Cloud Native Computing Foundation KubeCon + CloudNativeCon Europe 2020 - Virtual, 4 Sep 2020

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From YouTube: KubeCon + CloudNativeCon 101: A Beginner’s Guide to The Conference - Karen Chu & Michelle Noorali

Description

Don’t miss out! Join us at our upcoming events: EnvoyCon Virtual on October 15 and KubeCon + CloudNativeCon North America 2020 Virtual from November 17-20. Learn more at https://kubecon.io. The conferences feature presentations from developers and end users of Kubernetes, Prometheus, Envoy, and all of the other CNCF-hosted projects.

KubeCon + CloudNativeCon 101: A Beginner’s Guide to The Conference - Karen Chu & Michelle Noorali, Microsoft

First time attending KubeCon + CloudNativeCon? Not sure how to approach it? Getting decision paralysis from all there is to learn from? We gotchu. Come join us at the start of the conference to learn the best ways to get the most out of your time here. Collectively, both Karen and Michelle have been to almost every KubeCon + CloudNativeCon event since its inception and have identified tricks/tips to help guide you through your first conference, including: -Attending sessions -Hallway tracks -CNCF projects -Meeting project maintainers -Mentoring sessions -Approaching the sponsor hall -How to think about CFPs for the future

https://sched.co/Zeiw

A

Hey everyone thanks for coming to our presentation. uh This is a beginner's guide to the conference. I'm michelle nurly and speaking with me today is karen chu I'll. Let karen introduce herself first go ahead. Karen.

B

Hey um so I'm karen chu, I'm an open source community manager at microsoft, on the upstream container compute team and I joined microsoft via deus. um It's been three years now and at this point I've been to about seven coupons.

A

And uh I'm michelle nearly I'm an engineer at microsoft. I also came in via an acquisition with karen, um so we go way back. uh I've attended a total of nine kubecons and um that's actually kind of kind of why we wanted to talk to y'all. Today, we've seen the community and the conference grow so much and it's amazing events with lots to offer, and sometimes it can be easy to kind of miss some things if you're new or be really overwhelmed if you're new.

A

But we want to make sure that this conference is very welcoming and as welcoming today as it was for us when we first started going. um So we just want to talk to you about some lessons, learned tips and tricks and things that you.

B

A

Want to keep an eye out for.

B

All right so in today's 101 course we're going to go over the following topics: we're going to talk about how to follow the code of conduct tips around attempting sessions. What cncf projects are how to engage with project maintainers approaching the sponsor hall? What to expect in the hallway track um social events to check out and things to think about. If you want to consider submitting a talk in the future.

A

So, first things first, the code of contact. um This is a foundational component of all linux foundation. Events. You can find the one for kubecon. uh If you go to the event website and hit the drop down, attend and then click code of conduct.

A

Essentially it says you know be professional, make sure you're you have appropriate workplace behavior, follow.

B

Your employer's.

A

Guidelines follow any applicable laws um and, just generally be you know, a professional and um any, uh and all harassment uh of any form is unacceptable. Of course, uh these guidelines apply in both virtual virtual and physical settings uh on social media and on any really digital uh platform.

A

If you are a witness or a victim to any violation, please contact any event, staff and report what you've seen or witnessed, and you should rest assured that every staff member has taken incident response training, so they understand how to deal with incidents and in the future. If you have any concerns regarding the events before the event takes place, just be sure to contact the people that are listed on the website.

A

This includes the conference staff and they have emails and phone numbers listed on the on the website for you, uh and so you know they take these things seriously. They want to make sure that the event is safe for everyone and a good good, comfortable space to be in um for us to all, learn and get to know each other so be sure to take advantage of these things.

A

All right karen talk to us about attending sessions.

B

Can you go to the next slide? Oh yeah yeah, so, okay, we know at first glance the schedule looks super overwhelming, but don't worry a good way to start is to look at the schedule by the tracks and figure out what general topics might interest you. So, on the left side of the slide, you can see a screenshot of what the filters look like. This can be found. um Sorry, it is on the right side of the side of the slide yeah. So um that's what you want to look for.

B

um Don't forget to check out the 101 track, which I have starred. That's where this session falls. All this content has been created for newcomers, so you know it's a good place to you know, get yourself oriented and then also look out for the beginner level sessions that you can also filter for under content experience level, which is also started um yeah and then another quick tip is to utilize the sketch tool.

B

um It's a great way to build out your schedule and figure out like where you might have some overlapping sessions and just like figure out what your day is going to look like and then, as for attending sessions themselves, um the main takeaway we have for you is to take advantage of the q. A speakers will be available for q, a during the duration of their session and so feel free to come up and share questions you have, as they come up and just remember, to follow the code of conduct.

