Sponsor-Hosted Co-Located Event Best Practices + Event Guide

Thank you for your interest in co-locating an event alongside KubeCon + CloudNativeCon Europe 2025! 

This guide serves as your main resource for information, best practices, and FAQs around contracting and planning your sponsor-hosted co-located event. We attempted to answer all frequently asked questions here, so please bookmark and share this page with your planning team! 

If after reviewing/referencing this guide you still have a question, contact us!

• Companies hosting co-located events must be level sponsors of KubeCon + CloudNativeCon Europe 2025
• Events may not overlap with the official conference program 2 – 4 April, or the evening of the KubeCrawl + CloudNativeFest 2 April. Please reference the “Sponsor-Hosted Events” section of your Sponsor Portal for full details.
• It is permitted to host events during the following dates and times:
  • Tuesday, 1 April – ANYTIME
  • Wednesday, 2 April – AFTER 20:00 
  • Thursday, 3 April – AFTER 18:00
  • Friday, 4 April – AFTER 18:00
• Cross-promo MPO sponsors are responsible for securing their own venue and planning their respective events. 
• If using “Kubernetes” or another CNCF project in your event title, please refer to The Linux Foundation trademark guide for the correct and incorrect usage examples.
• Please do not organize group transportation to pick up attendees from the conference venue or CNCF-hosted offsite events
• Please do not use the KubeCon + CloudNativeCon conference name, logo or branding to promote sponsor-hosted events on websites, social media, posters, brochures, signs or other marketing materials. Please refer to the sponsor branding section of the sponsor portal for guidelines.
• Use of the conference lead retrieval devices or mobile apps to scan attendees’ name badges at private sponsor-hosted events is not permitted. Please note that any and all attendee information must only come from your registration portal.

• Event listed on the conference website
• Event listed on the official conference schedule
• Event listed in a shared pre-event promotional email
• Optional: Event listed on the KubeCon + CloudNativeCon registration form for attendees to add it to their conference registration.
  • A 2.58% credit card processing fee per registrant will be charged if a registration fee is required.

• Deadline to submit a request for off-site Cross-promotion of Pre-Approved Community Events MPO: Friday, 10 January
• Final Deadline to Submit Event Information for Posting: Friday, 28 February

Cloud Native Computing Foundation and its project communities are dedicated to providing a harassment-free experience for participants at all of our events, whether they are held in person or virtually. CNCF events are working conferences intended for professional networking and collaboration within the open source community. They exist to encourage the open exchange of ideas and expression and require an environment that recognizes the inherent worth of every person and group. While at CNCF events or related ancillary or social events, any participants, including members, speakers, attendees, volunteers, sponsors, exhibitors, booth staff and anyone else, must not engage in harassment in any form.

Please review the full Code of Conduct, which may be revised at any time by CNCF and the terms are non-negotiable. Your registration for or attendance at any CNCF event, whether it’s held in person or virtually, indicates your agreement to abide by this policy and its terms.

Request a Contract

Contact sponsor@cncf.io to secure your Cross-promotion of Pre-Approved Community Events MPO.

Contracting Deadlines

Signed contracts for marketing promotional opportunities (MPO) must be received by Friday, 10 January, 2025.

Competitor Registration Policy

In the spirit of community, we do not endorse or recommend that sponsors place restrictions on registrations from “competitor” companies or organizations. If the sponsoring company insists on restricting who can register for their co-located event, said company is required to list such registration stipulations/parameters in their event description prior to canceling existing registrations or declining new registrations. We also require that said sponsor reach out to the individual directly to explain why their registration is being canceled prior to sending said cancellation requests to our team for processing.

Content

Event topics are not exclusive to one event. Posting event details early allows attendees to plan their travel (and tends to ensure higher ticket sales)!

Marketing + Promotion

In addition to CNCF’s marketing efforts, we encourage host companies to market their event to their target audience! You may also create an external website to be linked on our official co-located event page. (Sponsors contracting a cross-promotion package have the option of using our registration system or their own.)

