KCD Warsaw, Poland 2025

[AudMonte01]

KCD Organizer Checklist

Please fill in information, organizers, and sponsors as you assemble them, and then make a new comment when this application is ready for review.

Event Details

• Event type: In person
• Event Venue: Varso Tower
• Event Date and Time: October 9, 2025
• Expected Number of Attendees: 200
• Event cost per ticket: TBD
  -- Tiered pricing?

Organizers Details (identify at least 3 organizers). Designate who will be the CFP admin, as well as the financial officer:

• Program Chair (PC): Chris Suszynski | krzysztof.suszynski@gmail.com | Senior Software Engineer at Red Hat | Warsaw, Poland | https://cloud-native.slack.com/team/U01F7LP6EJD | https://community.cncf.io/u/mjj3bw
• Financial Officer: Piotr Stróż | piotr.stroz.97@gmail.com | Co-Founder at DevBulls | Warsaw, Poland | https://community.cncf.io/u/mgpcx7/ | SLACK: @ Piotr Stróż | GITHUB: @ziemowit141
• Primary CNCF POC, Logistics, Marketing: Maciej Gołaszewski | m.k.golaszewski@gmail.com | Senior Cloud Engineer at VirtusLab | Crakow, Poland | https://cloud-native.slack.com/team/U06G3C2JN4B | https://community.cncf.io/u/mwqb7t
• Marketing, PC: Wojciech Barczynski | wojciechb@spacelift.io | VP of Engineering at Spacelift + OpenTofu TSC member | https://community.cncf.io/u/m6n72z | SLACK: Wojciech Barczyński | @wojciech12
• Marketing, PC: Tomasz Cholewa | Consultant @ Cloudovski | tomasz@cloudowski.com | https://community.cncf.io/u/mg7wuz/ | SLACK: cloudowski | GitHub: @cloudowski
• Sponsors, Website, Party: Wojciech Kocjan | wojciech@kocjan.org | Open Source @ Chainguard | https://community.cncf.io/u/m938uq/ | SLACK: Wojciech Kocjan
• Sponsors, PC, Venue: Katarzyna Brzozowska | DevSecOps Engineer, KnowIT | brzozowwwska@gmail.com | https://community.cncf.io/u/m8fbqv/ | SLACK: Kasia Brzozowska
• Finance, PC, Marketing: Patrycja Wegrzynowicz | Staff SRE Engineer at Form3 | patrycja@yonlabs.com | https://community.cncf.io/u/m2g7me/ | SLACK: Patrycja Wegrzynowicz
• Marketing & PC: Paweł Piwosz | devops@pawelpiwosz.net | Cloud Solution Architect, Tameshi | https://community.cncf.io/u/mp75bn | SLACK: Pawel Piwosz | GitHub: @pawelpiwosz

Terms

IMPORTANT: These are the terms within the checklist that must be abided by. Note - There are exceptions to these requirements in some jurisdictions due to applicable laws & regulations.

• This team has signed the terms & conditions set forth by the Linux Foundation
• This team has gone through a formal review process, where standards on timing, organizers requirements, and location collaboration have been reviewed, and approved.
• Every organizer has an account on Cloud Native Community Groups
• The majority of the organizers live within the KCD city or just outside of it. For small countries, the organizers can live within the region, but must be able to easily travel to the KCD if it were in-person.
• All organizers agree to follow the CNCF Code of Conduct
• All organizer inquiries / communication for CNCF must be summarized via GitHub (comment under your KCD issue) for easy tracking
• All organizers have taken Inclusive Open Source Community Orientation (LFC102)
• Agree to get logo creation and approval with and from CNCF. NOTE: Previously existing KCDs ideally use their previous year's logo
• Agree to use the designated CNCF registration platform
• Offer at least 3 complimentary tickets to increase diversity for the event
• Share the sponsor prospectus with CNCF via kcd@cncf.io.
• Agree to use Sessionize for CFP and to close it at least 8 weeks before the event, and launch the agenda at least 6 weeks prior to your event. CNCF will provide an event code so Sessionize is free to use if you are charging an event fee.
• Agree to ensure the final program schedule is diverse (e.g., not all speakers of one gender, one culture, or from 1 or 2 of the same company). Here are some tips on how to create a diverse lineup.
• Submit your final speaker lineup and schedule to kcd@cncf.io for review, prior to publishing the agenda.
• Produce a transparency report after your KCD (template below).

Resources & Templates

• Make a copy of this timeline based on whether your event is In-person, Hybrid, or Virtual.
• Audra to share an editable version of this Sponsor Prospectus once team decides who owns this role.
• Dynamic Agenda Builder for your speaker lineup
• CNCF will provide a editable copy of this Canva transparency report template for guidance.
• NOTE: Access to Sessionize, your microsite platform with registration, and an email alias (if desired) will be provided by a core CNCF program manager.
  -- However, we have a document with CFP guiding questions
• Recommended registration questions
• Other templates can be found here.

