DATES TO REMEMBER:

• CFP Opens: Friday, May 1
• CFP Close: Monday, June 1 at 23:59 AEST (UTC+10)
• CFP Notifications: Monday, June 15
• Schedule Announced: Monday, June 22
• Event Date: Wednesday, August 5

Reminder: This is a community event — so no product and/or vendor sales pitches.

SESSION FORMATS

Each 30-minute slot includes 5 minutes for speaker changeover, so all session formats have 25 minutes of content, including Q&A. Lightning Talks are not submitted through this CFP — see below for how those work.

• Talk — 25 minutes (recommended 20 min + 5 min Q&A): A focused, single-topic session. Ideal for case studies, architectural deep-dives, lessons learned, live demonstrations, or ecosystem knowledge sharing. Budget time for at least a few minutes of audience questions within your slot. Limited to 1 or 2 speakers.
• Panel — 25 minutes (recommended 20 min + 5 min Q&A): A moderated discussion amongst multiple speakers on a single focused topic. Given the tight format, panels work best with a sharp thesis and a disciplined moderator — broad or meandering topics will not land well in 25 minutes. Limited to 2-4 speakers plus 1 moderator. All submissions with 3 or more participants must include at least one gender-diverse speaker, and participants must not all be from the same company.

Note: We are not accepting workshops for this edition. These may be introduced at future events as the programme grows.

TRACKS

We welcome proposals on any topic in the cloud native and open-source ecosystem. The following tracks are intended as guidance, not a strict constraint — if your talk spans tracks, pick the closest fit. A quick pointer on two that are often confused: choose Platform Engineering if you are building internal platforms and workflows for others to consume; choose Operations + Performance if you are running and scaling systems in production.

• Platform Engineering: Internal developer platforms, golden paths, IDPs, GitOps for platform operations, paved roads, workflow automation, self-service toolchains.
• AI + ML on Kubernetes: GPU orchestration and workload scheduling, MLOps pipelines and model lifecycle, model serving at scale, AIOps, intelligent automation, LLM infrastructure.
• Security & Supply Chain: Zero trust, identity and credential management, policy-as-code, SBOMs, SLSA, artefact verification, runtime security, workload isolation, multi-tenancy.
• Observability & FinOps: Metrics, logs, traces and alerts, OpenTelemetry adoption, cost-aware operations, dashboards and sampling strategies, cloud spend visibility.
• Operations + Performance: Autoscaling, high availability, performance tuning, operators and controllers, stateful workloads and databases, reliability engineering, SRE practices, cluster management at scale.
• Application Development & Developer Experience: Cloud native app patterns, microservices and the modular monolith, WASM, serverless, event-driven architecture, developer productivity tooling, CNCF frameworks.
• Connectivity & Networking: Service mesh, eBPF, multi-cluster networking, edge computing, telco workloads, load balancing, network security and automation.
• Cloud Native Novice: Content for practitioners who are newer to cloud native technologies. Foundational concepts, introductory architecture patterns, getting started with Kubernetes, first steps with CI/CD or observability. Clearly label these for an entry-level audience.
• Cloud Native Experience: Real-world adoption journeys, regulated industry deployments (finance, government, healthcare), transformation stories, failure post-mortems, open source community building, and the business value of cloud native investment.

WHAT MAKES A STRONG PROPOSAL

For detailed guidance on crafting a compelling submission, we recommend reviewing the KubeCon + CloudNativeCon North America 2026 CFP resources. KCD Melbourne follows the same standards and community values as KubeCon, and that page offers excellent practical advice on framing, depth, and what reviewers look for.

• A clear, specific learning outcome — what will attendees walk away knowing or be able to do?
• Real-world grounding — production experience, concrete data, or a genuine lesson learned carries more weight than a theoretical overview
• Vendor-neutral framing — you can reference commercial tools and platforms, but the talk must not be a product pitch or sales presentation
• Your unique perspective — why are you the right person to give this talk?

FIRST TIME SUBMITTING?

You're welcome here. KCD Melbourne is an excellent place to share your story for the first time. You do not need to be a well-known industry figure or a CNCF project maintainer to submit. We actively want to hear from engineers, operators, architects, and community contributors at all career stages — especially those who haven't spoken at a conference before. If you'd like help shaping your proposal, reach out to the organising team at melbourne-org@kubernetescommunitydays.org before the deadline.

LIGHTNING TALKS

We will be running Lightning Talks as part of the schedule, but submissions are not accepted through the CFP process. Lightning Talks can be proposed on the morning of the event, and voting will be open until the afternoon tea break, so all attendees can have their say on the subjects they want to hear about. Be prepared with sharp slides and content, hone your 1-line submission title to really grab attention (and votes!), and watch the votes roll in for your talk on the day. Or if you've been inspired by the morning's content, speak off the cuff about an area of the cloud native landscape that has been burning a hole in your thoughts. Remember the Code of Conduct still applies, and keep it on topic for the conference.

CODE OF CONDUCT

By submitting, you agree to the CNCF Code of Conduct.

COMMITMENT TO INCLUSIVITY

Please review The Linux Foundation's Inclusive Speaker Orientation and Inclusive Language Initiative.

Question about submitting a proposal? Contact us at melbourne-org@kubernetescommunitydays.org.

PRIVACY POLICY

At KCD Melbourne, we are committed to safeguarding your privacy. Sensitive speaker information will only be accessible to event organizers and program committee members who adhere to the highest confidentiality standards. Rest assured that your information will never be sold or shared beyond these parties.

Speaker personal information including name, company, job title, biography and photo will appear on the public schedule. For information on our privacy practices and commitment to protecting your privacy, please review our Privacy Policy.

You can update or delete your account information at any time through your Sessionize profile account settings. Please contact support@sessionize.com directly for any questions or issues. 

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Accepted speakers receive a complimentary event ticket. We do not cover travel or accommodation costs for speakers. All speakers must attend and present in person; we are not accepting remote or pre-recorded sessions.