KubeCon + CloudNativeCon North America 2026

KubeCon NA by the numbers

Every figure links to where it came from. Attendance for an event that has not happened is a projection, and each row says so rather than presenting it as a count.

• Dates9 to 12 Nov

  Official Linux Foundation events page. Four days in Salt Lake City, referred to by CNCF as KCNA26. KubeCon + CloudNativeCon NA

• Co-located day9 Nov

  The Monday is given over to CNCF-hosted co-located events and Project Lightning Talks. Keynotes and breakouts run Tuesday to Thursday. KubeCon + CloudNativeCon NA

• RegistrationNot published

  No tier pricing was displayed on the official page checked on 30 August 2026. The Linux Foundation typically sells in rising tiers with a discounted individual rate. KubeCon + CloudNativeCon NA

• AttendanceNot published

  No attendee figure was carried on the official page checked, so none is stated here. KubeCon North America has historically been among the largest open source events. KubeCon + CloudNativeCon NA

What is KubeCon NA?

KubeCon + CloudNativeCon is the Cloud Native Computing Foundation's flagship conference, and the North American 2026 edition runs 9 to 12 November in Salt Lake City. It is the centre of gravity for Kubernetes and the wider cloud native ecosystem, and unlike the vendor conferences elsewhere in this directory it is a foundation event, which shows in the programme: project maintainers and end users rather than product launches.

Who goes to KubeCon NA?

Platform engineers, SREs, infrastructure architects and open source maintainers, plus the vendors selling into cloud native teams. It draws a genuinely technical audience and a substantial contingent of the people who actually maintain the projects being discussed, which is what separates it from a cloud vendor's own conference.

KubeCon NA side events

The Monday co-located day is the official version: CNCF-hosted events and Project Lightning Talks that function as small conferences in their own right. Beyond that, vendors run their own parties and dinners across downtown Salt Lake City through the week. Many attendees rate the co-located days above the main programme. Aspire does not run any of it.

KubeCon NA tickets and costs

Register through the Linux Foundation events site. No pricing was displayed on the page checked, so none is quoted here; the Linux Foundation typically sells in rising tiers and offers a substantially cheaper individual rate for people not being sent by an employer, which is worth looking for. Salt Lake City in November is cold, and the venue sits downtown.

• RegistrationNot published

  No tier pricing was displayed on the official page when checked on 30 August 2026. Registration runs through the Linux Foundation events site. KubeCon + CloudNativeCon NA

Getting to Salt Palace Convention Center

Salt Lake City International is unusually close to downtown, roughly 15 minutes by road and connected by the TRAX light rail Green Line, which stops near the Salt Palace. It is one of the easier airport-to-venue transfers of any event in this directory.

Where to stay for KubeCon NA

Downtown Salt Lake City, within walking distance of the Salt Palace, which covers most of the city's hotel supply anyway. The downtown core is compact and walkable. November is off-season for the Utah ski traffic that dominates the winter, so rates are more reasonable than they become a month later.

What to know before booking KubeCon NA

Treat the Monday as part of the event rather than an optional extra. The co-located programme is where much of the deep project-specific content lives and it often requires separate registration. Also note that KubeCon runs regional editions across Europe, Asia and elsewhere through the year, so check which one a listing means before booking.

What runs alongside KubeCon NA

Named events on their own dates, and in several cases their own tickets. Booking the main days only is how people miss them.

• CNCF-hosted co-located events and Project Lightning Talks9 November 2026

  The Monday programme of project-specific events preceding the main keynotes and breakouts. Often requires separate registration.

KubeCon NA: common questions