CISCO LIVE 2026 AMSTERDAM

The Vision: Building the AI Foundation

By February 2026, the global conversation around AI had drastically shifted. It was no longer a question of if AI would disrupt enterprise infrastructure, but who would step up to provide the sovereign, scalable foundation to make it a reality.

Enter Cisco Live 2026 Amsterdam. Over five action-packed days at the RAI Convention Centre, 21,000 technology professionals, ranging from deep-tech engineers to high-level executives, gathered to see exactly how Cisco is powering the critical infrastructure for the AI era. The objective was to design a technically rich, highly engaging environment that challenged the community to start building this future together.

The Experience and Spatial Design

The event relied on a customer-first design philosophy, using years of attendee feedback to intentionally refine every single touchpoint. To tell a unified story, a brand-new visual identity for Cisco Live was introduced, creating a seamless and cohesive aesthetic across the entire venue.

Key spatial design and user-experience highlights included:

• The Connected Journey: Attendees were guided from the moment they landed in Amsterdam via a mobile app notification, which unlocked indoor navigation and interactive venue maps.
• Balanced Environments: The meeting spaces accommodated over 3,200 sessions by balancing high-energy networking hubs with calm, focused zones for deeper collaboration.
• The Social Impact Area: A dedicated zone featuring Cisco Crisis Response equipment to showcase technology deployments during emergencies, alongside an interactive globe highlighting social impact case studies.
• The Cisco Live Celebration: A massive customer appreciation evening featuring a best-in-class stage production spread across four distinct themed zones.

Heavy-Hitting Technical Infrastructure

The technical execution was built to both awe and educate the tech community through live-action setups:

• The Record-Breaking Keynote: The main stage featured a massive 52-meter, two-million-pixel screen, the largest in the history of the RAI. This backdrop hosted Cisco executives, including Jeetu Patel and Gordon Thomson, alongside customers to highlight real-world technology partnerships.
• Live-Action Network Security: The show floor featured a fully operational, onsite Cisco Security Operations Centre (SOC) and Network Operations Centre (NOC). This monitored and defended the event’s network in real-time, giving engineers a live, at-scale masterclass in network security.
• Immersive Learning: The event coordinated over 1,600 sessions across the week, including tailored multi-day tracks for IT Managers, executive-level programs, more than 500 technical breakouts, and hands-on labs and clinics.

Sustainability Built-In

Sustainability was treated as a core design foundation rather than an afterthought. Through an ongoing circular design approach, the event minimised environmental impact across the board:

• Emissions & Waste: Achieved a 24% reduction in CO2 emissions compared to the previous year, alongside a 12% reduction in visitor waste per head since 2025. General waste fell below 50% of the event’s total waste for the first time since 2023.
• Material Reductions: Reduced single-use carpet installation by 28% and saved 853,425 pieces of tableware through reusable alternatives. Automated waste stream sorting also increased drink can recycling by 65%.
• Community Contributions: Donated 1,950 meals to local projects and the Salvation Army , alongside 40 boxes of materials (graphics, furniture, cables) given to local schools and artists’ collectives.
• The NoWa Activation: An interactive hardware-recycling feature allowed attendees to dismantle over 300 old phones, successfully recovering 1,461.24 grams of precious metals (Gold, Silver, and Copper) to be repurposed into jewellery instead of going to a landfill.

The Outcomes

• Live Attendance: Welcomed over 21,000+ attendees, soundly beating the initial expectation of 18,500.
• Global Reach: Hit 47.8 million broadcast views the week of Cisco Live, a 45% increase year on year.
• Sponsor Alignment: Engaged more than 100 sponsors on the show floor, making this our largest ever partner-led exhibition and representing a 17% increase from 2025.

Cisco Live 2026 Amsterdam became the most successful event in Cisco EMEA history, comfortably beating every commercial, experiential, and operational target set by the planning team.