By CNCF Staff
We’re well on the way to CNCF’s goal of making cloud native ubiquitous. Today, there are 190,000 contributors to CNCF-hosted projects, and more than 53,000 community group members, alongside 805 CNCF Members and 160 End User Members.
With this incredible momentum, it’s no surprise that CNCF events are growing significantly. In fact, we received a record number of CFP submissions for KubeCon + CloudNativeCon Europe 2023 – 1,768 in total, from 2,672 proposed speakers at 632 companies. The program committee whittled this down to 303 sessions, giving the event acceptance rate of 11%.
And it’s not just CNCF’s flagship events that have grown significantly. In 2022, more than 6,500 folks from all across the world attended 16 Kubernetes Community Day events – 85% more than in 2021. Today, KCDs regularly receive in excess of 160 presentation submissions, which take organizers up to one week to curate.
With this momentum in mind, we’re upgrading our CFP tooling to a platform that can better handle the number of submissions cloud native events receive. From April 26, 2023, we’re moving from SMApply to Sessionize, so the community will have a more streamlined and efficient submissions process. Meanwhile program committees and event organizers will benefit from Sessionize’s robust review process.
Here are just some of the improvements and benefits Team Cloud Native can expect:
- Improved user experience: Sessionize’s interface is more user-friendly, providing a better experience for both submitters, reviewers, and admins.
- Simplified submission process: The new tool has a simpler submission process, making it easier for submitters to provide their details, bio, and abstracts.
- Robust review process: Sessionize’s review process is more robust and intuitive, enabling reviewers to quickly and easily evaluate submissions.
- Enhanced communication: The new tool will facilitate better communication between submitters and reviewers, allowing for more efficient feedback and discussion.
We strongly believe that these features in Sessionize will enhance everyone’s experience.
The first event that will benefit from Sessionize is KubeCon + CloudNativeCon North America 2023. The CFP process will launch Wednesday, April 26 (the week after KubeCon Europe) – don’t forget to mark it on your calendars!