Well, that was exciting! Here’s the CloudFest 2022 summary for those who missed out, and for all you who want to relive the adventure. CloudFest 2022 was the most memorable cloud computing conference in recent years, for many reasons. After three years apart, the CloudFest community gathered in the thousands to meet face to face at Europa-Park to learn, share, network, and blow off a little steam.
So many of the executives, product managers, sales directors, and entrepreneurs we spoke to said the same thing: “This is my first live event since March 2020.”
Unlearning all those virtual meeting habits: living on the Edge, indeed!
Safety was the number-one rule at CloudFest 2022: that was the only way to responsibly produce a face-to-face gathering for thousands of people. Each and every attendee was checked for proof of vaccination or recovery, plus proof of a recent negative rapid-antigen test. FFP2/N95 masks were required in all event spaces. Hand sanitizer everywhere. This festival’s Covid mitigation plan was more strict than actual entry to the EU, and it was worth it. Okay, here’s how CloudFest 2022 went down:
CloudFest 2022 by the Numbers
Over 6,000 attendees from 65 different countries attended this year’s CloudFest. This included a greater percentage of C-level and upper-senior-management participants than ever before. The hotels were packed, as more attendees stayed for more nights. (Nothing like a Daft Punk night to make executives reconsider that early flight home.) This includes a new luxury hotel, the Kronasar, which the CloudFest community took over for the first time.
Despite the global pandemic AND an unfortunately-timed German airport shutdown on Day 1, CloudFest 2022 still had the lowest no-show rate in the history of the event. The internet infrastructure community really wanted to make it to Europa-Park, and they did whatever they had to do to make that happen! That energy was obvious for every moment of the festival.
5th Edition of the CloudFest Hackathon
Our main event team worked onsite with the Europa-Park squad for several days to get everything ready. When the CloudFest Hackathon participants showed up, things started to feel really real. These hackers got straight down to business, taking over the Colosseo Hotel to bash away at some big open-source projects.
Game-Changing Presenters at CloudFest 2022
Organizing an in-person event under such uncertain circumstances definitely presented challenges, but that didn’t stop the team from delivering a jaw-dropping program. For the first time ever, CloudFest featured a live performance by physicist/ballet dancer Dr. Merritt Moore and her four-robot dance crew.
That was just the beginning:
- Dr. Wolfgang Oels, CTO of Germany’s own Ecosia web browser, walked the crowd through moving from 100% to 200% renewable energy, so the Cloud can become an active force in healing the planet we all share.
- Best-selling author and professor Yuval Noah Harari, author of Sapiens and Homo Deus, delivered a masterclass in using technology to improve the human condition.
- Josepha Haden Chomphosy, WordPress Executive Director at Automattic, discussed the future of WordPress as a project, a software entity, and a global community.
The CloudFest app streamed most of these sessions live. That way, those who couldn’t make it to Europa-Park didn’t have to miss out entirely.
Epic CloudFest Concerts
The Cloud crowd hungered for music, and the 2022 lineup of networking events certainly delivered. The Lords of Uptime, those bad boys of the internet, rocked the Come2Gather party, powered by One.com and Open-Xchange, as old friends reconnected in person after far too long apart. Fist bump or handshake? That was an awkward moment for almost all of us at first!
The CloudHouse concert, powered by cPanel, raised the outdoor roof ‘One More Time’. However, since we didn’t see the artists beneath the helmets, and considering Daft Punk had apparently just played a secret show in Berlin, the CloudFest team has no way of 100% confirming that the duo onstage was NOT Daft Punk… just saying…
The CloudRock party, powered by Sectigo, saw AC/DC tribute artists Barock absolutely destroy the Colosseo stage with power chords, screaming vocals, and fireballs blasting all over the place! Late-night karaoke and carousing upstairs at the Colosseo bar went on until the wee hours. The crowd loved every second of it, though we suspect that the next morning felt like the Highway to Hell for many!
The CloudFest community shut down the festival with the return of our classic BierFest, powered by Datacore. So many intense conversations, and so many joyous singalongs that night!
NFTs at CloudFest
Our friends at Flux Collective and Misa.art launched UNIVERSE OF TIME PART II: ANTIFRAGILE, Germany’s first live NFT group show at Europa-Park, giving CloudFest attendees the first crack at grabbing limited-edition digital works from the hottest artists on the scene.
The Cloud Stands with Ukraine
Throughout CloudFest 2022, attendees dug deep to support children traumatized by the invasion of Ukraine, raising money to provide counseling for displaced kids. In war, kids pay a heavy price, and we’re doing what we can to help them heal. You can get involved as well, and donate today.
That’s Right: CloudFest is Back!
CloudFest—the event and the community—has proved that it’s unstoppable, even in the face of the global pandemic. Stay in touch with us through this blog, our newsletter, and social media to make sure you don’t miss the next event.
Many thanks to our brilliant photographer, René Lamb. You can find all of the photos (well, all the photos that were safe to publish) on the CloudFest Flickr page.