B

If you are interested in slides check out the session page on sketch, speakers will be sharing their slides there, so you can reference it after and if you miss a session or want to re-watch something all the sessions will be recorded and posted to youtube. Usually within a few days, if not sooner,.

A

It's always awesome to see everything go up. Super quick online in case you missed anything um so just some advice from us from personally attending sessions. I want to be really uh really adamant about, like don't be afraid of asking what an acronym stands for.

A

We have a lot of them in the cloud native community and they might even overlap with some other acronyms that you have at your internal internally at your company that you work at or in the industry or niche that you're involved in um so just be sure to like ask if you're, uh if you're, not sure what it is.

A

Yeah, karen, you want to take this next one.

B

Yeah, so um when you're asking questions, you know help people understand the angle you're coming from you can share things like you know what you're trying to solve, what kind of position you're in who you're trying to solve for and just keep in mind that when you're asking questions you might be asking questions that others haven't yet thought of that could apply to them.

A

Yeah, definitely, and if you normally take notes at physical conferences like I do try seeing if it's helpful in this virtual setting too a lot of times when we're at home or um you know not in the office or not at the actual event, we get a little lazy and we're like we're. Gonna watch this like it's tv, um but just that doesn't always like um help. You like take everything that you can away from it.

A

So if uh you do take notes, try doing it in this virtual setting and see if it helps you yeah.

B

um And then also like you know, we know it's a virtual conference and it's super easy to get distracted. So we just recommend closing you know other browser, windows and other applications. If you do have any work that you have to attend to consider scheduling some dedicated pockets of time to address that throughout the day.

B

Cool so next cncf projects. um Yes I'll talk a little bit more about this throughout the conference. You might hear the term cnc of project a ton and let's take some time to discuss what that means, but before that, let's talk about what cncf even is real quick, so cocf stands for cloud native computing foundation and the foundation's mission is to make cloud native computing ubiquitous and one way we do. This is by taking on the stewardship of projects.

B

So as an open source project develops in the ecosystem, they may get donated to cncf as vendor neutral ip and um within cncs. There are three different levels of projects so um as they mature and gain adoption. They level up. They go from sandbox to incubating to graduated and if you're interested in learning more about the cnc of projects or cncf and its projects, we recommend checking out the links that we have on the slides.

A

Well, good things to check out don't be overwhelmed. uh The case studies on the cncf website are amazing. The landscape gives you an idea of the breadth of projects that are in the space.

A

The technology radar will give you an idea of how end users are thinking about a specific verticals of technology like ci, cd or security, and then um what things they're, adopting and using and uh and even recommend so something new. That's something new that we're trying out definitely check that out and just to kind of harp on the vendor neutral ip a bit about the cncf. This is something that helps folks uh get over the legal hurdles of donating.

A

I mean contributing donating or contributing a code or documentation to a project that isn't owned by and and mainly uh run by, their own uh company.

A

So um you may also hear, like the term toc and cncf sigs a lot, also good acronyms, um but just to kind of expand that expand on that. Toc stands for technical oversight. Committee and sig stands for special interest groups, so the technical oversight committee is a group of about 11 people and they are responsible for the technical vision of the cncf.

A

They also vote on the projects that come into the cncf at all. The levels cncf sigs are focused on particular areas like app delivery or observability, or networking or security, so they have their own like verticals and.

B

A

Are groups of domain experts that build their own uh guidance and documentation around what is going on in terms of in the cncf and the broader ecosystem in their vertical, but also uh they advise the technical oversight committee on the projects that are submitted to the cncf so they're very key to this whole organization.

A

Liz rice, who is the toc chair, um will be doing a more in-depth session on the toc and the sigs, and I recommend attending her session to learn a lot more about this stuff and more information about the sigs and the toc can be found on the cncf toc github repository.

A

um So if you want to join in or figure out when they meet um all of that, what all of that information is listed and linked on the github repo and throughout the day, you'll. Also throughout the next few days, you'll also see uh sig sessions, so there are kubernetes sigs that are kubernetes project specific and then there's cncf sigs, which are cncf uh broader um and uh broader groups that focus on those verticals that we're talking about that. I was talking about so um just check those out there's introduction sessions.

A

If you just want to get a glimpse of what people are working on and there's longer deep dive sessions, I think uh those are more for like deeper discussions for the uh sig uh group members to meet and hash things out face to face generally, so um both good things to look out for all right. Let's talk about project maintainers.

A

So you also hear the term project maintainers quite a bit, and- and this is, if you're not familiar with open source uh or this kind of ecosystem and environment. uh Let me just explain for a second like what a project maintainer is so project. Maintainers are responsible for the code base and documentation of a particular project.

