This opening section establishes your foundational understanding of what the Cisco Workshop platform is, why it exists, and where you fit into the broader workshop ecosystem. You may currently view workshops as "an SE thing" — this section will help you reframe them as a pipeline-generation engine that you actively own from end to end.
Key Content
Cisco Workshops exist as a customer engagement and pipeline-generation tool, not simply as technical training events. They are structured opportunities to bring your customers into a hands-on Cisco environment, demonstrate product value, and generate qualified leads through a structured survey mechanism.
Historically, workshops have produced some of the highest-converting leads, with hot leads (Trial/POV requests) representing immediate pipeline opportunities for you. Understanding this framing is essential — when you treat a workshop as a deal-acceleration moment rather than a training session, your behaviour before, during, and after the event changes accordingly.
It is important to be clear on the division of responsibilities across the team. As a Cisco employee, you are eligible to create workshop events directly in the platform — and you should. You handle the technical scheduling, platform configuration, customer invitation, and follow-up. Your aligned Solutions Engineer (or another certified proctor) handles the proctoring on the day: the opening presentation, lab support, and answering technical customer questions. Partners can also serve as proctors once certified, but they cannot create events; they are valuable allies when you are running joint workshops to expand reach into shared accounts.
The end-to-end workshop lifecycle flows through six stages, and it helps to keep the full journey in mind:
- Create the workshop event in the platform.
- Send out the event invitations to your customers.
- Customers self-register through the unique event URL.
- You (or your proctor) check attendees in on the day of the event.
- Customers participate in the workshop event.
- Customers fill out the surveys when they complete the workshop event — which is the moment leads are generated for you.
- The final stage, follow-up, is your responsibility and is highly time-critical.
Steps to Get Started
- Log in to the Cisco Workshop platform and confirm your account is active.
- Identify the certified proctor in your region — typically your aligned SE — and confirm they are able to proctor your next event.
- Bookmark the available workshops page at https://workshops.cisco.com/home/available-workshops for easy reference.
- Review the seven-stage workshop lifecycle above and note that event creation, invitation, and follow-up all sit with you.
- Add a recurring 30-minute "Workshop Planning" slot to your calendar with your SE so you have a regular forum to align on upcoming events.