KubeCon + CloudNativeCon North America 2025 is almost here, bringing together thousands of developers, security leaders, and platform engineers, to explore the latest in cloud-native technology. With dozens of talks, workshops, and keynotes across multiple tracks, it can be tough to know where to focus your time. To help, we’ve curated a list of must-see sessions covering security, AI, cloud-native innovation, and platform engineering - including some interactive, hands-on experiences.

📍 Georgia World Congress Center, Atlanta, GA

🗓️ November 10 - 13, 2025

1. Kong AI gateway & insomnia workshop: AI success through API heroics

Date/Time: November 10, 9:00am - 12:00pm EST

Location: Embassy Suites by Hilton Atlanta at Centennial Olympic ParkTheme: AI / Cloud-native

Cloudsmith customer Kong is hosting this hands-on workshop exploring how AI-driven APIs can streamline workflows and improve automation. Attendees will work with Kong’s API Gateway and Insomnia tools to see practical examples of AI integration in real-world projects. If you’re curious about how Kong secures its software supply chain while supporting modern development practices, check out their customer success story.

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2. Project lightning talk: The same great OPA, only faster

Date/Time: November 10, 11:06am - 11:11am EST

Location: Building C | Level 3 | Georgia Ballroom 2Theme: Policy-as-Code

This session dives into improvements in Open Policy Agent (OPA) performance, demonstrating how teams can implement faster, more efficient policy-as-code pipelines. Learn tips and tricks for maintaining security and compliance at scale, while reducing the friction often associated with enforcing policies in CI/CD pipelines.

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3. Capture the Flag challenge: Defend the pipeline

Date/Time: November 10, 2:00pm - 6:00pm EST

Location: Hilton Garden Inn Atlanta Downtown | Atlantic Room - 2nd FloorTheme: Security / Interactive

Join Cloudsmith for a fun, interactive Capture the Flag event where you’ll defend a CI/CD pipeline against realistic attack scenarios. Participants can test their skills against malicious packages, misconfigurations, and supply chain threats, all in a safe, gamified environment. This session is a great way to see security best practices in action and get hands-on experience defending a modern software pipeline.

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4. Keynote: Supply chain reaction - a cautionary tale in K8s security

Date/Time: November 11, 9:27am - 9:42am EST

Location: Building B | Level 1 | Exhibit Hall B2Theme: Supply chain security

This keynote examines lessons learned from major supply chain attacks and highlights how Kubernetes environments can be hardened against similar risks. Security leaders and DevOps teams will gain actionable insights on improving artifact integrity, detecting threats early, and reducing downstream risk across CI/CD pipelines.

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5. Keynote: Maximum acceleration - Cloud Native at the speed of AI

Date/Time: November 11, 10:22am - 10:37am EST

Location: Building B | Level 1 | Exhibit Hall B2Theme: Cloud-native

Adobe’s Joseph Sandoval explores how cloud-native architectures can be optimized for AI-driven workloads. The session covers practical strategies for designing infrastructure that can scale dynamically, accelerate development cycles, and maintain operational reliability while supporting AI initiatives across the enterprise.

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6. Taming the complexity beast: Rethinking software architecture & deployment

Date/Time: November 11, 11:15am - 11:45am EST

Location: Building B | Level 3 | B308-309Theme: Platform engineering

This session brings together engineers from Chainguard, IBM, and other organizations to share how they simplify complex architectures and streamline deployments. Learn practical approaches for reducing operational overhead, improving reliability, and supporting fast-moving development teams across multiple platforms.

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7. Platform Engineering day zero: The origin story

Date/Time: November 11, 11:15am - 11:45am EST

Location: Building B | Level 3 | B312-314Theme: Platform engineering

Google’s Murriel McCabe shares a blueprint for building scalable platform engineering teams from scratch. Attendees will learn how to structure teams, select tooling, and define processes that maximize productivity and maintain developer velocity from day one.

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8. Keynote: There’s nothing to fear about the EU’s new Cybersecurity Law

Date/Time: November 12, 9:50am - 9:55am EST

Location: Building B | Level 1 | Exhibit Hall B2Theme: Open source

Linux Kernel maintainer Greg Kroah-Hartman explains the implications of the EU’s new cybersecurity legislation for open-source projects and enterprise security teams. This session is essential for anyone responsible for compliance or managing public and private codebases.

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9. Turn up the heat: Driving cloud-native innovation into real-world impact

Date/Time: November 12, 9:07am - 9:22am EST

Location: Building B | Level 1 | Exhibit Hall B2Theme: Cloud-native

Learn from real-world examples of how organizations are accelerating innovation while maintaining secure, reliable cloud-native deployments. This session highlights strategies for balancing velocity with compliance, and how cloud-native principles can drive tangible business outcomes.

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10. The hidden risks in AI/ML supply chains: How to secure your workloads

Date/Time: November 12, 3:00pm - 3:30pm EST

Location: Building B | Level 5 | Thomas Murphy Ballroom 1Theme: AI/ML and supply chain

Yash Pimple from Chainguard explores the emerging security challenges in AI/ML pipelines, including model provenance, dependency risks, and how malicious artifacts can propagate across environments. Attendees will get actionable guidance on securing AI workloads in production.

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11. Cloud-native back to the future: The road ahead

Date/Time: November 13, 9:56am - 10:06am EST

Location: Building B | Level 1 | Exhibit Hall B2Theme: Cloud-native

Microsoft and Akamai leaders discuss the evolution of cloud-native practices, including modern tooling, automation strategies, and architectural patterns that will define the next era of software delivery.

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12. Ulysses: Odyssey through platform engineering

Date/Time: November 13, 2:30pm - 3:00pm EST

Location: Building B | Level 3 | B304-305Theme: Platform engineering

William Rizzo of Mirantis takes attendees on a deep dive into platform engineering maturity, sharing lessons learned, best practices, and practical advice for building reliable developer experiences at scale.

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13. Mapping the next phase: Updating the Cloud-Native maturity model for 2025

Date/Time: November 13, 3:15pm - 3:45pm EST

Location: Building C | Level 1 | C111-112Theme: Cloud-native + AI

Akamai, StackEgy, and Glennium explore how cloud-native maturity models are evolving in the AI era and what this means for teams designing future-ready infrastructure. This session is ideal for technical leads planning long-term

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Secure software starts at Booth 530

Be sure to visit Cloudsmith at Booth 530 at KubeCon + CloudNativeCon 2025! Gain insights from booth lightning talks, get hands-on with live demos, and swap ideas with engineers solving the same challenges you are. Our team will be on hand to demo our cloud-native artifact management platform, answer your questions, and share tips on securing your software supply chain, AI artifacts, and CI/CD pipelines. We can’t wait to connect with you in person and explore how Cloudsmith can help your teams move faster, stay secure, and embrace modern development practices.