Thank you, Cisco!

It was a bitter-sweet drive to work today as I headed to the Cisco Herndon office for what may be the last time. Today is my last day at Cisco and tomorrow I begin a new adventure. It's been a fantastic ride this go around and I'm so thankful that I had the opportunity to re-unite with my old colleagues. All of you welcomed me back with wide-open arms and I'm so grateful for that. What a great company I have had the privilege of working for and what an awesome journey it's been.

We accomplished so much in the last 26 months that I thought it might be fun to take a quick trip down memory lane and throw out some thank you's along the way. We got off to a quick start in the Spring of 2016. My team of former Acano sellers were tasked with helping educate our Cisco colleagues, new partners, and many, many customers on the value-prop of the Acano software and server.

My trusty SE: Ron Coe, Jr. and I spent the first few months "Vibing" down in Richmond at the Whitlock show with our friends from DLA and talking telemed with the MATRC folks out on the Eastern Shore. At the MATRC event, I got to meet the King of Virginia SLED: Richard Shumaker, and we quickly became friends

We then experienced the craziness of Cisco end-of-year madness which was quickly followed by Cisco GSX (Sales Kickoff). At GSX we watched in awe as Rowan dumped a bunch of old conferencing gear on the stage and then this really awesome new collaboration system dropped from the ceiling. When we returned home we were ecstatic to learn that our new primary sales focus would be working directly with the Collaboration BU to help launch this fantastic new solution.

A few months of covertly gathering customer feedback ensued. We delivered some fantastic "sneak previews" with the help of our friends in Norway (Thank you, Karl Erik & Annemarie!). The days and NDA sessions flew by and next thing you know we were ready for the Spark Board Product Launch in February. While a few of my colleagues were able to join the big unveil out in San Jose, Ron and I hosted over 120 customers and partners in Herndon, Va. Finally, we were able to speak freely about the Spark Board!

By this point in the fiscal year, we knew that it was going to be an absolute race to the finish line at the end of July. So what did Ron and I do? We commandeered a Spark Board from Jen Kang for six weeks, got very friendly with our local Hertz SUV rental facility, and drove that 87.7 lb screen all over the country. Those of you that know me know that I like to have a lot of fun at work. And boy did we have some fun.

ROAD TRIPS!

At each stop along the way, we often had new capabilities to demonstrate as our cloud registered system just kept improving. In the pic to the right we are seen pushing the Board in to the Raleigh Open House. It was awesome having our friends Hector and Rich stop by to see the Board for the first time.

Our friends/Spark Ambassadors: Robert Hawley and Tony Cuevas helped make the Charlotte Open House so hot that we had to throw down a quick Dab with Cam Newton.

@LadyNetwkr even gave us a ring and asked if we could help with an event that took place right by the Capitol Building. You don't say no to that photo opportunity!

While we're talking about DC, I would be remiss if I didn't mention the fine work that the "Deputy Mayor of DC" Kurt Einwaechter and Phillip Chappell have been doing with Spark Boards all over the District. We were honored to work with the DCPS and several DC Govt. departments to implement this new technology. One of my favorite moments was when we installed them at this amazing new business incubator: the Inclusive Innovation Incubator. The Spark Boards were so well received that the real Mayor stopped by to sign one.

Demonstrations, sales meetings, quoting, and dragging around Spark Boards was an important part of the job but some of my favorite moments occurred when we were with the end-users showing them how to incorporate Spark in to their workflows.

We enjoyed doing a bit of pre-testing at home:

Then we spent a few days and had a lot of laughs with our friends over at AvidXchange as they opened up a new cutting edge HQ (AvidXChange Unveils Technology Campus) in Charlotte. This amazing facility is loaded to the brim with Spark Boards. Thanks for all your help Ebony, Jason, and Roeder!

And we were blessed to have my friend Linda Uli stop by our client's office in Springfield, Va. to help with a training day. I love the applications for Spark within the Utilities industry.

My extended teams at Cisco have been fantastic to work with and I know that Cisco (and those shares :) will continue to keep rising due to their talents. The Tennessee lads: Ruhland, Matheny, George, and Schuler, took me under their wings as we hopped around Memphis & Nashville. Blocher, Burton, Hocevar, Roeder, and Frankie down in the Carolinas showed me their Southern Hospitality and awesome sales skills. And there's really too many to name in the Mid-Atlantic but I will throw a few special shout-outs and thank-you's to Wallace, Hughes, Win, Dennis O., KelChun, Dutcher, Ademola, Molina, Kessinger, Toby "Strength & Honor" Carson, AP^2, Sean Ryan, Seasholtz, Randy Benn, Brennan, and Zaki.

But this journey wouldn't have been what it was without my awesome "Spark Board Assassins" teammates helping me along as I figured the in's and out's of how to sell the Spark Board. Our Assassin's Spark room was a great place to stop by for a quick laugh but the times we got to hang together were the best. They're a great team to have a beer with at Tootsies, are pretty decent skiers, and are all damn good collaboration sellers. I wish my team continued success and certainly hope to keep in touch as we continue our careers.

Thank you to my company, customers, partners, and colleagues for an awesome ride! I'm so grateful for the times and fun that we had. Oh and a big shout-out to my wife: Charity, for putting up with me traveling all over the place. Charity knows the exact weight of that Spark Board (87.7 lbs) because she helped me load it up on countless occasions.

The next adventure starts soon.

Interested in why I left and where I'm headed? See my next post: Time to Play some Sweet Sweet Jazz

Follow me on Twitter at: @AlexAtJazz

Email me at: Alex.Price at JazzNetworks . com

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Thank you!