A

They review and contribute code and documentation they. um So they will, like you, know, fix buds, uh review and contribute um features. uh They'll also help with the with building and releasing the project.

A

Any maintenance, ongoing maintenance work, uh just like upkeep reviewing and fixing security related concerns, so they're the keepers of of the code base, essentially um and and they're the people you want to go talk to. If you have any questions or if you want to like propose something.

B

Yes, um so earlier on the subject of attending sessions, I mentioned that there are different tracks um you uh well. I now want to focus on specifically the maintainer track. So again, it's start. um Cncf projects are on the maintainer track. There are intro and deep dive sessions like there are for the sig sessions and you can filter by the maintain your track sessions to find them um and also, if you're, on the lookout for the project pavilion.

B

So here you can find project maintainers of various cncf incubating and graduated projects, so there will be project specific booths, essentially and depending on the team, there will be maintainers on standby to help answer questions and some of the projects will also be doing office hours so be on the lookout for that um and yeah anything else. Michelle any questions that people should ask.

A

um Yeah well on the project pavilion bit. I think, like I always enjoy that, so I hope folks take advantage of it. I'm a maintainer and I really enjoy standing at the booth and talking to people who are thinking about using our project or using our project, and you know just want to have a quick session. um Just even me. You know, like I love hearing what people are working on and um and uh love understanding how they're using the project and what gaps they see.

A

But then also as a someone who uses a bunch of these projects, I love having the opportunity to go and meet the maintainers and just say hi. You know like it's so nice to put a face uh to a github handle so yeah. So when you do meet, people um share a little bit about yourself self, how their project can help you ask how to get started and ask how you can get involved, because a lot of times there's community meetings or slack channels or other ways of being involved long term.

A

In case you have questions or want to just contribute or something like that.

B

All right, so next we're going to talk about approaching the sponsor hall.

B

um We know at first glance. This is also going to look daunting, but the main thing to take away is that the sponsor hall is the perfect opportunity to chat with companies and people in the ecosystem.

B

So, if you're looking for anything specific in terms of like services or solutions, this would be the perfect time to have those conversations, and since this is a virtual event, we know the interaction is obviously going to be different than normal.

B

um So the way we're doing it this time around is the sponsors will have a live chat feature at their booth, where you can hold one-on-one conversations with someone and when it comes to asking questions, um you know we're still pushing the same thing in terms of like things, you should bring up right, um more things you can talk about. Are um you know, aside from like what you're working on and what you do like share?

B

If you have a specific problem that you're trying to solve- or if you just want to hear, what's out there right like if you're just here to learn, another thing is to ask others what problems they're working on. Why something is a problem in the first place even and how they're trying to solve it.

A

Yeah and don't forget to check out the smaller booths. You know the big booths are great, um but people are innovating at all levels. So this is your chance to get in early on um what people are working on and and they're really cool new projects and also there's a booth crawl. So don't forget to check that out. Unfortunately, we aren't going to be having any cute beverages and snacks, which I always enjoy.

B

A

This is a dedicated window of time to check out the sponsor hall without any uh competing activities like um sessions or keynotes yeah.

B

um And then, lastly, um so swag real, quick, it's just like our industry term to say giveaways, essentially um they're really just meant to help. You remember interactions that you've had so obviously that's gonna be different around um this time around, uh but be on the lookout for virtual swag. So, for example, I designed um some crossword puzzles and word searches for the microsoft group, um so you know check that out. I'm just really curious to see like what creative forms of swag people have come up with this time around.

A

Same here all right: let's talk about the hallway track, um so this is also an industry term. If you go to a lot of conference, you've probably heard of conferences, you've probably heard of this, but if you're not familiar uh hallway track, is how we refer to um basically forgoing the sessions watching the recordings and just hanging out in the sponsor hall and networking and meeting up with people from the community, um so we'll basically chat catch up, work on things, sometimes even on code, which is cool.

A

uh If you are, you know, networking with people um here are some things you can share.

A

Make sure you tell people that this is your first time attending kubecon everybody gets really excited when you like, say that uh talk about what you're looking for how much exposure you've had to cncf technologies if you've contributed to anything if you've just read some dots. If you tried something out and that's always very helpful and also um share your professional background, what you're working on who your employer is and projects you've contributed to in the past, um uh I think there's a slot channel for this event. Karen you want to talk about that.

B

Yeah, so um the main, I think, main form of communication, at least text-wise- is going to be on slack, so make sure to sign up for slack. um You should be able to find a link in the email that you get for the events and it will be organized by track specific channels um and also be on the lookout for extra channels for networking and, if you're not already familiar with slack, definitely check it out um our community, the cncf. You know, kubernetes community heavily, relies on slack for real-time communications.

