LAS VEGAS -- Cisco Live 2011 -- Cisco is taking a beating in the press lately, but a record 15,000 still came out to party at the company's annual customer and partner conference.

OK, we admit: Light Reading didn't stick around long enough for the William Shatner keynote on Thursday or even the Train concert Wednesday night. (We've already got pictures of Train anyway.)

But we saw the really loud opening keynote, played games on the exhibit floor and toured an enormous data center in the desert.



Click the picture above to launch the slideshow, or click here for a thumbnail view.

We also wrote about a few things that happened at the conference:

• HP Picks a Fight With Cisco
• Chambers Promises a Simpler Cisco
• Cisco Pushes Back on Switching

— Craig Matsumoto, West Coast Editor, Light Reading