Cisco Rallies Channel Staff Behind Closed Doors
John Chambers runs Cisco Systems. But this evening, Channel VP Chuck Robbins is calling the shots at the annual Cisco Partner Summit in Las Vegas. At this moment, Cisco's channel leaders are huddled with Robbins for an all-hands-on meeting at the Venetian Resort Hotel Casino. He's walking several hundred Cisco channel managers through the overall agenda, which includes a subtle jab against a big rival.
According to several tipsters in the meeting:
According to several tipsters in the meeting:
John Chambers runs Cisco Systems. But this evening, Channel VP Chuck Robbins is calling the shots at the annual Cisco Partner Summit in Las Vegas. At this moment, Cisco’s channel leaders are huddled with Robbins for an all-hands-on meeting at the Venetian Resort Hotel Casino. He’s walking several hundred Cisco channel managers through the overall agenda, which includes a subtle jab against a big rival.
According to several tipsters in the meeting:
- Registration for the event is now closed and the conference is sold out. Due to limited space, Cisco has actually turned away late-comers who didn’t pre-register for the event.
- The theme for the event will be “Aspire, Achieve.” Hmmm. More color commentary from The VAR Guy on that over the next few days.
- The company will re-launch several channel initiatives but The VAR Guy’s sources are under a gag-order. He expects them to finally spill the beans on Tuesday or Wednesday.
- Cisco plans to announced a digital inclusion initiative for underprivileged school kids. Former Cisco Chairman John Morgridge will be involved in the effort.
- Robbins closed the meeting by saying Cisco will get “a little bit more aggressive” regarding competitive messaging vs. Microsoft.
Hmmm. Wonder if Redmond is listening.
Hey Var Guy. I’m here too. Sounds like you either had a front row seat or you were one of the bus boys in the back of the room during the meeting. I did see a Mac user typing throughout the session. Was that you?
The VAR Guy was the person in the room with the Mac. Ooops. Actually he had a Dell. No, he was actually the person checking ID at the door. The VAR Guy can’t even confirm he was in the room. He was, however, spotted later that evening stuffing his face over at the Treasure Island Hotel and Casino’s dinner buffet.
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