Every Friday, we'll highlight the most important Cisco partner news and stories of the week, as well as point you to important Cisco-related content you may have missed along the way. Let's have it.

Off The Top

It's a holiday week in the United States but that doesn't mean a full stop for Cisco partner news and updates. For starters, we've named a new VP of Worldwide Distribution, Julie Hens.

"A 14-year Cisco veteran, Julie is a familiar face to many of our distribution partners and I'm confident she will be a fantastic leader in this global role thanks to her depth of experience and strong relationships," says Edison Peres, SVP, Worldwide Channels.

Edison officially introduced Julie earlier this week. She succeeds Scott Brown, who exited the role in late May to become VP, APJC Partner Business Group. We wish Julie and Scott all the best!

Read on for all of this week's hot topics. 

Social Media Training

Businesses all over the world are now realizing the importance of social media and its increasingly crucial role in marketing, communications and corporate strategy. As part of Cisco's ongoing commitment to helping partners stay in step with this trend, we're offering complimentary social media training tailored to fit your needs and goals. Read all about these special offers and sign up today.

Headed to Houston

Next week, more than 16,000 attendees will descend on Houston for Microsoft's annual Worldwide Partner Conference. Cisco has a significant presence at WPC this year, and our experts will be on hand throughout the week to educate partners on how joint Cisco and Microsoft data center and cloud solutions are winning in the market every day. Watch this space for announcements and feedback from the show, but for now, check out Rex Backman's guide to Cisco at WPC.

Cisco Live Archive

The end of Cisco Live last week means we've come to the end of a busy season of partner-centric Cisco conferences, from Marketing Velocity in April to Cisco Partner Summit and Cisco Live in June. It'll soon enough be time to get ready for next year's big events, but to cap off coverage of Cisco Live, check out our summary of news and content of interest to Cisco partners. Remember that you can return to Cisco Live 365 as often as you want to view demos and get content from the sessions that took place.

Good Reads

Highlights from around Cisco this week:

• Dave Evans offers his takeaways from Cisco Live
• Joe Pinto looks back at Partner Summit with some observations and partner feedback
• Joie Healy discusses a "sweet way" to bring in customers
• Marie Hattar says the customer is king at Cisco Live
• Howard Baldwin provides three reasons why emerging markets will adopt mobile broadband
• Terri Quinn calls out nine HIPAA network considerations
• Lauren Friedman shares more on-the-scene videos from Cisco Live
• Isaac Noar looks at the balance of technology and humanity as key to tech's appeal

Keep An Eye Out

• As always, head to our Marketing Velocity page for full details about all of our upcoming and archived webcasts.
• Another reminder: stop on by the Cisco Partner Event calendar for the latest information on Cisco partner gatherings.