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KubeCon North America 2026 Guide: Dates & Attendees

By Ilyas Kerbal,

Network cables in a server rack
Photo by Taylor Vick on Unsplash

KubeCon North America 2026, officially KubeCon + CloudNativeCon North America, runs from 9 to 12 November in Salt Lake City, and the 2027 edition moves to New Orleans from 8 to 11 November. Run by the Linux Foundation and CNCF, it draws more than 9,000 developers, SREs, platform engineers and open-source maintainers.

Kubernetes, platform engineering, observability, security and AI infrastructure are the core topics. This guide covers what to know and how vendors can reach a very technical audience.

KubeCon North America 2026 at a glance
Next edition 9-12 November 2026, Salt Lake City; 8-11 November 2027, New Orleans
Venue Salt Lake City (2026); New Orleans (2027)
City Salt Lake City, Utah (2026)
Typical month November
Frequency Annual
Attendance 9,000+
Exhibitors ~250 sponsors
Industry Cloud native, DevOps & platform engineering
Organizer Linux Foundation / CNCF
Official website events.linuxfoundation.org

About KubeCon

KubeCon brings together developers, SREs, platform engineers and maintainers of open-source projects such as Kubernetes, Prometheus and Envoy. The sponsor hall is a key venue for dev-tool, observability, security and infrastructure vendors.

Co-located events (e.g. platform engineering, security, AI) run the day before.

Where does KubeCon take place?

Rotates between US cities (Salt Lake City 2026, New Orleans 2027).

Does it change location? Yes, it rotates between North American cities.

Speaker on stage beside a blue curtain Speaker on stage beside a blue curtain. Photo by Product School on Unsplash.

Who attends KubeCon?

  • Developers and SREs
  • Platform engineers
  • Open-source maintainers
  • Engineering leaders
  • Vendors

You will find real buyers with real budgets, mixed with technical staff and partners. Segmenting the attendee list by role and company size before the show saves a lot of wasted booth conversations.

Your booth is booked. Is your target list? I build enriched KubeCon attendee and exhibitor lists so your team can book meetings weeks ahead. Ask about KubeCon

Target industries at KubeCon

  • Kubernetes and containers
  • Platform engineering
  • Observability
  • Cloud-native security
  • AI/ML infrastructure
  • Open-source

Why B2B teams should care about KubeCon

KubeCon’s audience builds and runs cloud-native infrastructure, and many attendees influence which tools their companies adopt. For dev-tool, observability and security vendors, that influence is valuable, even when the attendee isn’t the final buyer.

The community dislikes heavy sales tactics, so relevance matters. A list filtered toward engineering leaders and platform teams at target companies helps you invite the right people to technical sessions and demos.

Who should attend KubeCon?

Best for: vendors with a defined segment in cloud-native infrastructure who are ready to filter the attendee base by role and company size.

Less ideal for: teams expecting qualified leads to come to them. At KubeCon, the useful meetings are almost always arranged before the show opens.

Passes and pricing

Option Price / details
Also good to know Corporate, individual and academic rates on the event site (corporate highest)
Typical cost Corporate ~$1,200-1,500; individual cheaper; academic very low (confirm).

Prices change between editions and by registration date, so treat these as a guide and check events.linuxfoundation.org before you buy.

The KubeCon app and platform

Schedule via Sessionize app; event app available.

From a sales point of view, the app’s main limitation is access. You see the people who chose to be visible, you can’t pull them into your CRM, and once the event ends the data usually disappears with it.

Is KubeCon worth it?

Pros Cons
Very technical, high-intent engineers Engineers often not budget holders
Strong open-source credibility Rotating cities
Affordable for individuals Marketing-averse audience

A pre-show prospecting plan for KubeCon

When What to do
Early planning Pull the attendee, exhibitor and speaker lists and score them against your ideal customer profile.
Pre-show outreach Contact your top tier personally and your second tier with a short sequence. Aim to book meetings, not booth visits.
On site Work from a printed or mobile list of priority accounts and use breaks and evening events for warm introductions.
Post-show Follow up fast, share what you promised, and keep the list for next year’s edition.

Co-located events the day before KubeCon often attract more focused audiences. Check which ones your prospects plan to attend and suggest meeting there.

Pre-booked meetings beat booth traffic. If you want a clean, segmented KubeCon list to work from, reach out on Prospector and tell me who you want to meet.

Frequently asked questions

When is KubeCon North America 2026?

9-12 November 2026, Salt Lake City; 8-11 November 2027, New Orleans. Dates can shift, so confirm on the official website (events.linuxfoundation.org) before booking travel.

Where is KubeCon held?

Rotates between US cities (Salt Lake City 2026, New Orleans 2027).

Does it move? Yes, it rotates between North American cities.

How much does a KubeCon ticket cost?

Corporate ~$1,200-1,500; individual cheaper; academic very low (confirm). See the pricing table above for pass types.

Who attends KubeCon?

Mainly developers and SREs; platform engineers; open-source maintainers; engineering leaders.

Can I get the KubeCon attendee list?

Event organisers rarely sell attendee lists. Prospector builds one for you from the event app and website: attendees, exhibitors and speakers, enriched with job title, company, company size, industry, LinkedIn profile and work email where available, delivered as a CRM-ready file before the event. Ask about KubeCon here.

Get the KubeCon attendee list

Planning for KubeCon? Send me a message on Prospector. Tell me who you sell to, and I’ll come back with what the attendee and exhibitor data looks like for this event.

Photo credits

Sources

Event details were last checked in October 2026. Dates, venues and prices can change, so confirm them on the official event website.