I just got a notice that two of my ‘Twelve Days of UC’ wishes - the value of video and going green - are being addressed in a first of its kind town meeting that is being shown to a live audience during Cisco’s keynote session at VoiceCon in Florida on March 19th. Former Vice President, Al Gore, Cisco’s Chairman and CEO, John Chambers, and Cisco’s EVP, Chief Marketing Officer, Sue Bostrom, physically separated from each other by thousands of miles, will meet together in a virtual unified communications environment, to talk about how technology innovation can play a part in mitigating climate change. Using Cisco TelePresence, of course, these three will virtually meet on stage in front of live audiences in London, England, Orlando and several other places. Those attending the keynote will get to watch the live discussion via a TelePresence system that will be placed on stage, while others will get to see it in several other TelePresence rooms around the world. Those unable to attend can view it live as a streamed webcast session.
The keynote is at 11 am EST on March 19th.
Some of the topics they will be addressing include:
• the latest observations of the effects of global warming and the impact of information technology
• how businesses can reduce greenhouse gas emissions through innovation
• how the technology industry can help create the most sustainable model for addressing global climate change.
However, the public is also welcome to submit any questions for discussion.
I’m not going to miss this one even if I won’t physically be at VoiceCon as I’ll be at the VON show in San Jose that day. Although I have experienced TelePresence myself, its still pretty mind blowingly space age to see three people on stage interacting who aren’t physically on stage together, and its entirely fitting to be talking about how we can use such technology to reduce our reliance on things like fossil fuels to get us to a common meeting place. I’ll be sure to virtually participate as well.
If you are interested in attending the webcast you can register at www.cisco.com/offer/ecopanel. You can also submit topic ideas and panel questions to ecopanelquestions@external.cisco.com too.
The public is invited to submit topic ideas and panel questions to: ecopanelquestions@external.cisco.com.