I scored 814 out of 1000. The passing score is 860. I was 48 points away from passing the exam. After reflecting for a bit, I did damn well considering I didn’t really study the material or prepare for the test the way I should have. Basically, I just skimmed through the text book and read up on material I knew I was a bit hazy on. The rest of the knowledge I took from my bachelor’s Degree program. So, all in all, this score is good for what I did and with some more studying and preparation I can take this exam and pass it with no problems.

 

After the exam, I stopped by the Global Knowledge booth and received a pair of global knowledge socks as swag for taking the exam. From there I proceeded to check out the book store to see what they had and to see what would be good to pick up for learning material. After ogling the books, I proceeded to go back to the hotel and meet up with my colleagues who wanted to know where we wanted to go for dinner.

 

We decided to travel back to the mall where we met up for the Yard House and proceeded to have dinner at Joes Crab Shack. The dinner was good, we had a good time and we discussed more to how we were going to attack the convention such as time to get there in the morning, what we wanted to do, etc.  Once dinner was completed, we headed to Wal-Mart to pick up some drinks and snacks for our hotel room, so we didn’t have to spend that much extra. I decided to pick up some cookies, some caramels, nuts and a gallon of HI-C juice. We then made it back to our hotel room and retired for the night.

 

Day 3, June 11, 2018

 

Monday, June 11, 2018 was the official beginning of Cisco Live and we woke up a bit later than expected and left the hotel late after we ate our breakfast at the hotel. We arrived at the hotel around 9:45 A.M and we looked for parking. It took us a while to get the parking and we had to park across the street at the HYATT. That parking was 25 dollars for the day and we had to walk a fair bit to get to hotel. Because of that, we missed getting into the Opening Keynote in the Main Hall. Instead we had to watch it remotely in a separate seating area.

 

The opening keynote was quite interesting. I learned much about where the future of the networking is going. Overall the keynote made highlights of Cisco and their partnerships in with companies making improvements towards security, intent based networking and automation.

 

Once the Keynote was completed, Kirkland and I walked around for a bit while Jim went to his exam. We had lunch in the meals area while I waited to attend my first break out session “A CCIE’s Introduction to MPLS Networks” hosted by Keith Barker and Scott Morris. Just before splitting up to go to the session, I stopped at the Cisco Certification Lounge to do a check in challenge for the Certification Insider’s Program.

 

While there I met the administrator Sonia Chavez and I received a Nifty Space Pen and some cool certification stickers. I did the certification insider’s check in activity and I was interviewed for Cisco’s Learning network where they asked me questions about why I was at Cisco Live, what are the benefits to being there, etc. Link To Facebook Interview Link to Real Talk with Ronald Boestfleisch

 

I proceeded to then go to the break out session. The session was good. I learned more about MPLS and how to do basic implementation. The distinguished engineers knew how to keep the class engaged and made the material easy to understand and presented it in a fun way. I highly recommend anything Keith Barker and Scott Morris teach. If I had a way I would give them more then two thumbs up or more than 5 Stars for a review.

 

After The session completed, I started walking around the World of Solutions. This is the main hall for the convention. The world of solutions had tech vendors offing sessions and demos. There was the Cisco DevNet and Learning Centers for those who wanted to learn coding and developing. There were sections for break out labs and just areas just to keep everyone interested.

 

Around 4 P.M, Jim, Kirkand and I met up after their exams and we walked through the worlds of solutions. We started looking at vendors, seeing their demonstrations and entering their raffles. We learned about a lot of offerings from companies like DELL, Legrand, Meraki, etc. With each booth we visited we were given little items called swag. This ranged from stress balls, bags, pens, cables, shirts, socks, and other mini toys, etc. These items promoted those company’s brands, so we could remember them if we anted to pitch their products to our management.

 

At 5  P.M we met our co-worker Rob Johnson and we had some snacks at the convention center to discuss how the day went. We talked about booths we went to, what products they offered and to see how they could fit in our work. From there we finished talking and retired back to the hotel.  After a couple of hours of relaxing we stopped at the local restaurant at the hotel for some pub food for dinner then we retired to our rooms to prepare for the next day.

