KubeCon + CloudNativeCon Europe 2025 is around the corner and shaping up to be another great event for the Linkerd community! With the second Linkerd Day, 15 conference talks, and numerous opportunities to connect with the maintainers, this is your definitive guide to all things Linkerd at KubeCon. Read on to learn about where to find us, must-attend talks, and more.

Linkerd Day is back

Join us for Linkerd Day, a dedicated conference celebrating the world's lightest, fastest service mesh. A co-located event on April 1, Linkerd Day will feature end user talks, in-depth technical talks, roadmap discussions, and more. Don't miss this excellent opportunity to learn and network.

Meet the maintainers in person!

Find us in the heart of the expo hall action! Meet maintainers, ask questions, and discover what's next on the Linkerd road map. You'll find us at the Linkerd kiosk in the CNCF Project Pavilion and the Buoyant booth (#N460) in the sponsor expo hall. Stop by to chat with the team behind your favorite service mesh and get a cool Linkerd t-shirt while you're at it!

CNCF Deaf and Hard of Hearing Working Group

The CNCF Deaf and Hard of Hearing Working Group (DHHWG) has made significant strides in promoting inclusivity within the cloud native community. I'm proud to be a founding member and facilitator of this amazing group and everything it has achieved. 

This KubeCon will feature the first solo keynote address by a deaf speaker and six sessions by or with deaf speakers. Additionally, there will be community activities like an Open Discussion and a Sign Language Crash Course. You can also visit the DHHWG kiosk in the CNCF Project Pavilion (next to Linkerd) to meet the team. If you're curious, check out this video of the DHHWG team at KubeCon SLC to see what this group is all about and to learn how to sign Linkerd! 

Linkerd talks to add to your schedule

We’ve got an exciting lineup of Linkerd and Buoyant talks this year. Here are the must-attend sessions:

Tuesday

11:24 pm: Project Lightning Talk:API Management in the CRD World: What Linkerd Has Learned,  project lighting talk by Alex Leong, Software Engineer, Buoyant

1:35 pm: Scaling Progressive Delivery at EarnIn: Leveraging Linkerd for Advanced Deployments With Gateway API, Kush Trivedi & Joe Brinkman, EarnIn, Linkerd Day

2:10 pm: Choosing a Service Mesh, Alex McMenemy & Dimple Thoomkuzhy, Compare the Market, Linkerd Day

2:50 pm: Meshin’ With WebAssembly: Taking Linkerd Beyond Containers, Joonas Bergius, Cosmonic, Linkerd Day

3:20 pm: The Future of Linkerd: 2.18 and Beyond, William Morgan, Buoyant, Linkerd Day

3:55 pm: Abstracting Multi-Cluster Topologies With CAPI and Linkerd for Internal Developer Platforms, William Rizzo, Mirantis, Linkerd Day

4:30 pm: Federated Services: Straightforward Multicluster, Alex Leong, Buoyant, Linkerd Day

5:00 pm: Upgrading Linkerd With Flux, James Johnstone & Haydn Stokes, Compare the Market, Linkerd Day

5:15 pm: Benchmarking Journey Through Service Meshes, Dominik Táskai, adesso Hungary, Linkerd Day

Wednesday

3:15 pm: The Great Sidecar Debate, William Morgan, CEO, Buoyant

5:00 pm: Why Allyship Matters and Your Role in Creating a More Diverse Cloud Native Community, panel moderated by Buoyant's Catherine Paganini

5:45 pm: Museum of Weird Bugs: Our Favorites From 8 Years of Service Mesh Debugging, Alex Leong, Software Engineer, Buoyant

Thursday

1:00 pm: Your Voice on Stage: Creating Proposals That Get Noticed, Flynn, Buoyant,Abdelfettah Sghiouar, Google

2:15 pm: Linkerd Update: Gateway API, Client-Specific Policy, Federated Services, Multicluster, Rust, & More!,  Alex Leong, Software Engineer, Buoyant

3:00 pm: Emissary-ingress: Version 4 and the Road Ahead, Flynn, Buoyant

Interested in speaking at KubeCon?

If you have a Linkerd success story you'd like to share at the next KubeCon, we'd love to help you take the stage! Reach out to me on the Linkerd or CNCF Slack (@Catherine Paganini), and we'll guide you through the process of sharing your experience with the wider community.

Can't attend KubeCon this year?

No worries! You can always connect with us via the Linkerd Slack. Whether you're looking for advice or just want to say hi, our community is always active and happy to help.