#ciscolive2016

You made the pitch.  You got management buy-in.  You registered.  Rock and roll.  

Except, work set in.  You got busy.  The session catalog opened months ago.  And, now, with less than 3 weeks to go, you are looking at hundreds of possible sessions to attend.  Possibly, many of the interesting ones are full.

Eyes glaze over. Panic sets in. You freeze. What now?

One of the fantastic features about Cisco Live is also its most daunting challenge - with so many sessions to learn so much about a plethora of technologies and products, you can wind up facing tough decisions between 5 different courses for the same time slot.

Even with several of them full/wait-listed :)

Another fantastic aspect to Cisco Live - there are multiple avenues to learn, from breakout sessions, to technical seminars (extra cost), to instructor led labs (also extra), to self-paced labs. So, let’s break down how to get the best bang for your buck.

First, book those Breakout Sessions

Start simple - pick a couple of areas from your current employment where you really wish you knew more.  Let’s say as an example - “Voice”.

Head on over to the scheduler page (http://www.ciscolive.com/us/learn/sessions/session-catalog)

Expand “Technology” filter

Select “Voice and Unified Communication”

Expand “Session Type” filter

Select “Breakout Session”.  

Voila!  36 sessions.  You know your environment. You know the upcoming projects. There is certainly a session or two in there for you.  Got PRIs and you bury your head in the sand when someone says “SIP” -

BRKUCC-2006 - SIP Trunk Design...

BRKUCC-2932 - Troubleshooting SIP... 

BRKCOC-2008 - Inside Cisco IT: ... Consolidating Voice Circuits using SIP

Information you need to know what you’d be getting into when SIP comes bursting through the door like a battering ram.

Second, leverage technical seminars

I love the technical seminar sessions at Cisco Live for three reasons, even though they do cost extra money:

They are focused on a single subject which, depending on the 4-hour or 8-hour variety, can be extremely comprehensive or extremely detailed (sometimes both!)

They are chaired by multiple Cisco engineers which allows for a broader spectrum of questions and answers.

Many are on Sunday and so you get another day of Cisco Live!

Technical seminars are also convenient tools for condensing subject matter into an “out of band” time slot (Sunday), permitting you to take several breakout sessions worth of material and place them into a single (longer) session.  This shuffle frees up available precious breakout session times (about 14 in all) for other subjects!

For example, if you are looking at learning more about Cisco’s software defined networking approaches, you can look at either:

TECACI-2009: ACI - The Policy Driven Data Center

TECSDN-3600: APIC EM - SDN in the Enterprise

If you’ve secured additional training funds to accomplish this, you’ll need to revisit your breakout schedule from step one.  It’s an iterative process of sorts.

Third, meet with the engineers!

If you have an upcoming project for which you are still researching solutions, why not brainstorm with some product team members about what works well, what doesn’t work well, what they’ve seen others do?  

Cisco Live has two different avenues for this level of access:

Meet the Expert (http://www.ciscolive.com/us/activities/the-hub/#meet-the-expert)

Technical Solutions Clinic (http://www.ciscolive.com/us/activities/the-hub/#technical-solutions-clinic)

The MTE is scheduled ahead of time and requires some information to be provided at time of setup.  In the past, you needed a paragraph or two of your problem you wished to discuss but, this year, it seems to be a bit more scaled back.

The TSC is much less formal - you drop in, wait your turn, and discuss with TAC engineers or other experts what’s on your mind.

Now, the bulk of my experience has been with higher education account teams and they were fantastic!  So much so that I’ve rarely used the MTE or TSC meetings much.  But, the times I have used it have been phenomenal.  When you come across an issue no one is clear about, you get answers pretty fast - usually during the conference.  

So, if you are looking for a Cisco perspective to keep the Cisco Partners honest, these options are great opportunities.

Lastly, be flexible!

Leave some time in your schedule for three things:

The “World of Solutions” exhibit hall (http://www.ciscolive.com/us/activities/exhibitors/)

Walk-in, self-paced labs (http://www.ciscolive.com/us/activities/the-hub/#walk-in-labs)

DevNet Zone (http://www.ciscolive.com/us/activities/devnet-zone/)

You never know what interesting topic you will come across during the week.  You want to leave yourself a little time to find out more about something new - whether a product or technology.  The exhibit hall is one place where you can learn more about Cisco products as well as the partner ecosystem.  

Just to be clear - I’m not talking about the opening night where many folks are on a mad dash to get conference giveaways.  I mean during the day (around lunch time is usually the best) when the folks at the booth are available to have a real conversation. Many really do enjoy the honest conversation and are excited to talk about their products.

I personally enjoy the WISP labs though as they allow you a little “no pressure” fun time that permits playing with solutions you may not normally see or use. I tried DMVPN a few years back.  The engineer overseeing the lab sent me the PDF of the lab instructions, which included network drawing and solutions.

Finally, my DevNet Zone recommendation may give you pause - especially if you are a IOS CLI junkie!  Why would you care about software development?  Well, remember this section’s title: be flexible!  

First, you are expanding your horizons.  

Second, you are going to see what crazy things people are doing with your network.  

Third, you can also see what possibilities exist for you to do/see/enable more with your network.  

Keep in mind, you don’t have to be the programmer - you can get excited about possibilities and pitch ideas to your in-house developers so that they can help make them a reality!

In short, don’t panic!

Yet another awesome aspect to Cisco Live - there are many opportunities for ad-hoc learning experiences.  Just keep your eyes open for them once you get there.