Project Opportunities

Projects and Working Groups under the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF) umbrella have the opportunity to engage, network and collaborate with peers and like-minded people in the cloud native community at KubeCon + CloudNativeCon Europe in Paris, France from 19-22 March 2024. Participating in this event allows you to gain valuable mind share of a targeted audience while engaging with 10,000+ developers, architects, and technical leaders.

• Inform and educate the cloud native community about your project, services, open source strategies, and cloud native direction.
• Take advantage of in-person time to deliver the latest project updates during the Project Lightning Talks and engage further in conversations at the Project Pavilion—a perfect opportunity to dive deeper into discussions!
• Engage the community to assist with reaching 100% security while immersing new contributors in the cloud native community.
• Projects have the opportunity to gain visibility with media and analysts.

We invite CNCF Chairs of TAGs and Kubernetes SIGs working groups and Maintainers from graduated, incubating, and sandbox projects to participate in the below project opportunities.

*The exact timing details will be shared during the confirmation window for project opportunities.

ContribFest

ContribFest sessions are available to all conference attendees and are 90-minute in-person sessions designed to provide projects with the space and resources to tackle outstanding technical debt, security issues, or outstanding impactful feature requests. It is intended to provide a place for maintainers to meet contributors and potential contributors and work together on solving a problem. Up to 18 projects will be selected for this event.

In order to be considered, you must satisfy the requirements below:

• At least one speaker must be a maintainer of the project with the commit bit. A maximum of four speakers are allowed.
• Maintainers do not need to lead the Contribfest session but projects must provide at least one individual to facilitate the work during the Contribfest session.
• In your session description field, describe the problem space and benefit a Contribfest can provide your project.

Contribfest is offered only to graduated, incubating and sandbox projects only. SIGs, TAGs, and Working Groups are not eligible for a ContribFest session at this time.

Maintainer Track

Leaders of CNCF Graduated and Incubating Projects and Activities (Such as members of Working Groups, TAGs, User Groups) can submit to host one 35-minute session during KubeCon + CloudNativeCon within the Maintainer Track. We highly recommend non-maintainers be put forward as speakers for your talk. Participation is subject to availability and submitting does not guarantee selection.

Each speaker can speak at only one Maintainer Track session. This does not count against the speaker limits for Kubecon + CloudNativeCon standard CFP or ContribFest.

In order to be considered, you must satisfy the requirements below:

Graduated/Incubating Projects

To submit, you must be a maintainer on this list for a CNCF Graduated or Incubating project, but the actual speaker(s) are not required to have maintainer status. Sandbox projects are not eligible for maintainer track sessions.

All Others

To submit, you must be a chair or technical lead of a CNCF TAG, a lead for a Kubernetes SIG, CNCF or K8s Working Group, User Group, or Subproject.

The deadline to apply for a ContribFest or Maintainer Track session is 17 January at 11:59pm Central European Standard Time.

We look forward to seeing your submissions! Please reach out to cfp@cncf.io if you have any questions.

In-Person Kiosk (Project Pavilion)

We believe in the value of face-to-face events and the connections + relationships that stem from them. An in-person kiosk at a KubeCon + CloudNativeCon event provides the opportunity for the project to have an ambassador and/or maintainer staff the booth to engage with attendees in-person and teach more about the project.

New This Year!

Tables near the Project Pavilion will be reserved for those interested in hosting impromptu meetings on-site.

Project kiosk schedule will be announced in mid-February

*Please keep in mind that projects will have the flexibility to choose their hosting hours. This means one project could opt for morning showcase hours, while another could prefer the afternoon slot. Additionally, projects also have the choice to host a kiosk for the full duration of the showcase hours.

As a representative of your project, we expect you to:

• Be a current maintainer or contributor of the project.
• Educate attendees visiting the booth and encourage them to contribute to the projects.
• Answer questions.
• Be an overall spokesperson for your project.
• Arrive on time and stay present at your booth for the entire duration of your scheduled slot.

We encourage you to share your use cases with your projects, and your organization’s involvement in the CNCF. However, you are prohibited from giving sales pitches to attendees about a product or company. If we hear a sales pitch being conducted, we reserve the right to ask you to leave and to deny future requests to participate in the project pavilion.

Kiosk Inclusions: One (1) monitor, one (1) locked cabinet for storage, and project logo signage only*

*Custom graphics aren’t permitted in the project pavilion.

