We are looking forward to connecting with many of you in the cloud native community in Los Angeles (after quite a long hiatus!) at the upcoming KubeCon + CloudNativeCon North America 2021 from October 11-15.
In order to do that, let’s address the elephant in the room. Can we meet safely? We believe the answer is yes. CNCF (and The Linux Foundation) have a long-standing relationship with Dr. Joel Selanikio, a physician, former CDC epidemiologist and outbreak investigator, and consultant epidemiologist to the DC Department of Health and to FEMA for the COVID-19 response over 2020-21. Thanks to Dr. Selanikio’s continuous council, we have been able to take educated and well-thought out steps to ensure the safety of our community members as we navigate COVID-19.
We are fully committed to making this event in person (with a virtual component) and as safe as possible for everyone. First and foremost, we mandated that every attendee must be fully vaccinated and The Linux Foundation, as well as the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, has also recently announced that masks will be required to be worn at the event for all attendees regardless of vaccination status. We believe the combination of vaccinations and masks provide a safe environment that significantly reduces the chance of contracting COVD-19.
We are working closely with the local Los Angeles County Department of Health to ensure we are following all local requirements and recommendations. In terms of venue, while the LA Convention Center was originally slated to accommodate our 20,000 person event, we’ll be at about 1/3 capacity of the venue giving us plenty of room to allow for social distancing amongst attendees. This will allow us to create wider aisles and space between rows in meeting rooms, capping rooms at reduced capacities for physical distancing and more distance between speakers and attendees and providing wider aisles and distanced booths in the exhibit hall.
We have also increased our use of outdoor space at the venue to allow attendees to get fresh air, take a mask break, get some vitamin D, and enjoy lunch at once.
A few more safety measures worth noting include:
- All event participants will receive a daily temperature check in order to enter the venue and will receive a sticker to be able to enter and exit as needed.
- We will provide wristbands in green, yellow, and red for event participants to wear in order to indicate their comfort level on social interaction.
- Attendees are encouraged to fill out a daily COVID-19 symptom survey through our vaccine verification app.
- Close coordination with venue employees to ensure rigorous onsite cleaning and sanitizing of all touch points, sneeze guards where necessary, and sanitation stations.
We are keeping our health and safety guidelines updated as well as adding to the FAQ as necessary. If this resource does not answer a question you may have, feel free to reach out to events@cncf.io.
We also understand that not everyone will be able to join us in person due to a variety of factors, which is why we are delighted to offer attendees the ability to attend virtually. To learn more about the different pass options visit the registration page.
Our community and cloud native family has continued to flourish in response to the hardships brought on by this pandemic. We look forward to coming together again in October to celebrate our community’s successes over the last 18 months with those who feel comfortable in-person and those who wish to join virtually as well. And please remember that there will always be more KubeCon + CloudNativeCons, so if the timing of this event doesn’t work for you don’t fret! We will have more chances to meet and collaborate next year.