Well, the time for Cisco Live 2012 has come and it has gone. I have now been home a few days and have almost recovered, I said almost recovered. Cisco Live is a long week for anyone, there are endless after-hour “meetings” that occur with different vendors; there is the World of Solutions that you can spend endless time in collecting spiff and learning about vendor products; there is the John Chambers CCIE/CCDE NetVet reception and the CCIE Party, the CAE, etc etc etc. Add all that together and add in a 3 hour time zone difference (for me at least), and it takes a few days for the body and mind to recover.  Tom, being his normal self, already has his post done at NetworkingNerd – guess that is what happens when you take a few days off! 🙂
Well, now it is time for a nice recap of the week and its associated events, as well as the highlights.

Well, Cisco Live 2012 is only a week away – and where has the time gone! Since we are now oh so close to the event, I figured I would post a quick – know before you go post.
First:
There will be no USB drive this year with the presentations on it (boo!), so you will need to download them now so you have them for the sessions. In order to download them, you need to go to log into your scheduler at https://www.ciscolive2012.com/scheduler/catalog.do and then select the PDF icon next to your scheduled sessions. (Circled in RED in the below pic)

My suggestion is to download them to a location like Dropbox (http://db.tt/zjuOs7o) so that you can access them from anywhere. I personally download them to Dropbox and then sync the dropbox to my iPad GoodReader application. Works like a charm! If you have not guessed, I do not carry a laptop during the event, an iPad is sufficient.
**Second:
** Leave some extra space in your luggage. Do not underestimate the potential for free stuff from some of the vendors. Normally you will get about a dozen shirts from the World of Solutions, pleny of swag there as well, probably a free hat at the Customer Appreciation Event, and you might even choose to bring home things for co-workers of family.
Leaving some extra room in your luggage now never hurts.
**Third:

Last year I did a post on Why you should go ( you can read it read here ), but since that was for 2011 – I figured I would update it for 2012 as well. I won’t go into as much detail as I did last year, just figure I would refresh some points, provided some 2012 San Diego information, and bullet point some reasons to attend.

So, What’s New for 2012

Well, first off the location – this year it is in San Diego, CA. The event tends to move around the country, primarily between a location on the east coast and west coast. For example, next year the event will be in Orlando, FL from June 24-27 (if I recall correctly) – and the year after that I think we are then back to San Francisco in May. By having the event move around it helps to keep things exciting and different, granted Vegas is nice but it does tend to get old quick.
Another thing that will be new for 2012 is the guest speakers. Last year William Shatner showed us his Vulcan hand symbol as part of the closing keynote, this year we will have Jamie Hyneman and Adam Savage as our closing speakers (you can read more here). I am really looking forward to see what they present and say – to be honest, I have no idea what to expect other then a great time during the closing keynote.

Ahhh… It’s Sunday – just a few days after Cisco Live 2011 has come to a close and I am still recovering!  Why am I still recovering one might ask? Well, my liver needs time to recuperate, the 3 hour time difference is a killer, leaving at 7 AM and getting home at 6PM is tough, and just all the information and knowledge gained last week is still soaking in!  I will admit – it was an AWESOME experience this year!
So I see I owe you a recap for Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.  I will start with Tuesday first..
 

Tuesday

Well my first class on Tuesday was BRKRST-3045 – LISP and to my surprise this was a LARGE class!  I would guess that there was close to 1000 people in attendance for this one, blew me away!  LISP is a cool protocol that I blogged about some time ago here – LISP – Say What?. They covered the protocol and the components of it in detail, the operation of LISP as well as some Use Cases.  It was a great class and has generated a few new blog post ideas – so the future looks bright for this one!
After that class it was a quick break over to Tom’s Corner ( NetworkingNerd ) that was basically a table outside of the registration and World of Solutions entrance.  It turned out to be a great meeting place for all the Twitter people out there, and we had a crowd!  We usually met there before going to a class, session, WoS, or anywhere else – nice common place that was easy to get to.