Keynote Speaker Guide

Thank you for being a keynote speaker at CloudNativeSecurityCon North America 2024, taking place June 26-27, at the Seattle Convention Center Summit Building in Seattle, Washington.

Please bookmark this page for easy reference and continue to check back as the event gets closer as we will be adding additional speaker information as they are available. If you have any questions, please email the CNCF Content Team.

• Travel Fund Request Deadline: Monday, May 20
• Speaker Registration Deadline: Wednesday, May 22
• Additional AV Requests Due: Friday, May 31
• Meet with Co-Chairs Deadline: Friday, June 7
• Presentation Slides Upload Deadline: Thursday, June 20
• Event Dates: June 26-27, 2024

Please review the sections below to find more information about the above dates and deadlines.

Registration

To confirm your participation and secure your speaking slot, it’s important to complete your registration by Wednesday, May 22, using the details you received in your notification email. If you require this information again, please reach out to the CNCF Content Team. Be sure to submit any accommodation needs when registering. Failure to register by the deadline may result in your slot being given to someone on our waitlist.

If you have already registered for the event and are now a speaker listed on the schedule, please reach out to our registration team in order to be issued a refund.

Complimentary registration is also extended to co-speakers or panelists from the original CFP submission. Please ensure their participation format aligns with yours before registering. For example, you cannot present in person if your co-speaker can only participate by pre-record.

If you’re attending the event in person, please review our Health + Safety page. Remember to check for updates as the event approaches.

Visa Letter Requests

If you require a visa letter, please register for the event, and then complete the visa letter request form.

Speaker Travel Funding

We place an emphasis on funding applicants who are from historically underrepresented or untapped groups and/or those of lower socioeconomic status. If you work for a company that has the ability to fund your travel, we ask that you not apply in order to save funds for those in need. Please note that by applying for travel funding, funding is not guaranteed. If awarded, certain conditions will apply.

The deadline for travel funding applications is Monday, May 20.

Note: Talk acceptance does not guarantee travel funding.

Venue

This year’s event will take place at Seattle Convention Center Summit Building located at 900 Pine St., Seattle, WA, 98101.

Hotel Details

We have a discounted room block that we invite you to view on our Venue + Travel page. Rooms may sell out in advance of the room block close date, so we encourage you to book early to secure a room at the conference rate.

If you require any additional AV, please email the CNCF Content Team by Friday, May 31. CNCF will make every effort to accommodate additional AV needs; however, final approval for additional AV requests will be made on a case-by-case basis.

The keynote room will include:

• Screen(s)
• Projector(s)
• Handheld + Lavalier Microphones
• Countdown Timer
• Wireless Slide Advancer
• Lectern
• Confidence Monitors*

*We recommend that you consolidate your notes as much as possible to increase the font size as large as possible. Keeping it brief will ensure you will be able to easily read your notes while on the main stage.

Note: After emailing your presentation to us, we will upload it to the show computers to play from backstage. CNCF will make every effort to accommodate additional AV needs; however, final approval for these requests will be made on a case-by-case basis.

Keynote Tech Check

Date: Tuesday, June 25

• All in-person keynote presenters are required to attend a 15-minute tech check of the keynote stage on Tuesday, June 25.
• This tech check will allow you to become familiar with the stage, what to expect on show-day, go over any AV needs you may have (example: playing a video) and to click through your slides. This is a great opportunity to see if any issues arise and resolve them ahead of the event.
• Please keep both of this date available for your tech check.

You will be assigned a tech check time slot closer to the event. If you foresee any issues with attending your walk-through, please let Cody Liskh know as soon as possible.

Keynote Stage Setup

The keynote stage will be what is known as a “thrust stage” with a semi-in-the-round seating layout designed to minimize the distance from the audience to the presenter. This unique design will allow our community to better connect with the presenters. There will be audience seating on three sides of the stage: front, left, and right. Because of this unique setup, here are some tips to pay attention to when navigating the stage in order to address the audience on all sides:

• Practice stage movement by presenting one complete thought to each section of the audience.  
• Shift to the right or left and face the next seating section with your next topic or thought.
• Make eye contact as much as possible in each of the three sections. Confidence monitors will face each direction.

An excellent example of what this stage looks can be found with Kelsey Hightower’s Keynote Recording from a previous CNCF event.

Presentation Details

All speakers are required to submit a PDF-format version of their final presentation slides ahead of the event to Sched.com. We find that adding the presentations before the event helps to drive interest in your keynote. The deadline for presentations is Thursday, June 20.

To upload slides:

• Log in to your speaker profile through Sched.com or via the mobile site
• On the top of the page click “Manage and Promote Your Session”
• Click “Add Presentation”
• Click in the “Select a File” box and add the PDF document (note: there is a 50MB size limit)
• Click “Upload” and your slides will automatically be saved

Branded Powerpoint

We designed an optional PowerPoint template for our speakers. Use of this template is not required but we do welcome you to use it for your convenience.

Co-Chair Meeting

Leading up to the event, we will send out a co-chair sign-up sheet to review your presentation with one of our co-chairs and ensure the messaging resonates with our audience. You must have an initial draft of your presentation at the time of the meeting. All keynote speakers must meet with Co-Chairs by Friday, June 7.

We strictly enforce a no-pitch, non-advertorial policy for all of our presentations, especially on the keynote stage.

Final Presentation

Please email your final presentation to Cody Liskh by Thursday, June 20.

We are pleased to offer speaker cards for you to share online and on your social media! Example promotions and graphics can be found in the Speaker Kit.

The Linux Foundation, in collaboration with the National Center for Women in Technology (NCWIT), has created an online course designed to teach the viewer about inclusion, diversity, and unconscious bias. It is strongly encouraged by the Cloud Native Computing Foundation that all our speakers watch the course to learn tips/tools to use when speaking to encourage inclusivity in presentations and messaging.

Please read and abide by our Code of Conduct, which is strictly enforced. We ask that speakers especially review and are careful to be inclusive in the words and images used during their presentation.

If you have any other venue, speaker, or schedule-related questions, please contact the CNCF Content Team.