In-Depth
Why You Need to Visit KubeCon's Project Pavilion
If you're heading to KubeCon next month in Atlanta, you need to plan on setting aside a few hours to visit its Project Pavilion.
If you are not planning on attending KubeCon and are involved with Kubernetes, containers, or cloud native in any way, check out my previous article, Why You Need to Attend KubeCon North America 2025 -- A Decade in the Making, to see if I can change your mind.
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The Project Pavilion is one of my favorite places to visit as it truly is ground zero for innovation and collaboration at KubeCon, serving as a dedicated, non-commercial space on the main show floor.
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The Pavilion acts as a live workshop and an interaction point for the dozens of open-source projects under the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF) umbrella. Its purpose is different from the corporate vendor booths in the Solutions Showcase as it is designed solely to foster direct engagement between the creators (maintainers and contributors) and the adopters (end-users and developers). For many attendees, especially those new to the cloud-native ecosystem, the Pavilion is an excellent way for them to observe and directly participate in the vast, rapidly changing landscape of tools and technologies.
The Pavilion's core mission is to showcase the spectrum of CNCF projects regardless of their maturity levels: Graduated, Incubating, or Sandbox. Projects like Rook, OpenCost, and Linkerd, which are extensively used in the cloud-native, share the same space with emerging, early-stage Sandbox projects, offering attendees a comprehensive view of the ecosystem's present and future.
Each project featured in the Pavilion is provided with a booth or demo station where core maintainers and contributors can showcase their work, answer questions, and demonstrate their software in real time. This setup enables attendees to get hands-on experience with new tools and platforms, learn about project roadmaps, and connect directly with the team's driving innovation in the cloud native universe.
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This is where I have gotten the ideas for some of the articles I have written in the past, as the Pavilion allows me to gather high-quality technical information on new and exciting projects. But any attendee can meet the maintainers and authors of the software they use daily or are considering using, ask questions about roadmaps, discuss implementation challenges, and contribute ideas for new features.
The Pavilion has auxiliary features, such as informal Project Lightning Talks and demos held on a dedicated stage, which allow maintainers to share (often passionately ) their latest updates in a format that prioritizes technical depth over marketing hype. You can see a list of the lighting talks here.
But the Pavilion offers more than technical discussions as it is also the rallying point for the unsung heroes of CNCF, the Maintainers and Ambassadors, who are available for guided tours, mentorship, and general orientation for first-time KubeCon attendees.
A few of the projects that I plan on spending time with at the Pavilion are; Flatcar Container Linux a lightweight, self-updating operating system optimized for running containers; Headlamp an extensible, open-source user interface for managing multiple Kubernetes clusters; K3s a CNCF-certified, lightweight Kubernetes distribution packaged into a single binary, primarily targeting IoT and Edge environments; OpenGemini a high-performance, distributed time series database management system designed for storing and analyzing massive observability data; Dragonfly an open-source, P2P-based system that delivers efficient and secure distribution and acceleration of files and container images; and LoxiLB an open-source, cloud-native load balancer utilizing eBPF to deliver high-speed L4/L7 services for Kubernetes across hybrid cloud and edge deployments.
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For me, visiting the Project Pavilion is an essential part of the KubeCon experience as it offers a hands-on, interactive way which allows me to stay up-to-date with the latest in cloud native innovation, network with project leads and peers, and discover new tools that can solve real-world challenges. Whether you are a developer looking for your next open-source contribution, an enterprise user evaluating technology options, or simply a curious technologist, the Pavilion provides inspiration and insight into the collaborative future of cloud native computing.
The Pavilion will be open Tuesday through Thursday in Building B | Level 1 | Exhibit Hall B3-B5
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.