After around 12 years in the industry, primarily working on Cisco gear, I finally got to my first Cisco Live. I want to keep this fairly short so I’m just going to jump right in with my seven lessons learned.

1: Get in early. Get the earliest flight into town as you can. If you plan on taking a session or two on Day 0 make sure you are there the day before. My flight was pretty uneventful getting in on Sunday but there were a few stories of people getting delayed and showing up very late Sunday night. That makes for a pretty rough Day 1 on Monday. I am considering coming in a full day early so I can settle in a bit more. I felt rushed to check-in and head down to the Cisco Champions events we had planned. I also had a team dinner to get to that night. If I flew in on Saturday night, Sunday would have felt a lot less stressful.

2: Stay as close to the convention center as possible. I stayed at the Luxor because it was cheap. For an extra couple hundred dollars I could have stayed at the Mandalay Bay. I walked about 31 miles, in Vans. Probably half of that was walking between the convention center and the Luxor and then down to the MGM for a few events. Aside from not getting in almost 80,000 steps, I could have had more “down time”. Have 30 minutes between sessions and feel like kicking your legs up? Head upstairs. To my room was about 3,800 feet in a straight line from the convention center. With all the turns, you’re probably looking at a 1.5 mile round trip.

3: Wear comfortable shoes. Did you notice how I said I walked 30+ miles in Vans? Yeah, that was a huge mistake. I didn’t want to look like a full blown dork so I didn’t wear my running shoes. Don’t be dumb. The conference was full of giant dorks. Just wear your trainers and don’t get blisters. Even if you stay at the convention center, you’re still gonna walk a lot.

4: Book out your week but be completely willing to bail on sessions or events. Just make sure you unregister on the app from your sessions so others can join. Most of the sessions I attended were fantastic. I had one dud that should have been called 6GHz for dummies. It looked like a more in depth class but really it was very entry level. That’s not a bad thing, however I wasn’t the target audience. I actually stepped out early on it. Look, I know these guys and gals spend a lot of time preparing for their sessions but at the end of the day you or your company are paying a lot of money to attend. Use your time wisely. I was able to head right back down to the World of Solutions to do some more walking around. That was a better use of my time. You also might not feel like attending a session you registered for. I missed one on Thursday morning because, well, Elton John. It’s OK. Be flexible. Don’t go crazy and crash and burn on Day 2.

5: Kinda following in number four’s footsteps is: Make room for the World of Solutions. There are so many really incredible things to do down there. From Capture the Flag events, to vendor demos, to just hanging out with folks you came with or just met. Take advantage of what is there. As an individual (and a team) I had several very good conversations downstairs with Cisco teams and a tons of vendors. In fact, we are kicking off three proof of concepts in the next two weeks based solely on those conversations. One with a Cisco product and two with vendors.

6: Go to the dinners you get invited to, within reason of course. There were some really good ones this year. I also heard there were a couple of flops. If it’s a 100% sales pitch, skip it. But if it’s about networking (the people kind), go for it! Cisco Champions Banters and Beers was a ton of fun. So was my VAR’s event. So was the ThousandEyes event.

7: Most importantly, make new friends! Be awkward, ask to join a circle of folks chatting. During meal times sit with people you don’t know and introduce yourself. Every single person I met during CLUS was awesome and willing to let me in. Further, I have spent a considerable amount of time on Slack, Discord, NUGs, and Twitter over the years. Meeting all of those people in real life was by far the highlight of the week for me. The networking community is the best in the IT world (especially us Wi-Fi nerds!). Get to know people. They can help you with problems you’re facing both at work and in your personal life. They will rally around you no matter what. It’s what we do.

I think I did pretty well for my first CLUS. I had a great time and feel like I was able to maximize my experience. Let me know in the comments what things you have found to work well for you.

• Twitter
• LinkedIn