14 DAY TRIAL // Yesterday, March 11, 2009, Cisco announced on its Newsroom that it would help the ones in need by participating to the Red Nose auction, initiated by Comic Relief. Also, the company is preparing for its first “Virtual Auction,” because its personnel from Ireland and UK will be a part of the program too. The auction will take place at 4 p.m. on March 13, 2009 and will be held in conjunction with Christie's auction house.
"Christie's is only too happy to support this innovative charity event. I have had experience of taking numerous bids in auctions via our online bidding service, Christie's LIVE, but this is the first time that I have taken an auction that embraces this ground-breaking video technology. As a result, everyone will be able to participate and experience the tension and excitement of the event.” said Hugh Edmeades, the chairman of Christie's South Kensington.
Cisco UK and Ireland offices are hoping to raise a total of £100,000 for charity this year, so, for this event, the company is providing important technology support for the Comic Relief's online fundraising activity.
On March 13, 2009 UK and Ireland offices in London, Feltham, Reading, Manchester, Edinburgh, Motherwell and Dublin will feel the thrills of the auction via Cisco TelePresence, their new technology for virtual conferences. The staff will take part in a new and interesting event thanks to Cisco’s TelePresence platform for “video auctions” and more. The event will be presented from Cisco's Feltham office by Christie's international auctioneer, Hugh Edmeades.
Paul D'Cruz, system engineering manager at Cisco, explains in a few words what type of equipment Cisco is providing to Comic Relief for this event, "We are working with Comic Relief and business IT services group Carrenza to create a virtualized data centre platform with our key partners, including Oracle, VMWare and 3PAR. This platform will be used to support and manage the online fundraising activities during Comic Relief 2009."
The items that the participants will bid on include O2 box tickets for those who want to see Beyoncé or Britney Spears’ shows, a signed and framed England shirt, an F1 race helmet, chauffeur services, a signed Chelsea football, a tour of the Houses of Parliament and many more.
David Meads, the director of Cisco UK and Ireland said, "Cisco has supported Comic Relief since 2000. It is a charity we strongly believe in. We continue to encourage all our staff to 'do something funny for money', and they always enthusiastically accept the challenge." He also stated, ”By utilizing Cisco TelePresence, we are able to collaborate with each of our offices through one real-time event, bringing a new dimension to the excitement of the auction experience. We've had phone bidding for some time; now it's time to accept video bids."