I am pleased to announce that I have been invited to continue my work with the Cisco Champion program for 2017.

The Cisco Champion program provides early access to product development, and direct access to technology business units.    Some of the benefits of being a part of this program are

• Building relationships around the world with global, like-minded technology enthusiasts
• Participate in exclusive Cisco activities, tech briefings, and pre-launch announcements
• Leverage the Cisco network of Blogs, Social Media, and Ambassadors to publish and share content across Cisco

Wait isn’t this a blogger for hire program?

No.  It isn’t – go ahead and read my disclaimer – I’m not for sale, and Cisco receives no promise from me that I will publish something about their stuff.   As always, if I find it interesting – I will write about it.  Let me be PERFECTLY clear – I receive no renumeration for being in this program.   Obviously if they didn’t like my work, or my contribution, I wouldn’t be invited back – but – I have been.

Doesn’t this mean you have to say nice things?

I’m sure they would like me to – but go and look at last years blogs – it was not all positive, and I was quite critical of many things – but I feel my writing is fair, un-biased and honest.   So no, I am not required to be nice.

Why do you want to be in this program?

When cool new stuff comes out,  I like to talk to the designers, ask them the hard questions, this program provides me access to people INSIDE Cisco.    Part of why my perspective is the way it is, and the reason I get the detail that I get – is that I am given access, and time with the people that can answer the questions.   As a blogger/writer, this is invaluable to providing quality content.   A good example is my recent Spark Board coverage, the Cisco Champion program was instrumental in that early product access so that I could provide that content.