Publishing Events to the Official Website

Events may be posted once the contract/addendum is fully executed. In order to have your co-located event listed on the website and registration form, please complete the information collection form sent to you via email as soon as possible (but no later than Friday, 28 February).

If using “Kubernetes” or another CNCF project in your event title, please refer to The Linux Foundation trademark guide for the correct and incorrect usage examples.

To maintain a uniform website, all co-located events will be listed with:

• Official event title – Event Name hosted by Company Name
• Event time frame
• Registration Fee
• 200 word (maximum) event description
• (Optional) Link to external event website
• Email address for attendee questions
• Venue + room name/number

Registration

All attendees, including speakers, organizer, facilitators, and internal staff, MUST be registered for KubeCon + CloudNativeCon AND your co-located event. Attendee information (including first and last name, company, title, email address, and country) will be shared via private registration portal link. Once your event sells out, it will be marked as “Sold Out” on the co-located event website and in Sched.

Sponsors are required to ensure all attendees — including internal staff, trainers, speakers, etc. — are registered prior to event day. Unless otherwise stipulated in your information collection form response, event registration will close at the event’s published end time. (NOTE: If you stipulated a different registration close date/time, the deadline to notify our team of registration close date/time changes is Friday, 28 February. Change requests will not be accepted after this deadline.)

All discount or comp code requests (if using the KubeCon + CloudNativeCon event registration management) should be directed to wwest@linuxfoundation.org Please note that requests for comps are only for your specific sponsor hosted co-located event, and not a discount of the KubeCon+CloudNativeCon registration fee.

Sponsor Emails to Attendees

Sending pre/post-event communications to attendees is entirely at the sponsor’s discretion. However, as your co-located event date approaches, we strongly recommend sending a pre-event email sharing the following types of details with your attendees:

• Location information! Many people will automatically assume that the co-located event is happening at Salt Palace (convention center), so it’s very important to remind everyone of your event location. Include the address, website, and any other helpful tips they may need to find you.
• Contact information if they need help with anything related to your event.
• Virtual Events – Share platform log in details, zoom links, etc. Everything that virtual attendees will need to participate effectively.
• Any downloads, repos, or documents the attendee should have reviewed and/or have access to for your event.

Turning leads into revolving customers takes time and dedication. Analyze the available data in your registration portal carefully and develop a lead nurturing strategy specific to the attendees and the content they interacted with during your co-located event. One size does not fit all. Following up in a timely manner with personalized and relevant content is key to stay on top of mind of prospective customers.

All KubeCon + CloudNativeCon sponsors are required to abide by these terms and best practices when sending emails to attendees. Sponsor emails should always:

• Be sent from an email address affiliated with your company (e.g. address@company.com)
• If using a personal account, clearly identify that the sender is employed by your company (e.g. “Hi, I’m Jane with XYZ Company”)
• Indicate how you came into possession of the attendee’s email address (e.g. “You are receiving this email because you registered for our co-located event at KubeCon + CloudNativeCon”)
• Provide targeted content based on the attendee data that you’ve gathered instead of sending generic boilerplate messages. Personalize emails whenever possible.
• Don’t bombard attendees with messages. Receiving too many emails is one of the top reasons for recipients to unsubscribe. Find a balance between staying in consistent contact and giving recipients time to digest your information.

Staffing

Please ensure at least (1-2) team members are prepared to staff the event. Your team is responsible for ensuring the correct attendees are checked in at your event.

Post-Event Payment

If you are charging a registration fee for your event, The Linux Foundation will pass through registration revenue less credit card and registration processing fees (2.58%). Within 30 days post-event, you will receive an email noting your revenue (less fees) with instructions to submit an invoice to The Linux Foundation for payment. If you are donating your fees to the Dan Kohn Diversity Scholarship Fund, we will confirm the final amount donated.

We attempted to answer all frequently asked questions here, so please bookmark and share this page with your planning team!

If after reviewing/referencing this guide you still have a question, please send your inquiry to our sponsor-hosted co-located event lead, Wendi West.