 

Day 4, June 12, 2018

 

On Tuesday, June 12, 2018, we woke up early and we had our breakfast and headed out to the convention center to be ready for the Technology Keynote. We were there early enough to find parking. We got on line early and got some front row seats to the Technology Keynote.

 

The Technology keynote was quite the production. They had a DJ, Professional TV crew and a large stage. Cisco had an Office Olympics while we waited for the keynote to start and it was an experience. I took away from the keynote that everything is moving to Intent Based networking. Everything will be done by automation and that network engineers will be considered Developers as we need to develop routines to get our work done for automation purposes. We saw demos on Cisco DNA center and the new WEBEX updates and that DEVNET will help us become developers.

 

Overall the keynote was interesting and I think what they said was true and were moving on from a traditional networking engineering role to having to learn how to code to develop the routines for automation and other intent based networking applications. I am looking forward to see where this goes over the next couple of months to a year in order for me to gauge on what I need to learn.

 

Once the keynote was over, we headed for our lunch while I waited for the “Advanced Troubleshooting of the ASR1K and ISR (IOS-XE) made easy by Frederic Detienne and Oliver Pelerine. This session covered the powerful tools built into IOS-XE for troubleshooting and how the devices differ from IOS classic. I found it interesting because it allows for you to find exactly where the faults are based on the architecture of the ASR1K and ISR platform.

 

After this session Kirkland and I walked over to the “Apple and Cisco in the Enterprise” event held in the Rosen Center across the street. It was by invitation only and we wanted to see what apple had to offer for its enterprise model. Little did Kirkland and I know was how poorly done this event was. On the schedule it was set for two hours. We arrived on time and were let in at 4:00 P.M at the Executive Ball Room of this hotel and there were about 1 dozen round tables around the Mini Stage. We sat down and proceeded to listen in on the event.

 

The speakers were from Apple and Cisco and they discussed how the Apple Products evolved in todays enterprise environment. They had statistics and case studies but no real demos. They Just talked about their products and discussed how these features were already implemented. To be honest it was a waste of my time and Kirkland expressed those concerns to me shortly before the end of the presentation.

I felt the presentation was lacking any engagement and the speakers had a lot of “AAH, UMS,” and ERs.”S in their speech. It wasn’t as polished as many of the other booths and presentations We seen over the past couple of days. Kirkland and I were bored on the subject matter. The presenters didn’t engage the audience by asking questions, they just went on in their speech. After the speech there was an informal meet and greet where there was some coffee, tea, salty crackers and cheese. It was not what we expected.

 

Honestly, I expected something more from APPLE. I expected a Tim Cook style speech with audience engagement and a type of raffle or giveaway of some sorts. For example, IBM’s Booth was giving away APPLE WATCHES if you sat through their demonstration and speech and you had the winning raffle ticket. Smaller booths were giving away pens, cups, shirts, etc.   For the Apple event, we just had a mediocre presentation on products we were aware of and a salty food reception afterwards.

 

Kirkland and I just left after the speech because we were disappointed, and we felt like we wasted our time. And as we were walking back to the convention center Kirkland and I were talking about how everyone there looked as disappointed as we were. I guess we live and we learn.

 

Once we met back up with Jim, we got our Appreciation wristband then, we went out to grab some dinner at Kobe Ichiban down the road and had a good dinner and a show. We then proceeded back to our hotel to prepare for the next day.

 

Day 5, June 13, 2018

 

The next day, we woke up early, had breakfast at the hotel and made it to the convention enter. We got there too early and we couldn’t get into the main hall as they don’t open till 10:00 A.M. While waiting for the World of Solutions to open, Jim and I walked to the book store. I picked up CCIE Routing and Switching V5 and IP Routing for CISCO IOS, IOS-XR and IOSXE. Upon check out I was able to get a good duffle bag to hold more swag as we were going through many of the booths. By the time we finished book shopping we were able to go into the World of Solutions.

We entered the world of solutions and we visited many of the booths as we could. Learning about the products and solutions available that could help us in our daily lives. We learned of the various network management software such solarwinds, akips, netbrain, servone, and more. The more booths we went to the more swag we received and the more brochures we were given. Overall, we hit up more than 100 booths. Sat in on many presentations and demos. It was a good thing I had that duffle bag as we needed some place to hold everything we were picking up.