A

All right, the fun stuff, social events yeah so.

B

um During a normal physical event, social events are obviously a great way to meet people. um Nonetheless, they're still pretty important and valuable to participate in virtually.

B

um You know when you're on a virtual conference right or when you're at a virtual conference, it can be super draining just to be on the computer all day and like super focused, um so just kind of take these virtual social events as a as a reminder to take a break right- um and you know social events to me- also communicate the kind of culture that a community is really trying to foster so um yeah. I would highly recommend checking out the events that we have organized.

A

Yeah- and there are quite a few of them um listed here- I'm excited about this game games, lounge uh sponsored by red hat, there's a virtual job board sponsored by aws musical performance by michael hicks and drag queen bingo. So pops about that.

B

Yeah huge shout out to the events team for organizing all of this. For us.

A

Yes, they're always great in person and I'm very excited about the virtual ones too.

B

Yeah, so um let's take a moment to look forward now, um if you're interested in speaking at a future conference, you'll want to consider submitting a cfp and what is a cfe, so it stands for call for papers and anyone can submit.

B

um This is the process that is used to select talks, for um you know, kubecon conferences, and these talks are reviewed by a program committee made up of community members and you know together they work to build out the conference schedule, so some general outlines um to think about or general guidelines to think about when it comes to cfps. Are that sessions are meant to cover open source technologies and should be vendor neutral.

B

So, as a speaker, you know we're here to push innovation and not necessarily to sell anything, and there are a lot of different formats you can consider, so you can consider doing a regular presentation, a panel lightning talks and you know, take your pick.

A

Awesome and uh so karen and I have both done um keynotes as well as session uh like regular sessions at kubecon, cloudnativecon and other open source conferences and.

B

I was actually.

A

A um kubecon conference chair in 2017, so both of us have experience, writing and reviewing uh conference proposals, and just I read thousands of them, so I wanted to like maybe pull out a few bits to think about um before submitting so uh when you're thinking about submitting or when you're crafting your cfp make sure you clearly articulate uh the problem area in one to two sentences. So, like what problem are you solving set the scene one to two sentences, super brief um and also talk about uh what the audience will take away.

A

So um your conference, uh your cfp, will have a section on it called abstract, and these are the things that you want to include in the abstract, and uh this is also the thing that will be posted on um sketch and on the conference schedule.

A

uh Just as something that the audience members will see in order to figure out their. If your conference session is um something.

B

A

They would uh enjoy and take away and learn from so it's kind of your pitch. So you also want to include your expertise and experience in the area. Did you build this tool in technology? Did you use it and like really hurt and like learn a lot along the way?

A

These kinds of stories really resonate with the community and also talk about how uh your project or your conference or your project or your conference session, um or your your use case or whatever you're talking about fits into the ecosystem and how your session will help the ecosystem grow and learn and also make sure you ask people to review.

A

I always send my cfps to folks that I work with just to kind of glance at give me any feedback and I'm always happy to other uh read other people's um cfps too, before they submit takes a few minutes and it's nice to just get another set of eye on these things eyes on these things. It's easy.

B

Yeah um and as part of that review process as well is like you know, you can go and check out previous abstracts as examples um so like. What I will do sometimes is go to. You know like an older kubecon um like schedule page and just like look through the sessions there, um because obviously those are the ones that got selected right so like they serve as good examples of what I should be sharing in my own cfps yeah.

A

For sure great advice, okay and some parting thoughts be sure to stay involved after the events, um these conferences are just meant to be a kickstart for you to get involved with the community. Meet people uh learn stuff, but you can stay involved with local meetups in your area or online.

A

uh You can also go to kubernetes community days. um Those are like mini kubecon cloud native conferences, uh but geared at local communities. There's also a newsletter you can follow and uh submit to called cube weekly newsletter.

A

um Cncf webinars are held very frequently a few times a month and you can actually uh check those out for some great information on cncf projects and the cloud native foundation. Twitter handle also has great real-time information about projects, events and just the community at large.

B

Yeah, um circling back real, quick to like doing talks right. I think local meetups are actually a great place to get started. If you are nervous about doing talks in front of a huge audience, you know um that's a good place to like test out talks and kind of see what the interest is there and get feedback. So I'd highly recommend that um yeah and if you have any questions throughout the conference or even after feel free to reach out to us on twitter, you can find me on twitter at terryh2.

A

And I'm michelle nearly cool and uh we could totally take q a so or we could totally do q a so if you have any questions, feel free to type them in and we'd be happy to answer yeah. Thank you.

A