By Jorge Castro, Developer Relations at CNCF
The Project Pavilion is our dedicated space on the show floor for CNCF Projects. Since there are over 200 projects this can make the Pavilion a rapidly changing landscape, so projects shift in and out in the mornings and afternoons. You will want to drop by often!
Its purpose is to act as a direct means for attendees to interact with CNCF Projects. Additionally, it acts as our rallying point for CNCF Maintainers and Ambassadors. We want to create a mix of creators, consumers, and advocates, and we all wear our ”upstream hats.” There’s no commercial selling in the Project Pavilion; it’s an open invitation for everyone to actively participate in open source so that they can understand how open source works. If you’ve been to a farmer’s market before, it’s like that, but for software.
For the projects, it’s their chance to show off the things they work on and share, as well as give introductory material to attendees. For end users, it offers a “live R&D lab”, where they can check in on the projects that they depend on and support, but also dip their toes into the CNCF Sandbox and see what all the “cool kids” are into.
Attendees get the best benefits because KubeCon + CloudNativeCon can be so overwhelming, especially for new folks. If you ask someone who has been to many of them they will commonly say that the “hallway track” is where it is at. We wanted to revitalize the Pavilion to be the place where new attendees can start their journey, by directly interacting with the projects and maintainers to get a grasp of the big picture. A CNCF Ambassador is usually close by to help out because it’s always better when you have a guide with you.
If you are technically minded and want direct access to CNCF Contributors, then the Pavilion is the place to find them. If you want to get right into the weeds then this is where you want to be. We’ve got plenty of space and power for you to break off and do focused hacking, or just hang out and get to know each other.
Get ready for KubeCon with Project Lightning Talks!
The Project Lightning talks are a great way to get ready for KCCNC. Since they are the day before and the show floor is closed they are a good primer. Each project does a 7 minute presentation. You can find the full schedule here, and as always, we record each one.
And we have two fabulous new hosts, Lori Lorusso and Katherine Druckman, who will be doing the introduction and covering it via the “Hitchhiker’s Guide to the CNCF Landscape.” We strongly recommend this session to new attendees so that you can have a good idea of what you are heading into before the show floor opens up.
What’s new at this Project Pavilion?
After you’ve gotten your initial orientation at the Lighting Talks you can come check out the new things at the Pavilion. This year we added an entire stage with screens and plenty of seating. This stage is available exclusively for CNCF Maintainers to run additional demos and talks throughout the day, right next to the Pavilion. There will likely be a demo every 20 minutes throughout Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday.
We purposely run this one as a bit of an unconference. These talks aren’t on the schedule and provide attendees a chance to experience what happens when open source maintainers speak passionately about their projects “live.” This is our first time trying this, and we strongly recommend stopping by for at least some of the talks.
And this year we’re happy to partner with Unified Patents, which will be running office hours and sessions throughout the week educating people about the importance of invalidating bad software patents. They will even show you how to search for prior art and we’ll be announcing a contest with prizes pretty soon!
Don’t forget to take a tour!
This year we also added more tours by CNCF Ambassadors. Tours will be running daily and there will be a “safari tour” of the CNCF Landscape. They run Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday and you can find them on this section of the schedule. This is also the first time we’ve run this and the Ambassadors are already excited to show you what’s out there.
This gives attendees an option to have someone with cloud native experience walk them through the myriad of options available, give them guidance, and help them connect with the projects and people that are important to know. This one is also a strong recommendation for new attendees!
First-timers, this one’s for you
If it’s your first KubeCon this is a great place to start. We see cloud native as a vast ecosystem of projects and people, all looking for opportunities to learn something new. Come with a beginner’s mind and leave plenty of room for stickers in your bag!
Come for the Projects, stay for the caffeine, couches, and stickers!
The Project Pavilion is ideally positioned in the middle of the show floor. We have the best couches in the conference center and we’re close to caffeine and the bathrooms. The hugely popular sticker dispensers will be returning, as will our job board and everything is centrally located.
Our hope is that you see the Pavilion as a lens right into the cloud native ecosystem, not just to observe but to participate and meet the people who are waiting to work with you! A CNCF Ambassador, Maintainer, or Staffer is almost always an arm’s length away to help guide you. We’ll see you there!