As mentioned in Part 1 of this blog series, more than 4,000 end users, developers, ecosystem partners from around the world descended on Austin for 3+ days (really felt more like 5) to not only exchange knowledge and best practices at KubeCon + CloudNativeCon North America 2017, but to share experiences and come together as a community.
You couldn’t miss the massive job board, standing-room-only talks and buzzing sponsor exhibit hall. The Speed Networking and Mentoring Session community event paired seasoned veterans with anyone hoping to expand their network and gain some valuable insider’s perspective on technical or community. And attendees also had the opportunity to start each morning by lacing up their running shoes or laying down their yoga mats.
Diversity is close to our hearts
Part of building this amazing community is making sure that everyone who wants to participate feels welcome to do so regardless of gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, disability, race, ethnicity, age, religion or economic status. Education, inclusion and collaboration are vital to the future of the cloud native ecosystem!
To increase and encourage multiple perspectives, CNCF — with generous donations made by AWS, Google, Microsoft and Twistlock — offered 103 diversity and need-based registration scholarships.
A big thanks to our Diversity Committee: Kris Nova, Michelle Noorali, Erica Von Buelow, and Jessie Frazelle for selecting all the diversity scholarship recipients and helping to obtain donations.
Scholarships (awarded based on a combination of need and impact) for KubeCon + CloudNativeCon Europe 2018 are also available. Complete this application by Friday, March 2, 2018, 11:59 PM PST to be considered for a scholarship.
We also partnered with Samsung SDS to host a diversity luncheon & program with engaging discussions focused how to recruit more women to tech, the role of allies and mentors and perceived gender biases around soft and hard skills in the workplace.
The December 5th EmpowHer Evening Event, sponsored by Nutanix, gathered attendees for some of Texas’ best food and cocktails at one of Austin’s oldest establishments — the Moonshine Patio Bar & Grill. It was a great opportunity to get to know one another and network with others in the tech industry from around the globe.
Community awards
For the second year in a row, the CNCF Community Awards, sponsored this year by {code}, highlighted the most active ambassadors and contributors across all CNCF projects. This year CNCF provided two community awards:
- Top Cloud Native Committer – an individual with the incredible technical skills and notable technical achievements in one or multiple CNCF projects. The 2017 recipient was Clayton Coleman.
- Top Cloud Native Ambassador – an individual with the incredible community-oriented skills, focused on spreading the word and sharing the knowledge with the entire Cloud Native community or within a specific project. The 2017 recipients were Sarah Novotny and Lucas Käldström.
With any open source project, it is impossible to overlook those giving countless hours of their time to complete often mundane tasks. That is why Chris Aniszczyk created the Chop Wood/Carry Water awards. This year’s awards recognize the tireless efforts of Dan Gillespie, Dawn Chen, Jaice Singer Dumars, Anthony Yen, Brandon Philips, and Julius Volz.
Embrace the snow
Those who brave the snow together, stay together! While some stayed in, many ventured out into the unexpected Texas snow for the all-attendee party on Austin’s famed Rainey Street. Spread across eight different venues. Each venue offered its own unique entertainment including DJs, live bands, brain teaser quizzes, life-sized jenga, photo booths, arcade games, giant yard games, and an adult spelling bee. Thanks again to Google, Mesosphere, Sysdig, Virtuozzo, and VMware for sponsoring the party.
2018 event dates
KubeCon + CloudNativeCon is headed to Copenhagen, Shanghai and Seattle in 2018! Event dates and details include:
Copenhagen, Denmark May 2 – 4, 2018 Bella Center Register to attend here. CFP submissions are due January 12th, submit to speak here.
Shanghai, China November 14-15, 2018 Shanghai Convention and Exhibition Center Website – Registration coming soon!
Seattle, Washington December 11-13, 2018 Washington Convention Center Website – Registration coming soon!
To learn more about CNCF, please sign up to follow our website. On behalf of the entire CNCF team, thank you again for attending and we look forward to seeing you in 2018!
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Natasha Woods is a Senior PR Manager at The Linux Foundation. She helps run communications for CNCF and ODPi. Natasha was the communications coordinator lead for the Kubernetes 1.9 release and will reprise this role for the 1.10 release.