Hi all,

The DevNet Developer Conference at Cisco Live starts this week! Here are the Top 5 Reasons Hackers, Developers and Designers Should Attend DevNet Zone at Cisco Live:

1. Hands-on learning labsfor APIs you've probably never tried
2. Networking-meet people in real life
3. 24 Hour Hackathonwhere you can show your coding chops
4. Get in on the ground floor
5. All levels welcome-Show you're 1337. [+ opportunities for n00bs]

1. Hands-on learning labsto Cisco products and APIs: We have 50+ hands-on learning labs where you can learn the ins and outs of our technologies and APIs in live working systems.  These are short, sharp, self-paced sprints lasting about 10 minutes each.
2. Networking: If you're not a typical IT expert, that's fine. While you can meet others who love to code, you can also meet some of the typical "Cisco users" who know how to run mission-critical networks and are looking to meet programmers.  Why meet these people?  So you can form groups for the Hackathon!  Also, you'll see some of Cisco's own developers, technologists, product managers, CTOs, and execs popping by such as, Marty Roesch, founder of SourceFire, who will be discussing his experiences with open source and being acquired by Cisco.
3. 24 Hour Hackathon:  New this year, we're hosting a 24 hour hackathon where groups of up to 5 people can compete to write an application utilizing Cisco APIs and technologies. You'll have Cisco experts in software and UX design and some interns who are our DevNet advisors on hand to help.  The technologies for the hackathon are below.
   • APIC Enterprise Module: Cisco's Enterprise SDN solution using an Application-Centric Infrastructure (ACI) architecture
   • Jabber SDK for Web and Jabber Guest SDK:  Software client SDKs for unified communications, IM and Presence
   • OpenDaylight: An open source effort in SDN and Network Function Virtualization (NFV)
   • Internet of Things: IOx and Data in Motion (DMo)
   • The Network UI Toolkit (NeXt): View network topologies in HTML5/javascript
   • Mobility Services API -CMX: Indoor location and more with WiFi access points

   Please note:  While joining the Hackathon is free with your DevNet Zone (or other CiscoLive)$49 pass, seats are limited so if you're interested, sign up soon.  If you haven't gotten a pass for the full DevNet Zone, you can sign up for just the 24 hour Hackathon for$10. The first-place winning team will receive$5k.

4. Get in on the Ground Floor:DevNet has just come together -many disparate programming groups within Cisco have been working together to build one mighty developer program.  Therefore, this is the first year we're having a DevNet Zone at Cisco Live.  Because it's new, we've got some of the Cisco big-hitters involved, including a CTO panel keynote to talk about the future of APIs.  Come join us to be a part of this new entity!
5. All Levels Welcome: If you're new to programing or dream in binary, ascii, and hex, you can get in and get involved.  We have a session on Coding Skills 101 -How to call REST APIs from Python and JQuery. Bring your laptop to code; No experience necessary! We also have a DevNet UX Creative Design 101 Workshop where you can have fun and learn how to design; No design experience necessary!In addition to the learning labs we have 4 full days of speaking sessions -where you can learn everything from what is OnePK, programming for the APIC Enterprise Module API, the opportunities in developing for Enterprise Mobility Services.