Attending KubeCon + CloudNativeCon India 2024 in December was a milestone moment for me. After applying for a scholarship multiple times and not being selected for past events, I was thrilled to finally have the opportunity to attend, especially since it was happening locally. With KubeCon + CloudNativeCon coming to India for the first time, I knew I couldn’t miss it, and being part of such an incredible gathering made the journey even more rewarding!
Attending a major conference like KubeCon + CloudNativeCon had been a dream since college, and I’m beyond excited to share my experience with you. Stick around till the end—I’ve got some valuable tips for first-time attendees!
🚀 News: KubeCon + CloudNativeCon India 2025 is happening in Hyderabad! If you’re planning to attend, check out the official event page here. Also, since Hyderabad is my home city, feel free to reach out—I’d love to connect and help you make the most of your visit!
Hey folks! I’m Akash (connect with me here). I work at Oracle as an Application Developer – 1, and my passion for cloud technology and open source started back in my college days. I was also a GSoC 2022 contributor, and since then, I’ve been actively involved in CNCF projects like KubeFlow, Volcano, K8s, etc.
How I started with CNCF
I first got involved with CNCF after participating in Google Summer of Code 2022 (CC Extractor org). Once the coding period ended, I was looking for open-source organizations to contribute to, and that’s when I discovered CNCF. Around the same time, at the end of my third year, I did a project internship at Oracle Hyderabad, where my team was focused on DevOps. Through both my work and my research, I came across CNCF and KubeCon.
A big shoutout to Kunal Kushwaha, who emphasized the importance of attending conferences and talks for learning and networking. His insights motivated me to explore these opportunities further.
When I discovered CNCF and KubeCon + CloudNativeCon, I knew it was one of the biggest conferences in the cloud-native world. I applied for a scholarship three times, but unfortunately, my applications weren’t accepted. However, when I learned that KubeCon + CloudNativeCon was finally coming to India—and by then, I had already started working—I was determined to attend.
And let me tell you—it was absolutely worth it! 🚀
Day 1
I reached Delhi in the morning and immediately rushed to the event venue for registration and other paperwork. Sadly, I missed the keynote, but that was fine as there was plenty more to look forward to. We (me and Vaishnavi) attended a few talks and then rushed to the project Pavilion.
There, we met Mumshad Mannambeth, the founder of KodeKloud! I’ve always loved his tutorials on Docker and Kubernetes, and the hands-on labs offered by his team are an amazing learning opportunity.
We attended booths of various companies and talked with them about the events, their products etc. I suggest everyone attend and talk with people there.
Guess what was next, I went to the CNCF booth itself. I met Daniel Krook from CNCF. He was very friendly and we asked various questions on contribution, next KubeCon and again best, how did he like India?
During the conference, I met many maintainers whose work I’d admired online and on YouTube, and it was an incredible experience to finally meet them in person.
Next we took some pics with various people, including Kunal.
Day 2
In 2024, there was no tech conference without AI. We attended Tutorial: An Accelerated Introduction to AI Model Deployment with Cloud Native – Sreeram Venkitesh, Independent & Emily Chen, scikit-learn
Coincidentally, this aligns closely with the field I contribute to! Although not from this conference, I started to dig more into AI and Dev-Ops. That is how I started contributing to KubeFlow.
Unleashing Generative AI with Open Data Hub – Ritesh Shah, Red Hat
My fav pic <3
My Suggestions for attendees
- ✅ Check the conference schedule and mark the sessions that interest you. There would be a lot of things going on, which you would miss if you don’t plan ahead. CNCF provides a schedule on sched, Please mark the best one and keep it handy.
- 🌍 CNCF is a big event, and when I say big, I mean not just for you but for projects/companies too. They are looking for contributors, but believe these events allows you to meet in person. There were events like Becoming an Open Source Project Contributor Is Easier Than You Think! and Contributing to Submariner for you! Do join your fav events.
- 🙋♂️ If you feel overwhelmed with maintainers and senior developers. I have something for you, It is called 🙋 Peer Group Mentoring Convention Centre, where students, freshers and people willing to contribute just sit on table and share their knowledge. All of them are beginners; they learn and share knowledge from each other.
- 🤝 Be open to meeting new people and engaging in discussions—networking is one of the most rewarding aspects of attending KubeCon + CloudNativeCon.
- 🏡 Apply to and support your local CNCF communities; engaging locally not only enriches your experience but also strengthens the overall community.
Closing Remarks
If you’re in or around Hyderabad, I highly recommend joining the CNCF Hyderabad community! We host exciting meetups, technical talks, and networking opportunities throughout the year. Looking forward to seeing many of you at KubeCon + CloudNativeCon India 2025 in Hyderabad—let’s connect, learn, and grow together! 🚀