being flexible – webex vs zoom(future meetings schedule)

Welcome back … Part 2

It has been far too long since getting my thoughts or things I have learned expressed on this site. Well over a year to be exact. Sure in that time we have had a Pandemic which has thrown all of our routines off the rails. That sounds like an excuse so let me stop giving those and get to the point of this post.

The Point Of This Post …

The following is not going to be some great revelation to anyone with time put into an IT career. With that being said it’s easy to forget how important being flexible can actually be. In this case being flexible means you can’t lock yourself into one ecosystem. Expanding on that many solutions deliver similar end results though they end up getting there via different routes.

Getting There Via Different Routes …

Within the world of virtual meetings people schedule things in the moment (ad hoc) or in the future (future , yah I have no fancy words for that) . These meetings can be recurring or singular. They can be smaller meetings or larger Events or Webinars. They can include co-workers, partners, vendors or as we have all learned over the past year the random pet that desperately needs to be a part of your ongoing meeting for reasons. The thing is there are meetings in the future be it tomorrow , next week , next month or next year.

Tomorrow , Next week , Next month or Next year …

As an Admin or Engineer you run across all sorts of scenarios that could require this type of info. Maybe you are splitting one tenant into two tenants so you need to know what things are coming up that may need to be moved. A similar scenario, what if you are migrating from the solution of one vendor to another. What if your focus is Infosec and you are tracking down a possible attack vector where someone is allegedly using your meeting solution for their own planning. All three of these are scenarios I have supported in the past and all three were successful because I was able to look at upcoming scheduled future meetings. So what is the process for doing this on Webex?

The Process For Doing This On Webex …

You would think this may be easy to get to and with API access or upcoming UX changes it may be but for now the process to get this from Webex is as follows. Keep in mind that Tenant or Control Hub versioning may change this somewhat but in general it should be applicable:

1. Login to Cisco Webex Control Hub
2. On the left side Monitoring Menu select ANALYTICS

3. Across the top Analytics menu select the far right choice of REPORTS

4. If your login account has entitlement to multiple sites then select the target site you are trying to run the report on via the far right drop down. On the far left SELECT A REPORT drop down , currently in a rather unintuitive approach, scroll all the way to the bottom then select WEBEX FUTURE SCHEDULE MEETINGS and hit the GENERATE REPORT button.

5. Depending on the volume of meetings scheduled in the future or overall traffic load on the tenant or Webex cluster you may need to wait the estimated time shown on the screen, typically a few minutes, before highlighting the report you just ran and clicking the download icon on the far right.

6. Once the file downloads you will now have a CSV file showing all the future scheduled meetings for your targeted Webex Tenant.

If we go back to the start of this post I talked about how different solutions often offer the same end results but get there via different routes? Well go figure a competing virtual meeting service does exactly that which leads us to reviewing the steps to view future meetings in Zoom.

The Steps To View Future Meetings In Zoom …

1. Login to Zoom via SSO or your local account or however your tenant is configured.
2. Under the left side ADMIN menu click the ACCOUNT MANAGEMENT drop down

3. Select REPORTS then click the UPCOMING EVENTS choice

4. On the left SEARCH BY drop down select by TIME RANGE or MEETING ID. If you select TIME RANGE you will have the option to specify a date range for up to 12 months out along with being able to optionally specify a host name or email then click Search.

If you know the MEETING ID then enter that and click Search.

5. If you filtered by date then your results will be listed with a few interesting options such as filtering by All Events, Only Meeting or Only Webinar. Additionally if you are the host or an alt-host you will actually be able to start the meeting from this list. Finally click on the EXPORT AS CSV FILE link under the search field.

If you searched by Meeting ID click on the EXPORT AS CSV FILE link under the search value . Additionally if you are the host or an alt-host you will actually be able to start the meeting from this list.

6. Once the file downloads you will now have a CSV file showing all the future scheduled meetings for your targeted Zoom Tenant. Having now viewed the same outcome via different routes on different solutions lets bring this to an ending that sounds familiar.

An Ending That Sounds Familiar …

While this specific post covers a technical outcome being flexible is an ability that you will most likely have to leverage in multiple different ways during the course of your life. You are going to encounter different people, different requirements, different expectations and different variables as you grow older. If you make the choice to remain rigid in what you do, how you learn or how you deliver outcomes then life or your career will quickly leave you behind.