Event Reports

CISCO Shadow Day for Women

This program was organized by CISCO's Women in Technology Action Network (WTAN) on 5 October 2007 at their San Jose campus. USF students Hellen, Arnie, Tushar, Nicholas and I attended the program.The participants were divided into groups of 3-5 and each group was assigned 2 mentors. The mentors were all female employees of CISCO and they were all extremely helpul with all our questions about technology, internship/job opportunities, life at CISCO etc.

CISCO's Telepresence product awed each of us. We were given a chance to take part in a Teleconference, which was very exciting! This new technology is all set to revolutionize the way the world does business. I will never be able to explain it better than these two videos: The Next Step in Global Meetings and Telepresence demo.

Network giants like CISCO are now using Second Life for their business-to-business communications. The advantage- You don't need to be in a conference room anymore. The hassle of setting up or reserving a conference room can now be avoided. You can now meet your clients or co-workers in the virtual world, demo products, conduct presentations and do all that you would in a face-to-face meeting. It was very interesting for us, to be teleported to CISCO's virtual space in Second Life.

A walk through of CISCO's Unified Communications applications, introduced us to some very fascinating toys! :) Their IP phones are the coolest way to communicate with instant messaging, video conferencing and seamless transition of a call from one phone to another. The 'one-number' facility ensures that you no longer miss calls or hang on to a long drawn conference call on your office phone. You can even check to see if another user is currently on a different call or not. No matter where you are or what you are doing, communication is no longer a hassle. As one of the presentators put it, literally "you can run, but you can't hide!"

The EBC (Executive Briefing Center) tour, showcased the current and future business needs and provided opportunities to interact with the CISCO experts. We were also shown around CISCO work areas and cubicles. The tour created in us, an interest to be a part of CISCO. We also had an interactive session over lunch, about the CISCO recruitment programs and opportunities.