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Cisco kicks off its 2009 Partner Velocity conference in Paris Tuesday, and the networking titan is betting that the 150 or so partners in attendance have social media on the brain.
The conference, which will take place Tuesday through Thursday at Pullman Paris Rive Gauche, gathers analysts, media and Cisco channel partners from around the world to hear from marketing consultants on how to leverage social networking tools and other marketing trends as part of their efforts.
"It's purely external speakers, teaching them how to do marketing better," said Luanne Tierney, vice president of worldwide channels marketing at Cisco. "We're building on the whole aspect of social media tools. The No.1 question I get from partners is, 'How do I incorporate social media and end users into my marketing activities?' How do I take advantage?' "
Cisco has hosted Partner Velocity in Miami for the past two years but moved this installment of the conference -- its third -- to Paris so it could draw in more international partners, Tierney said. The attendee split at last year's Miami show was 70 percent U.S. channel partners and 30 percent international, but she expects the attendance in Paris will be split evenly between U.S., European and emerging markets.
Cisco capped registration at 150 organizations -- with mostly CEOs or marketing chiefs attending, Tierney said -- although the event was open to all Cisco partners. Distribution executives will also be in attendance, Cisco confirmed.
Partner Velocity is not designed to take the place of Cisco Channel Exchange, which the company last hosted in Portugal in November 2008 but has since been reworked as a primarily virtual event, Tierney said.
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