How important will Interop be for Cisco this year?

When you go to Interop and you see other companies providing live demos of their products, do you wonder what is Cisco doing? Last year in Las Vegas I asked someone from Cisco why they have no live demos and just PowerPoint's at most stations. I was told that they decided to cut back on the budget for conferences.

I thought to myself what a bad idea as last year Arista Networks was right next to Cisco and seemed to have way more people in their both. (See picture of me and former Cisco-ite Jayshree Ullal, now president and CEO of Arista, right.) They also had live product showing customers how much the product could handle in connections and bandwidth. Cisco had some racked gear on display. Other vendors also had live product, demonstrations and plenty of executives on hand to answer questions.

Show-offs: The 2nd Annual Larry Awards for Best of Interop Presentation

I wonder if this will be the year Chambers and his executives spend time on the floor talking to customers and potential customers? Chambers could take note of many small companies or startups at Interop, even the way they work their booths and show live demonstrations. Customers like to see how new products work. They like to be able to play with things. Cisco could do this to gain interest. I also think they need to have the brightest people at Interop to answer all questions. The one thing that cannot have happen is a customer asking a question to someone who does not know. They need to remove the hire hands at Interop and put their own people in place.

Last year LifeSize and Vidyo has full booths full or live video demonstrations, why can't Cisco have a live Telepresence room? I do think Cisco can make a much better effort for this year and I hope they do. I hope they show off all of their routing and switch gear live for customers. I hope they show off what Cisco can do for the cloud and UC. If it's not the same old Cisco at Interop, giving out t-shirts and showing PowerPoint's, Interop could be a telling point for Cisco, showing that Chambers is getting back to the roots of the company, routing and switching.

Disclosure: I have not received a briefing request from Cisco since I have been going to Interop and it does not look good for this year. But I will show up to the booth and hope for the best.