In-Depth
Why You Need to Attend KubeCon North America this Year
Cloud Native Computing Foundation's flagship conference, KubeCon + CloudNativeCon ("KubeCon"), will be held as a live event (with a virtual option) in Chicago Nov. 7-9 with a pre-event the day before on the 6th.
I was a little bit hesitant about attending the event last year as it was held in Detroit, which I would be surprised to find on anyone's vacation list for late October. But I was pleasantly surprised by it. The weather was enjoyable during the event. Its location made it an easy flight, it had reasonably priced accommodations, and just outside of town is The Henry Ford, which is one of the best automotive and technology museums in the world.
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This year KubeCon will be held in the upper Midwest as well, Chicago, which Carl Sandburg nicknamed the "City of Big Shoulders" due to the tradesmen and physical laborers in the late 1800s that built it into the great city that it is. Today Chicago has a thriving technology community and is the culinary and cultural capital of the Midwest. The event will be held at McCormick Place West, a stone's throw from the shores of Lake Michigan. O'Hare Airport has daily domestic and international flights and there are hotels near the event for any budget.
Attending the KubeCon floor show is my favorite thing to do. Although the big vendors will be there to promote their Kubernetes (K8s) story, I prefer to talk to the start-ups. KubeCon's affordability makes it possible for start-ups to attend and showcase their products and offerings. I have seen companies with only one or two representatives at their booth one year grow to 20 people the following year, and the next year get acquired by a major tech company. Speaking with the people like these who are shaping the future of K8s is what makes the show floor so exciting.
The speed at which K8s is growing is remarkable. Within less than a decade, K8s has completely transformed the IT industry. Many of the biggest IT vendors have adapted their business models to incorporate K8s. It's almost impossible to keep up with all the changes in K8s, its ecosystems, and the underlying infrastructure. However, at KubeCon, you can gain insights and understand the direction in which K8s is heading. This will help you position yourself and the IT department of your company for the transformation that K8s and cloud native will have on it.
Attending KubeCon is a great opportunity to learn from the multitude of sessions and keynotes that cover the Cloud Native ecosystem. For those that want to dive deeper, a day before the main event, there are pre-event sessions that you should consider attending. These sessions allow you to spend the entire day focusing on a specific topic, unlike the hour-long sessions during the main event.
KubeCon is the premier event dedicated to Kubernetes and Cloud Native technologies, such as containers. If you are interested in these technologies, you simply cannot afford to miss it. While other tech conferences may have some sessions on Kubernetes, KubeCon is laser-focused on it. For the past eight years, KubeHeads have gathered at KubeCon to discuss and, in many cases, set the future for Kubernetes and its ecosystem. Whether you use, manage, or are simply interested in Kubernetes, this is the conference you must attend.
You can register for the event here.
About the Author
Tom Fenton has a wealth of hands-on IT experience gained over the past 30 years in a variety of technologies, with the past 20 years focusing on virtualization and storage. He previously worked as a Technical Marketing Manager for ControlUp. He also previously worked at VMware in Staff and Senior level positions. He has also worked as a Senior Validation Engineer with The Taneja Group, where he headed the Validation Service Lab and was instrumental in starting up its vSphere Virtual Volumes practice. He's on X @vDoppler.