"If we think about what's possible, we can only dream of what we can do together." -Chuck Robbins

Monday busy Monday. Cisco Live 2018 is officially underway. For some, the pre-conference meetings and certification testing started yesterday, but the main event kicked off this morning. Today included the opening keynote, the unveiling of the World of Solutions and DevNet Zone, and sessions, sessions, sessions.

Opening Keynote

If you'd had too much coffee and not enough sleep, the magical musical intro to the keynote could have been a challenge. And that's after you experienced the warm-up host with a hot dog cannon as the room filled to capacity. Yes, flying hot dogs. No need to call animal control, just pass the mustard.

Cisco Chairman and CEOChuck Robbins started his remarks with optimism: "We see the network as an exponential force for good."

"When you think about infinite connections, you almost have to think about infinite possibilities."Chuck Robbins

Optimism threaded through his comments as he focused on how by we can do amazing things by combining technology and our collective efforts. Of course, for me, that screams "collaboration" loud and clear. More than 400 million more people connected to the internet in the last year. That creates opportunity, not just jobs, but education, healthcare, community, and more.

"It's all about the networks of people. Who do we connect with? How do we create power by being connected?" Chuck Robbins

Multiple guests joined Chuck on stage Google Cloud CEO Diane Green. It's good to hear from the execs behind some of the major industry collaboration efforts. Likewise, guests from Children's Hospital Los Angeles shared a great story about how Cisco technology is helping support the delivery of life-changing care. (See the case study video at the end of the post.)

Collaboration Reimagined 

Collaboration VP and CTO Jonathan Rosenberg took over the Innovation Theater in the afternoon with some serious geek talk. And Cisco Live is definitely the place for it. How geeky? In Jonathan's own words:"If there's one event where you can put IP address ranges on a slide and get people to clap, it's Cisco Live."

In his presentation, he covered five key areas that the latest, greatest advancements in collaboration technology address.

• The Webex backbone -how we deliver high-quality video via public cloud services
• SaaS security -meeting enterprise compliance needs in consumer-like, multicompany collaboration
• Video mesh -the delivery of premises-grade video with a cloud solution
• Proximity -making it easy to join a meeting on an endpoint, while making sure only the right people can listen in
• Intelligent assistants for the workplace -the key identity and security differences between consumer solutions like Alexa and Google home and what's required in the enterprise

Watch Jonathan's full presentation -and catch the post-session interview - above.

World of Solutions

With almost 1 million square feet of space to explore, there's plenty to do. In addition to the normal booth chaos, it's the home of the Social Media Hub, DevNet Zone, and some of the different theaters. The Cisco campus is set up differently this year. Instead of being organized by technology, it's more oriented about how and where you use the technology. For example, you'll find a lot of the collaboration gear in the "Employee and Customer Experience" areas as well as the "Branch" space. It puts our products in context with other technologies you'd implement with them. Kinda cool.

What's Up for Tuesday?

David Goeckler, EVP and General Manager, Networking and Security Business,  will deliver the technology keynote at 10:30 a.m., ET. If you're not live in Orlando, catch it online on the Cisco home page or at ciscolive.com/us.

Make a difference while you're here at#CLUS. Visit the Social Impact zone and spend an hour doing good for people in need.

Want videos and other good stuff from the Cisco Live event team? Check out the CLUS Daily Highlights page.

Meanwhile, check out what's happening at Children's Hospital Los Angeles.