Q&A with a Co-Chair of KubeCon & CloudNativeCon

We sat down with Liz Rice, Co-Chair KubeCon & CloudNativeCon, to talk about her experience in China, future events and diversity at CNCF events.

TFiR: How has been your experience so far in KubeCon & CloudNativeCon China?

Liz Rice: It has been phenomenal. This is my first time in China and it’s amazing to see these enormous Chinese companies who are embracing cloud native and doing advanced things with that.

I was particularly struck by the number of applications of AI on Kubernetes. There are power companies, genetics research that’s been done using cloud native technologies.

TFiR: Let’s look beyond China, what’s exciting about Seattle?

LR: I’m really excited because we just sold out. There will be more than 7,500 attendees at Seattle KubeCon & CloudNativeCon.

We are seeing this growing adoption of Kubernetes, so obviously there will be developers and technical discussions around technology. We want to maintain that, but we are also seeing end users and people with expertise and experience or running Kubernetes and cloud native in production. We want to hear more and more stories from them.

I’ve just seen the stage layout and from the perspective of actually standing on that a really big stage, it’s going to be quite fun. We will see a lot of projects that are going through the process of graduation and want to move from sandbox into incubation.

TFiR: Diversity is a topic that we cover here at TFiR. CNCF is doing incredible work to make its events more inclusive and diverse, will we continue to see that?
LR: One of the things that I’m really impressed about the CNCF is that there is a genuine focus on trying to improve access for a diverse audience. We have diversity scholarships, and I believe 301 people have attended or are going to be attending KubeCon & CloudNativeCon this calendar year as a result of the diversity scholarships.

It’s great to see those people from really unusual and interesting places around the world getting to attend and take back some knowledge to their local communities.