Advanced technological infrastructure and respect for the environment were showcased at the Cisco event held at the CCIB’s facilities
Barcelona January 29th, 2010.- The Barcelona International Convention Centre
(CCIB) welcomed one of the main annual conventions of the multinational company
specializing in technology, Cisco, for the European, Middle Eastern and African market
(EMEA). The event, attended by 4,000 professionals, took place from the 25th to the 28th
of January, and this was the third consecutive year the CCIB hosted the Networkers at
Cisco Live encounter, one of the most internationally important in the
telecommunications sector.
The CCIB is one of the few Centres in Europe that can house an event of these
characteristics at a single site, not only due to its size and the number of attendees, but
also because of its considerable technological and logistical resources as well as the
necessary venue flexibility and adaptability and easy access. In addition, the Centre
meets all the highest standards of environmental sustainability and respect that are
paramount at this Convention. The CCIB’s tech crew and workforce successfully took on
these challenges for the third consecutive year.
A multitude of simultaneous activities
Multiple simultaneous sessions and activities were held over the four days: more than
240 of a technical and formative nature, in addition to other essentially practical and
interactive formats. Delegates had an opportunity to immerse themselves in the World of
Solutions, the technological exhibition where Cisco presents its latest innovations
alongside those of its partner companies. At the end of each day, the venue was
transformed to cater for social and networking parties, with live performances and
musical and gastronomic references from Spanish culture, on a stage with circular rigging
and a cutting-edge digital lighting system.
The multiple use of difference areas was made possible thanks to the Barcelona Centre’s
exceptional flexibility and logistic capacity, facilitating daily setup and teardown.
Highly technological infrastructures and the tech crew’s expertise
There are very few events venues in Spain that are technologically equipped to house an
encounter characterized by a powerful display of the latest advances and a wide variety
of specified technologies. The CCIB boasts an infrastructure that facilitates the network
extension required by Cisco: multimode and monomode optical fibre throughout the
entire site, providing connectivity from any given point in the building; category 6 copper
cables, one of the highest with the greatest connection speed; and powerful Internet
output. These services, along with the CCIB tech crew’s outstanding expertise, make it
the ideal venue for staging these types of events.
A green Centre for a sustainable event
Both the convention’s planning and its production and teardown were performed under
strict environmental and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) criteria. A sustainable
committee, made up of Cisco and CCIB professionals, was in charge of applying and
supervising compliance with these criteria, which are mainly based on generating the
smallest possible amount of waste, recycling products and offsetting the event’s
environmental impact.
Even in the Catering department, organized by CCIB Catering, local ingredients were
used, as well as dishes made from especially recyclable plastic and water fountains that
replaced plastic bottles, among other aspects.
Providing collection points for credentials to be recycled, the absence of plastic bags, the
use of recycled paper, the minimum use of carpets and their subsequent recycling, as
well as the positioning of batteries of ecological waste bins throughout the entire site are
just some of the other measures that were introduced. The sorting of waste products into
six different types, in addition to special waste management, is common practice at the
CCIB, which has a temporary waste transfer plant in the building itself, unique in a venue
of its characteristics in Spain.
As far as Corporate Social Responsibility is concerned, Cisco invited a group of 20 female
students to its convention, aiming to bring Information Technologies (IT) closer to this
group and give them an opportunity to exchange opinions with female professionals from
this technological giant. Another highlight was the giving of all textile materials left over
from the event to charitable foundations, as well as the donation of 1 Euro to a NGO for
each event evaluation survey completed by the delegates.
