Happy Virtual 2008
“As for the future, your task is not to foresee it, but to enable it.” - Antoine de Saint-Exupery
Happy New Year! 2008 is going to be jam packed with virtual activities for Cisco. With so many exciting virtual events coming I can’t even name them all but here are few upcoming dates. Make sure you mark your calendar.
CES Round Table, January 8th at 1pm PDT
Come talk about CES and celebrate the Cisco Second Life virtual campus one year anniversary.
Data Center Mixed Reality BannerCasts, January 23rd and January 31st at 8:30am PDT
Two exciting mixed reality events featuring Jayshree Ullal, SVP, Data Center, via live video.
Second Life TechChat: Transforming Business Models with Cisco TelePresence, February 7th at 12:00pm PDT
During this TechChat Randy Harrell, Director of Product Marketing, will discuss Cisco TelePresence, concentrating on business case studies and the enabling technology.
As stated in numerous posts Cisco is participating in virtual environments because we want to engage with you in enabling the future. That being said, 2007 is all most over…it turned out to be a productive and exciting year for those of us pioneering in the virtual age 
I for one learned a lot in 2007 from my colleagues, our customers and fellow virtual frontier folk. Here are my top three virtual learning’s:
Don’t duplicate real life
Leverage virtual environments to do something you can’t do in real life. Our Connected Life Contest event was a great example of using a virtual world to enable a conceptual demonstration for event attendees to interact with.
I know it has been said 100 times before but it is true and something I still have to review every time I talk to someone about virtual worlds.
Don’t believe the hype
There has been a flurry of folks buzzing about how virtual worlds are either the bane of existence or the savior of mankind over the course of 2007. I know that for every one person who attends one of our virtual events looking to refute the ROI there is another looking to evangelize the value add.
You say tomato, I say tomato but how about we don’t call the whole thing off?
Patience is a virtue
It seems like every time I run an event there is always at least one person:
—with some kind of technical difficulty to hammer through…sometimes it is me.
—who wants to derail the discussion with their own agenda.
—that misses the content all together because they were so caught up in the user interface.
In the long run a system is only as good as its operator.
This is the time of year that one makes resolutions. I have one that I feel confident I can achieve which is to keep learning, every day, and enjoy every minute of it. I all ready mentioned some of our 2008 activities but that is truly just the tip of the iceberg. So check back often and be part of creating the future with Cisco.
“The best way to predict the future is to create it.” – Peter Drucker
Posted by Dannette Veale at 01:15PM PST
JimmyJet Fossett Jan 9, 2008
Dannette, looking forward to the upcoming mixed reality events you made me aware of at Cisco’s 1st year in SL celebration.
I hope Cisco continues to try and remain on the cutting edge of technology incorporated into VW events during 2008 and beyond.
Cheers, and again happy 1st birthday in SL.