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Rant: How Much Does Cisco Live Europe REALLY Cost ?

15th November 2010 by 11 Comments

I’m going to have a rant here.

So I’m thinking about going to Cisco Live Europe because it’s in London this time. I head over to check out the options. When I think about heading to the checkout, I get two things. One is the VAT – now, it’s never nice to realise that VAT is an extra and its kind of creepy to add it after but VAT varies in different parts of the world so maybe fair enough.

But the booking fee, now that’s really unpleasant.

ciscolive-booking-fee.jpg

Thats £30 or USD$50 to buy a ticket.

Let remember that London is one of the most expensive cities in the world for food and accommodation – say £80 a night for a hotel. Even public transport costs a bomb (and I live in the UK).

What about Cisco Live US.

So I checked the US event, they don’t have a booking fee. Now that’s a little bit unfair and makes it even harder to choke on.

ciscolive-booking-fee-us.jpg

The EtherealMind View

I have to pay for Cisco Live out of my own pocket, not some quasi-unlimited corporate fund. If I’m paying 1200 pounds for an event I don’t want to be ripped off by a booking fee. But £30 !!!! Five quid maybe even ten, but that’s surely a ripoff. The event organisers (who aren’t Cisco by the way) are getting a bit greedy here.

So it’s £250 pounds more than I was expecting, and now I have to think again.

Is it worth going ? Is anyone else going ?

Filed Under: Blog, Rant
About Greg Ferro

Greg Ferro is a Network Engineer/Architect, mostly focussed on Data Centre, Security Infrastructure, and recently Virtualization. He has over 20 years in IT, in wide range of employers working as a freelance consultant including Finance, Service Providers and Online Companies. He is CCIE#6920 and has a few ideas about the world, but not enough to really count.

He is a host on the Packet Pushers Podcast, blogger at EtherealMind.com and on Twitter @etherealmind and Google Plus

  • Anton Aksola

    It’s my second Cisco Live Europe. I found the event to be ok but was expecting more for the money. Many people I met said the same thing.

    Still, the sessions were ok and it’s always nice to meet new people. So going to attend.

    • http://etherealmind.com Greg Ferro

      Yeah, it not a compelling event. I would LIKE to go, but I won’t miss it if I can’t.

  • http://www.jozjan.net Jozef

    I had a great chance to attend Cisco Live Networkers last year in Barcelona. The lectures were absolutely amazing, great people, great topics and I’ve made there few new connections. So that was the great part, maybe the more important part.
    On the other hand, the food, welcome party … well that was something else. At the end of the first day, I was having an off-line discussion with a speaker that lasted about one hour – so when I moved downstairs to enjoy the welcome party, I was surprised that it was already over
    Also, what was a bit surprising for me was that I had real difficulties to find and get any information in English language in Barcelona. The most funny situation was with the taxi driver who did not speak any English – fortunately he understood “airport” and “terminal uno”.

  • cos

    At least down in Australia I found that going every year felt like not enough had changed (especially for the lecture content) – going every 2 years would probably be a better strategy (though I missed out on going last year, which would’ve been the first test of that theory…).

    • http://etherealmind.com Greg Ferro

      I took last year off from Live for the same reasons. But it’s in London, UK where I live so it’s easier to get to.

      I’m still peeved about the ticket fee. I can understand a fee for a concert ticket of thirty quid (well, almost) but i can’t understand gouging thirty pounds on a 1200 pound ticket.

  • Evan

    Go in Australia, here its $1750 with the CCIE discount.
    If you want a technical seminar its another $525 though.

  • http://security-planet.de Karsten

    Since six years I only attend the US-networkers. With the exchange rate for US$, it’s not much more money (I also pay on my own), and many people I spoke to say the presenters are better in the US. And one reason more for attending the networkers in US: Next year it’s again in Las Vegas.

  • scott owens

    Hello,

    I went to Live in Vegas ( the largest display of flesh I have ever seen ) and paid for it out of my own pocket too.
    Almost any class ( I took 1 x 4 hour VSS class) made the event worthwhile.

    The ability to talk to the security authors, the nexus bu folks, the wireless aquisition employee, the aaa / radius/802.1x gal, … worth every penny
    To sit down at lunch and sketch out my multicast design/needs and then go over to the 5K/2K dual home/active/active FEX port channel guys …. priceless ( new code allows this too )

    Gotta sell a kid to go … maybe …
    Anything else … worthwhile.

    I’m looking forward to next year .

  • http://blogg.kvistofta.nu Jimmy Larsson

    One of the greatest advantages of visiting networkers/live has always been to get hold of those PDF:s with the powerpoints. When it comes to sources of technical information those slides are imho the far best single source ever. It doesnt matter if it is about MPLS, EEM or 802.1x, it is all there. It is explained, in detail in a top-down approach, and you dont have to chase the information on CCO.

    So when I first found out that I can buy access to Cisco Live Virtual to get hold of (almost) all the sessions without travveling, without leaving home, without paying a fortune in fees and travel expenses, I got SO happy. Now I have all ppt:s from Vegas in my computer and a few weeks after the London event I will have all sessions from there available aswell. And it will cost my only a fraction of what it would cost to be onsite in London, both in time and money.

    Hurray for Cisco live Virtual!

    /Jimmy

  • http://www.knillconsulting.com David Knill

    If money is a concern, then I’d definitely stick to Cisco Live Virtual. The presentations by themselves are worth the subscription. Outside of that, I’d stick to the US version. I personally think that Las Vegas is the best place for a convention for the extra curricular activities (it provides every possible way of getting in trouble!).

    Another factor should be Jet Lag for folks in the US. I’ve been to Europe several times for both work and pleasure, and going East through 6 to 9 time zones is simply painful. It makes it hard to absorb extremely technical content. Just a thought.

    I’ll be going in 2011. See you there.

  • http://security-planet.de Karsten

    The Jetlag is the reason I always fly in about three or four days before the event starts. So I have some nice days of vacation and I don’t fall asleep on the first day of techtorials as some of my colleagues did …