The beautiful (if wet) countryside was the setting for this year’s Ireland Partner Forum, where customers and partners from across the country joined forces to share Cisco’s vision for the year ahead and celebrate a great year for our Irish network.
With a diverse array of speakers, partner displays and inspiration from across the pond in the form of Cisco Chief Technology and Strategy Officer Padmasree Warrior, guests enjoyed a day of insight, innovation and a healthy dose of tech talk.
The message of the day was that ‘the time is now’ – as we sit on the verge of the next wave of the internet, the Internet of Things (IoT), we’re faced with an opportunity like never before to transform businesses as their IT spend moves firmly into innovation.
“You can never cross the ocean unless you have the courage to lose sight of the shore” was my opening gambit to guests, as I explained that market transitions mean that we need to respond faster than ever to the changing business landscape. Now is the time to evolve quickly to meet the needs of our customers.
Padma Warrior brought a truly global presence to proceedings, telling guests that “the world is changing rapidly, and every company needs to become a digital company.”
Sheshowcased the various start-ups Cisco is supporting worldwide through initiatives like the IoT Grand Security Challenge and our IoE innovation centres, and why portfolio companies areso important as we take innovation ‘to the edge’.
Next up was a chat with UKI CEO Phil Smith, who quizzed Padma on everythingfrom her experiences as a woman working in tech to her vision of the future. A key takeaway from Padma was the importance of taking time out, which she achieves through her own once-weekly ‘digital detox’. “Charge your creativity, give back to your community and don’t feel guilty about it – pay attention to the important things in life,” she enthused.
This was a fitting sentiment to end on as we wrapped up the day’s activity for an evening celebration of our Irish partner achievements. Six of our best-performing Irish partners collected gongs,and I’d like to offer my congratulations to Arkphire, BT Ireland, Hibernia Evros, MJ Flood, Vodafone and Island Networks for all their hard work throughout the year.
This has been our biggest and best Ireland Partner Forum yet, and I couldn’t be more excited about the year ahead for Cisco in Ireland. See you next year!
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