As I mentioned in my previous posts on Cisco Live (Cisco Live Las Vegas – Last Minute Tips and Surviving Cisco Live 2011), one of the most important things to bring to Cisco Live is comfortable shoes! To prove a point, I promised I’d try and remember to bring my pedometer to Las Vegas and get some walking stats together for you.
Image: nuttakit / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
So how far do you think I walked each day? A mile? A couple of miles? 10 miles?
Data Source
I’m the proud (?) owner of the memorably named Omron HJ-720ITC pedometer. It’s a bit bulky but has the advantage of a USB port for data upload to the PC and a 42-day memory storing hourly data. Omron provides software to pull the data off the device and I can then export it as CSV and manipulate it in Excel to account for time zone differences and so forth. All distances quoted are in miles.
Travel to Vegas
For the sake of clarity, I’m looking at travel separately from the Cisco Live event itself. I flew in to Las Vegas on Sunday, arriving in the wee hours of Monday morning so I have combined the early Monday hours with the Sunday data to cover travel to Vegas as a single figure.
1.3 miles – not bad going given that I sat in a couple of airplanes most of the time.
Monday
My first day at the conference – registration, remembering how to get around the conference center, taking an exam, and then in the evening a walk to Rick Moonen’s seafood (within Mandalay Bay) followed by a taxi to the Rio to see Penn & Teller, a taxi back, and back to my room. Shouldn’t be too bad, right?
Yeah. This didn’t work out to be the lazy day I had anticipated, did it?
Tuesday
Tuesday the breakouts began for me in earnest. I also had a walk from the conference center to the Four Seasons hotel for the CCIE/DE Netvet reception with John Chambers, and in the evening, a coach to the CCIE Party, then back to the Mandalay Bay where we ended up, as I recall, in Ri Ra’s Irish bar in the Mandalay Place shopping mall thingy.
Go figure – I walked less with all that activity than I did on Monday! Still, 4.7 miles is in no way a shabby distance to stroll around.
Wednesday
More breakouts, an realy dinner at Red, White and Blue, back to the room, then off to the Customer Appreciation Event. Perhaps surprisingly, despite not having the back and forth of Tuesday, I still clocked up:
Thursday
My final day of breakout sessions; dinner at the Burger Bar, then walked up to the Luxor to see Carrot Top. On the way back, stopped in at Ri Ra again (oh, the humanity).
I was slacking off – but since it involved slacking off in Ri Ra, I think I should forgive myself.
Friday
I started my travel home today. I was supposed to get all the way back in a day, but due to mechanical issues delaying our Vegas flight, we missed our Atlanta connection and had to stay overnight in ATL. Scores on the doors for Friday:
Saturday
The continuation of our trip home – ugh.
The Final Verdict
A seven day trip.
Ten or so breakout sessions.
One exam.
Two pairs of shoes (one comfortable, one not).
Over twenty four miles. Ow, my feet! They say that exercise is 50% mental – I’d argue that in this case, education is 50% physical.
So there you have it. Be prepared, when you come to Cisco Live, to walk a good distance – even if you don’t leave the hotel attached to the conference center (when there is one), you’re still likely to hit a healthy twenty miles or so. Bring shoes (and socks) that are broken in and comfortable – you’re going to be giving them a work out! Happy walking, and see you next year!
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