Soeren von Varchmin

Soeren von Varchmin was 2018 interviewed by hosttest.de, an online platform which offers businesses an outlet where they can search out and compare hosting companies. The article, titled “Behind the Scenes of CloudFest 2018”, shares with readers valuable insights from the man behind the success of CloudFest’s global event series.

Soeren von Varchmin

ht: Hi Soeren, could you introduce your company to the visitors to our hosttest site?

WorldHostingDays was established in 2004 with the idea of bringing managers and business leaders closer together under the theme of hosting. The meet-up, organized by Thomas Strohe, (formerly Intergenia AG and then Plusserver AG) began with a regional meeting in Cologne and quickly became the most important hosting event worldwide, first in Phantasialand and then in Europa-Park in Rust. In 2016, World Hosting Days GmbH took over the event “NamesCon“, the biggest event worldwide for the domaining branch. At this time, 18 full-time employees work at CloudFest in Köln and Vancouver.

WHD.global became – for the first time – CloudFest, in 2018. What were the motivations?

Based on the number of visitors from previous years it became clear that only 25% of our visitors were employees of classic web hosters. Therefore, we searched within a small team for a suitable name as a possible successor. This is how, in a relatively short amount of time, CloudFest was born.

At Cloudfest, one consistently has the impression that the crowd is a particularly international one – do you have actual facts (from where they come from) of the 2018 exhibitors and visitors?

We registered over 6,600 visitors and just under 200 exhibitors this year. As you correctly suspect, exhibitors are becoming increasingly international as well as visitors. We had visitors from over 80 countries who found their way to Europa-Park.

What has changed with the company since GoDaddy took over?

Nothing has changed in the current business. We will continue to act as the neutral host of Cloudfest.

In the past, there were fundamentally more regional events – is there a resumption of that planned for the future?

More executive settings, like our racing or sailing event, are planned. I, unfortunately, can’t give away any details quite yet.

Europa Park was the event location for CloudFest 2018. Will you stay there in the future?

Definitely. Europa-Park has been hosting us for many years, and it is a very good partnership for both sides. Especially the family environment in Rust which is very much by our appreciated visitors, as well as exhibitors. By expanding the available hotels, we can also continue to grow with capacities.

Interview by: Marco Keul
To read the interview in German, please find it here: www.hosttest.de/artikel/hinter-den-kulissen-des-1362.html

Soeren von Varchmin


The best Cloud Conference in the World – CloudFest

REGISTER NOW for the BEST CLOUD FESTIVAL IN THE WORLD

More from our blog: