| EVENT REPORT 06.29.09 1:43 PM |
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Cisco Caps Three-Day Partner Summit With Executives-Only Rock 'n Roll Gala
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 | Performers break dancing at Cisco's gala
Photo: David Fox |
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FROM BOSTON
Global networking technology company Cisco held its annual Partners Summit in Boston June 2 through June 4, when it looked for ways to wow its sales partners on a significantly reduced budget.
"The whole program was scaled down from years past," said Richard Toscano, director of special events at George P. Johnson, who worked with Cisco to plan the summit. "In the past we’ve had 4,000 to 5,000 attendees—this year it was cut down to 2,000."
A smaller event meant a more exclusive crowd. "We strategically scaled back to a more executive level," said Stacy Glavinos, event program manager at Cisco. "We went from 43 percent executives last year to 59 percent, so everything had to be tweaked to that executive level."
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Cisco |
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| EVENT INTELLIGENCE 06.15.07 10:45 AM |
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Who's Really Going Green?
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Heather Henderson has set an ambitious goal. As the operations manager for Cisco Systems' "Networkers at Cisco Live," a 10,000-head annual user conference, Henderson already has plenty on her plate: The conference packs in roughly 500 educational sessions, a trio of networking and entertainment evenings, and a trade show with more than 150 exhibitors. That's not stopping her, though, from forging ahead with a plan to make nearly every aspect of the conference—from paper to electricity to food—environmentally friendly by 2009.
"This year, we're moving to be more green," she says of Cisco's five-day program, which the network equipment manufacturer holds in a different city each summer. "We're taking small steps." Some of those steps include working with the caterer to provide biodegradable plates and utensils and saving paper by printing handouts only when users request them—and, in those cases, printing on recycled paper with soy inks.
"It's a pretty aggressive undertaking," she says, acknowledging that although awareness of eco-friendliness is up, many meeting and event pros aren't yet making the leap from awareness to action. "People are changing their behavior to some extent, but not to the extent it needs to be to make a huge impact."
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Going Green, Cisco, Environmental Media Association, Oscars, Domino Magazine, Prudential, Designers & Agents, Sundance |
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