[ziemowit141]

Hey @AudMonte01 I've created a profile at: https://community.cncf.io/u/mgpcx7

[AudMonte01]

October 17 CNCF Kick-Off Meeting

Getting started checklist for organizers

• Schedule monthly check-ins with KCD Core Organizer(s) (kcd@cncf.io)
• Identified fiscal sponsor that can accept payments such as from sponsorships and pay out expenses
• Wojciech Barczynski needs to create an account on Cloud Native Community Groups.
• Identify team roles using this guide in the Assembling your Team guide in this GitHub repository
• Team to explore venues and consider things like
  -- Availability the first two weeks of October
  -- Space flexibility and if seating can be expanded or tightened up based on attendee numbers (consider capacity of 350-400)
  -- Central location - easy for people to access from train. Maybe not too far from an airport either (about 30-minute ride)
  -- Vendor requirements of the venue (Audio Visual / A/V & Food & Beverage/F&B)
• NOTE: CNCF will be able to provide monetary support that may help with a down payment for the venue. We should know the amount per KCD before the end of this year (hopefully end of November)
• Piotr to have his fiscal entity create a Stripe account to connect to registration (not time sensitive yet)

Getting started checklist for CNCF:

• Team to add Audra to created CNCF Slack channel for organizers
• Team to decide if they want an organizer email alias from kubernetescommunitydays.org, or one that can be managed
• Audra to create KCD Bevy chapter, and give organizers access (once list of emails and community.cncf.io account are provided for the remaining organizers)
• Audra to add team to global KCD organizer channel and monthly digest once all 2025 KCDs are announced (the month of October)

[pawelpiwosz]

Hey! I'll be more than happy to join the effort! @ziemowit141

[AudMonte01]

CNCF Monthly Sync

New Venue Insights

• Three have availability in October
• Google Campus is available for free, but the team does not know if they will have issues with certain sponsors

Team

• Audra to create email alias for kcdwarsaw@googlegroups.com
• Chris to tag Audra on decided team roles in Slack group
• Maciek, Piotr and Chris to attend monthly syncs

Logo Creation

• Team to send ideas to kcd@cncf.io for LF Design support

Other actions items

• Audra to touch base with Romania and Czech + Slovak team about budget for their 2024 events

[AudMonte01]

CNCF Monthly Check-in on December 18

Venue

• Varso Tower on October 9
• Have the option to add on Video recordings and more room
• CNCF Payments will happen in USD in January
• Audra to start a thread with Priotr and Accounting team for wire transfer setup, as down payment is due on January 18

Content

• Considering 4 workshops on same day as sessions with a different price

Logo

• Audra to shared 4 versions with the team in Slack channel and Tomasz to send email with edits requested

Sponsor Prospectus

• Finalized with venue and team alias
• Audra uploaded the PDF to the [repo here](https://github.com/cncf/kubernetes-community-days/tree/main/sponsor-resources/open-prospectuses]

[AudMonte01]

January 15 CNCF Check-in

Logo decision

• Tomasz is working on logo tomorrow or on Friday

Venue

• Contract is already signed
• Payment should be placed on January 31 - team could ask the venue to extend the payment deadline if CNCF cannot pay in time
• Perhaps team could provide venue proof of funds coming to allow for extension (reassurance)

Sponsorships

• Prospectus is finalized
• 3 companies that are interested
• Audra has a contract template in English to send to team alias and Piotr

[AudMonte01]

February 19 Monthly CNCF Sync

Ticketing questions

• Audra to send Stripe documentation to Piotr to figure out invoicing automation since Bevy Pay does not itemize VAT
• Worst case scenario: team sends out invoices manually. About 20 or less invoices per week - based on Budapest which has a goal of 300 attendees
• Team will discuss at next internal sync, pricing tiers and timing of launching tickets

CFP and Sessionize

• Audra owes team Sessionize code by next Monday, the 24th
• Speaker slide templates and guide examples here: https://github.com/cncf/kubernetes-community-days/blob/main/templates.md

[AudMonte01]

CNCF Monthly Check-in

Content

• CFP opened on March 11 CFP closes June 15
• 11 submissions so far
• Chris will wok on star rating or comparison

Marketing

• Will sell tickets at tiered pricing (2-3 options), which will be determined after more sponsors are acquired
• Team is not worried about selling tickets for 250 people
• VAT requirements. According to Polish law, Piotr's company must be the one to send these tickets (Piotr looking into
• Safe to issue invoices later (even 1x per week), but must be within the same fiscal month
• KubeCon kiosk slot (Tomasz and Pawel will be staffing)

Sponsors

• Two signed
• RedHat interested

Legal questions

• Volunteers (may not need them on-site)
• Data collected for scholarship recipients (Google forms)

[AudMonte01]

CNCF Monthly Sync

Content

• 2-3 keynote speakers (may be the 3rd if a Diamond sponsor comes through)
• 22 submissions with the CFP closes on June 15, with 4 women submissions
• They got a Polish speaker from Germany
• Team to determine reviewing process: outside reviewers? Star versus comparison rating?

Ticketing tiered pricing

• Start selling tickets near the end of the CFP
• Two ticket types, Early and Standard. Sell up to 220 tickets and reserve 30 tickets for sponsors and speaker
• 295 PLN Early Bird | 595 PLN Standard (plus VAT)
  CNCF Marketing support

Sponsors

• 1 Platinum + 2 Gold sponsors secured (50% secured)
• With one is interested at Diamond level, and another interested in a Gold sponsorship

Budget

• Can vary from 105,000 to 270,000
• If need be, the team can adjust room equipment or attendee party
• Chris will confirm with venue when options needs to be decided

[AudMonte01]

CNCF Monthly Check-in

Ticketing

• Discussing a higher price for 3 tracks in a quality event (even though it's a first-time event)
• Start selling once they have a confirmation with keynote speakers

Sponsor update

• 2 Gold that are signed and 3 interested
• 1 sponsor interested in Diamond and 1 in Platinum

Finances

• 132,830 Euros ($34,938.35) cost for a limited event
• 253,610 Euros ($66,707.17 cost for an even better

Content

• CFP submissions so far (closes on June 15), with CFP notifications by July 7 and schedule announced July 28
• Keynote speaker insights - would like to Audra to present 15 minutes on CNCF

Insurance

• Quote will come 1 month before event due to the amount of attendees
• The team knows the general cost will be fairly inexpensive