How Cisco Used Social Technology to Reinvent the Large Conference Experience

Since Cisco launched its flagship Cisco Live conference, the tech world has changed dramatically, and the myriad ways people connect and stay in touch have brought both challenges and opportunities—especially when it comes to virtual participants.

In a recent initiative to integrate today's social technologies into conference communications and foster greater interaction with virtual attendees and on-site participants alike, the tech giant turned to social media communication tools, hoping to gradually transform the nature of conversations through technology.

Using Cisco's own Spark messaging platform, "we created virtual rooms for specific topics that people could become part of before the event, and you could start conversations with speakers and other attendees," said Kathy Doyle, Cisco's global head of customer conferences.

In June, Doyle and her team held the conference in nearly 1 million square feet of exhibition space in Las Vegas, inviting about 28,000 attendees. They needed to find ways to ensure attendees didn't feel lost in the crowd. "Because it's such a large event, finding more ways to connect with our customers was crucial," she said. Additionally, for the first time, Cisco used Facebook Live to broadcast the event's keynotes, allowing Facebook users to watch in real time.

"After the keynotes, to engage our virtual audience, we offered them customized Q&A sessions with Cisco leadership," said Casey O'Looney, senior manager of global marketing at the company.

Before the live stream, questions were solicited via LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook, and then moved to the Facebook Live stream's comment feed, enabling users to participate in real time. While interacting through comment feeds isn't new for users, crowdsourcing real-time conversations with company executives was groundbreaking for Cisco.

O'Looney explained that it strengthened attendees' connection to the event and to the company itself. She said that direct feedback from executives gave individuals and remote attendees a greater sense of belonging.

She said: "Anyone who participated in the conversation felt heard and valued by the Cisco team."