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Kim Austin

No Longer with Cisco

Until recently, I was the senior manager for digital and social marketing for Cisco Collaboration Marketing. I've spent 18 years at Cisco and have been surrounded by high-tech since it became "a thing." I learned BASIC programming on a PET computer with an external cassette tape drive. I remember when the land where my office is now was an orange grove. (And that doesn't make me all that old...)

Articles

September 24, 2017

COLLABORATION

7 Reasons to Zip Over to WebEx

6 min read

Success depends on connections. But it’s not enough just to have the ability to connect. The right connections matter. So who do you trust for online meetings? Rely on secure, scalable meetings with Cisco WebEx -- the trusted industry leader in video and web conferencing.

August 2, 2017

COLLABORATION

How Sales Teams Can Transform Customer Relationships

3 min read

Collaboration technology can both improve the way sales teams collaborate internally, as well as evolve customer contact from phone calls to a collaborative experience. When customers are engaged and feel connected, they are more likely to buy into what you’re selling.

July 31, 2017

COLLABORATION

Shifting Marketing to a New Way of Collaboration

3 min read

Improving the way internal and external teams collaborate can take a marketing campaign to that next level. Collaboration solutions use technology to constantly innovate the way employees and customers communicate with each other.

July 20, 2017

COLLABORATION

Improving Healthcare Experiences with Collaboration: Case Studies

5 min read

At the very core, healthcare is about collaboration between caregivers and patients. Read on for examples of how healthcare organizations worldwide are improving patient care and business processes using collaboration technologies.

July 18, 2017

COLLABORATION

Better Collaboration Delivers Better Education: Case Studies

5 min read

Schools and universities are finding new ways to face the myriad challenges from advancing technology: student expectations, educator techniques to keep students engaged, and regular business (budgets, enrollment, growth, competition).

July 17, 2017

COLLABORATION

Using Collaboration Technology to Improve Hiring

3 min read

Travel costs restrict the ability of HR to interview a variety of talent, resulting in inefficient hiring processes. Collaboration technology helps avoid settling with "good enough" local candidates.

July 5, 2017

COLLABORATION

Collaboration at #CLUS, Final Wrap: “Ahh, the Cloud” and Endangered Chickens

4 min read

The final day of Cisco Live US didn’t disappoint. The week closed with a full agenda of sessions, innovation talks, and – of course – the celebrity keynote. Collaboration VP and CTO Jonathan Rosenberg made a room full of people nervous – on purpose. The session title probably provided a clue: “Worried About Putting Your Data in the Cloud? Good, You Should Be.” Speaking of nervous people, Bryan Cranston's celebrity keynote had a strange (and hilarious) focus on the fate of farmyard chickens.

June 29, 2017

COLLABORATION

Collaboration at #CLUS, Day 3 Wrap: Thinking about Security

3 min read

I may be on the collaboration team, but the security stuff always fascinates me. The stats around cyber crime are mind melting. Today’s keynote focused on security, which is always a timely topic, but even more so today.

June 28, 2017

COLLABORATION

Collaboration at #CLUS, Day 2 Wrap: IT Superheroes in Flight

3 min read

Tuesday was another day of talks, tech, and more tech for the 28,000 attendees in Las Vegas, not to mention the even larger online audiences. A stat I heard today: 11,000 of this year's event attendees are first-time attendees. That's a lot of new faces at the so-called "summer camp for nerds."

June 27, 2017

COLLABORATION

Collaboration at #CLUS, Day 1: Keynotes and Bears, Oh My

3 min read

The first day of Cisco Live 2017 Las Vegas is in the books. It was a busy day, to say the least. The morning started with the opening keynote and jumped right into the World of Solutions and tech sessions throughout the day. It was nonstop technology. An overview of the day's events with a spin toward the collaboration world.

June 24, 2017

COLLABORATION

Collaboration at #CLUS: Get Ready to Fly Like a Superhero!

3 min read

What’s up for the collaboration fans among the badge-wearing masses at Cisco Live this week? Plenty! Education sessions, innovation talks from execs, demos in World of Solutions, an entire village of partners, testing for certifications… Like I said, plenty. Whether you're here in Vegas or attending online, there's plenty to keep you going.

June 12, 2017

COLLABORATION

Join Cisco Collaboration at InfoComm 2017

4 min read

Are you headed to Orlando for InfoComm 2017? We’re packing up our favorite collaboration demos and heading to the Orlando Convention Center to share how you can use our tech to simplify the way your teams work.

May 11, 2017

COLLABORATION

Connected Education and the Power of Video

2 min read

Schools at all levels are finding that collaboration technology can help students and teachers connect -– whether for group projects, online lectures and coursework, or spontaneous ad-hoc sessions. With the Cisco Digital Education Platform, institutions can provide a secure and seamless integration of collaboration technology including Cisco WebEx and Cisco Spark with other learning-management systems to ensure their students and faculty are able to do their best work.

April 21, 2017

COLLABORATION

Guest Post: Forest Conservation in an Agile Era

2 min read

Norway has few protected forests; many risk being lost. Biologist Trude Myhre uses Cisco Spark to share data with her team to document the loss and push for stronger protections.

March 30, 2017

COLLABORATION

Enterprise Connect 2017, Day 4: Panels, Quotes, Bunnies, Oh My!

4 min read

Things were a bit quieter at Enterprise Connect today as the event came to a close with a few morning sessions and the final summary panel. The bits and bytes and shiny new hardware and software are great, but as many people repeated this week – it’s about the experience, it’s about the people, it’s about what technology allows us to do that makes the difference.

March 29, 2017

COLLABORATION

Enterprise Connect 2017, Day 3: Best in Show and the Toaster Fridge

2 min read

In today’s episode, I’m pleased to share that Cisco received the Best of Enterprise Connect 2017 for Cisco Spark Board. This morning started off on a very positive note when we Jens Meggers was invited to the stage to accept the Best of Enterprise Connect 2017 for Cisco Spark Board.

March 28, 2017

COLLABORATION

Enterprise Connect 2017, Day 2: It’s All About the Experience

2 min read

Today’s episode features the Cisco keynote presentation from Jens Meggers and some cool demos. Today was the first day of keynotes with Cisco, Twilio, and Amazon Web Services. It was an interesting morning with three very different presentations.

March 27, 2017

COLLABORATION

Enterprise Connect 2017, Day 1: Panels, New Products, Gators

4 min read

In today’s episode, I cover a few of the day's panel discussions and provide an overview of the latest Cisco product announcements. Cisco execs Javed Khan, Chris Botting, and Jens Meggers held strong on three good panels, And we announced more innovations and capabilities for the Cisco Spark platform. All in all, it was a busy day -- and a good one.