Feeling the blues about missing in-person events??

[Amanda415]

Excited for Meraki's first-ever user conference but definitely missing in-person events. What do you miss the most about in-person events?! 

 meeting new people and networking between sessions!

[alanawolf]

I definitely miss meeting new people and networking... it's been too long.  And who doesn't love a good. networking happy hour?!

[Inderdeep]

@Amanda415 : good to see first ever event of Meraki, Of course missing to connect with the people to learn more and looking forward to connect in 2022 in-person for sure. 

[KarstenI]

My two highlights of the year (well, some time ago) are the CiscoLive and the WirelessLAN Professionals Conference. Not only for the sessions as these are later available online, but meeting likeminded people, having some drinks or meals together can never be replaced by any online event. I am desperately missing it!

(There is a third thing I miss in a same way, my spring-cycling vacation on Majorca, but for all three, I hope for 2022!)

[helenlee]

Definitely +100 to meeting new people from different places, perspectives, and plans. Learning how to do this better virtually- forums like this help.

[PhilipDAth]

I've tried attending virtual events.  I don't bother anymore.  It's too easy to go off task.  The phone rings.  A collaboration message pops up.  The events are often centred around a single timezone so you have to attend at horrible times of the day.  Events often place everyone on mute.  Limited chance to interact, ask questions and get feedback.  Getting a response to questions is often a lottery if the presenter decides to respond.

What to I miss - being trapped at the physical event so you can devote all of your attention to it.  Building personal relationships.  Drinks and food at the after event functions.  Stands, stores, and seeing and touching things.

[wldn_bearded]

I agree, @PhilipDAth. I tend to join the event and continue working in the background. I miss most of what's said. Online events may have good information, but it's the networking and building relationships that really draw me. Food is a nice bonus, though it can feel like a band-aid for weak or uninteresting presentations.

[Inderdeep]

@PhilipDAth : agree with you sir, I did attend some events and it’s exact the same if you got a office call in between you are off track. Of course in-person events are always fruitful in terms to build relationships and focus on tech announcements 😊

[BlakeRichardson]

@PhilipDAth Yes I really need to get myself sorted to make it to one of the local Meraki meet ups. 

[Tom236]

I miss the connection to meet new people and sometimes get me out of my comfort zone and also hopefully travelling to a nice place!

[GIdenJoe]

I definitely agree with @PhilipDAth here.  When you are in an in person event, you are actually AFW ( away from work ).  If the event is virtual then you can still be taken out of concentration by colleagues or customers.

[ChewBird]

I attended my first event back in 1996 where Network Plus was birthed.  Back in those dark ages Media firms would fly us to the events, put us up on resorts, and vendors would actually provide incentives to work with them.  Through in-person events I had the opportunity to meet many people in the technology industry, visit media test centers for products, provide knowledge for industry exams, and meet real people with whom I shared business for mutual benefit.  I do miss that level of interaction.  That said, the level of sharing also required great discretion, trust, and actual friendships were born.  I still work with people from 1996 and many other years from when companies would literally rent "The Streets of New York" in Vegas for all of us.

[Inderdeep]

@ChewBird : don’t worry you will get that level of interaction next year for sure. Finger crossed hope all sorted out next year!

[CptnCrnch]

Oh boy, I'm so much lookung forward to attending an i-person Cisco Live again... 😌

[KarstenI]

7th to 10th of February 2022 ... The date conference live comes back to (more or less) normal, hopefully ...