 

We split up to do our classes and We met back up around 5 pm. WE hit the Dell EMC booth and sat through a demo of the VXBLOCK. It’s an interesting Custom-built Server cabinet with UCS, NETWORKING and wiring all in one. At the end of the 10 minute presentation, a raffle was held for an Amazon Echo Plus. The raffle number was called, and I had the winning number. I won some technology. I filled out the paperwork and we were done with convention for the day.

 

After we left the convention we drove over to Universal Studios for the Cisco Live Appreciation event.  Cisco rented out Universal Studios from 7 to 11:30. Universal Studios closed down its park early for Cisco live. We had free reign of the park with free food and drinks.

Kirkland , Jim and I had our picture taken with Puss-N boots, and Megatron. We ate at Mels dinner. Then we rode the transformer ride. Next we walked to Hogwarts and Kirkland was able to ride the Gringotts ride.  After that it was close to closing time we so walked back to the car and drove back to the hotel and prepared for the next day

 

Day 6 & 7, June 14, 2018

 

Thursday, June 14, 2018 was the last day of the convention. We got to the convention a little late because we were tired from the walking and the fun we had at the theme park. We did our final rounds of walking through the World of Solutions. I stopped by the Certification Lounge and spoke with Sonia one last time. I had the opportunity to meet with Scott Morris and ask him some tips and tricks in going towards the CCIE and I had my picture taken with him. Before I left I was offered to pick up a book from the Lounge and I picked up the CCNA Cyber Ops certification bundle. After making final rounds the convention closed around 3 pm.

 

After the convention completed we went back to the hotel and relaxed for several hours. For Dinner we met with our other Senior Network Engineer Tony for dinner where we went to a nice Italian restaurant. As with our first night in Orlando, we had a good time and we discuss things about cisco live, work, and shoot the “bull.” Overall it was a good time.  Once we were done, we retired for the night and got ready for checkout for the next day.

 

On June 15, 2018, we checked out of the hotel and went to the airport to fly back home. It was another good day and we had a good time from start to finish.

 

Cisco Live Pro’s

 

Cisco live was an experience to have. There was no expense spared when it came to the convention center, the booths, and the content for all attendees. Overall cisco made sure they spent the money wisely for everyone. This included food and drinks throughout Cisco Live and the customer appreciate event. The vendors did a great job showing off their wares via Demos and events.

 

Cisco made the event easy by having tons of helpers to point you in the right direction. They had wifi on every floor offering free wifi with telemetry to help you track where you are and where your friends are so you don’t get lost. The Cisco Events application helped you keep track of your schedule and it offered you recommendations based on the booths you visited. The breakout sessions, Labs, Demos and training is well worth the price of admission as it helps you get additional help and training needed to succeed in your learning endeavors.

 

Cisco Live Con’s

 

There are not that many cons to discuss, primarily some annoyances. The parking on site was horrendous. It took us 20-30 minutes to find a parking spot. In some cases, we had to park off the site and had to walk in. Speaking of walking, the event venue is huge. We walked over 30 miles in the span of 4 to 5 days. That can be a con for those who have limited mobility.  The final con to discuss is the lack of bathroom space. With over 50,000 estimated attendees, finding an open bathroom with a free stall or urinal was hard to find making it difficult to use the bathroom when you needed.

 

Cisco Live Overall Conclusion

 

Cisco Live is an event to take part in. Not only are you able to learn through sessions, labs and demos, you are able to network with many people in the industry. You are enabled via the multiple tools Cisco gives you to make the most of your time there. Tips for a first-time attendee, Book your hotel close to the event venue. Make sure you schedule your sessions a head of time when you book your tickets so that you don’t miss out on breakouts and sessions due to them being filled. If you attend with friends, try to book the same kind of events so that you can take away a lot of knowledge. And finally, bring large luggage to be able to bring your swag home without having to pay for additional carryon or checked luggage.

 

I highly recommend Cisco Live. I will make sure I can go again because it was an experience and to be able to attend will give me a heads up in the industry to know that cisco cares for its Engineers and it allows for you to continue learning while networking .