5-10 Minute Lightning Talk

Projects will have the opportunity to deliver lightning talks lasting 5-10 minutes on the day preceding KubeCon + CloudNativeCon. This platform offers projects the chance to showcase their recent updates, features, and other highlights to their peers. The project lightning talks will be included in the conference schedule. Project Lightning Talks will take place on Tuesday 19 March and are based on availability.

PR Support

KubeCon + CloudNativeCon events can provide an astounding platform for graduated and incubating projects to gain visibility with media and analysts. The CNCF PR team encourages and works with projects that want to take advantage of the captive media and analyst audience at each event to gain greater awareness of their work. The CNCF PR team is happy to work with you to help craft your communications and launch plans IF you can make your announcement at the show.

Opportunities for projects announcing during the event include:

• CNCF PR team actively works with media and analyst partners to schedule briefings ahead of and during the conference for your project
• Your announcement highlighted as part CNCF’s press & analyst meeting
• Inclusion of news in our media package, which goes out to all interested media and analysts ahead of the event (so they have time to write articles or request briefings)
• A tweet from @CloudNativeFdn during KubeCon + CloudNativeCon
• Announcement post or re-post (from the project’s blog) on the CNCF.io blog

The outcome of this would be increased media coverage for the project from top industry publications including DevClass, SD Times, SiliconANGLE, The New Stack, TechTarget, InfoQ and ZDNet as well as exposure with top analysts from Gartner, 451 Research, RedMonk and more.

If you are a graduated or incubating project and are interested in PR Support, please contact pr@cncf.io.

The deadline for submitting your interest for a Project Lightning Talk, an in-person kiosk, ContribFest, Maintainer Track, and PR Support is Wednesday 17 January, however, we encourage you to secure your spot today as space is limited and demand is high. Requests will be based on project maturity.

If you have any questions or would like to arrange a call to discuss project opportunities, please email Tin Matienzo at kmatienzo@linuxfoundation.org.

General Information

What is the value of participating in these project offerings?

CNCF Projects can benefit from participating in one or more project offerings by engaging with the open source community and teaching attendees about the project and how to contribute.

I am not a CNCF project. Can I still participate in these project offerings?

At this time, we are only accepting CNCF projects, TAGS, and SIGS to participate in the Project Pavilion.

If you are interested in contributing your project to CNCF or discuss how CNCF can help your project, please contact info@cncf.io and read the TOC repo.

In-Person Kiosk

If we host an In-Person Kiosk, do we receive passes for our booth staff?

We do not offer complimentary passes to projects hosting an in-person kiosk in the Project Pavilion. This has been a practice of the event since 2017. CNCF provides need based scholarships, and we recommend reviewing and applying.

What does the In-Person Kiosk include?

The kiosks provided onsite will include a monitor, locked cabinet for storage, and project logo signage. Any additional items/needs will have to be approved and ordered by the project.

What is the difference between a Full-Time kiosk and a Part-Time kiosk?

A project hosting a Part-Time kiosk will be sharing the kiosk with another project. One project will be hosting the kiosk during AM hours, and the other will host PM hours. A project hosting a Full Time kiosk will host the kiosk for the entire duration of showcase hours during the week.

Can custom graphics be added to our In-Person Kiosk?

Custom graphics are not permitted in the Project Pavilion.

Are pull-up banners and/or table cloths permitted for our In-Person Kiosk?

Banners and tablecloths are not permitted as all kiosks within the Project Pavilion are to have a standard uniformed look.

Can we ship swag to our In-Person Kiosk?

You are allowed to ship a limited amount of boxes to your kiosk. There will be onsite storage available, however it is on a first come, first served basis, availability is not guaranteed. Shared kiosks can not store items at the kiosk after their scheduled hours. Shipping information will be available upon request in February. Please email kmatienzo@linuxfoundation.org for shipping information.

Are we able to collect leads at our kiosk?

Capturing leads is not a benefit of hosting an in-person kiosk. The purpose of the Project Pavilion is to educate the open source community on CNCF Projects, rather than present project or product sales pitches.

Can we host F&B at our kiosk?

Yes, projects will be able to order F&B to their kiosk at the project’s own cost. Please reach out to kmatienzo@linuxfoundation.org for more information.

Is there an option to have a virtual booth?

There won’t be any virtual booths for the Project Pavilion.

Miscellaneous

I am a sandbox project graduating to incubating before the event. Can I participate in PR Support?

If you’re graduating to incubating before the event, the CNCF team will reach out to you when your project passes the TOC vote. We’ll be able to provide support and details at that time.

Who should I contact with further questions?

Please reach out to Tin Matienzo, kmatienzo@linuxfoundation.org for further questions.