Kubernetes Contributor Summit is Now the Maintainer Summit 🎉

[Faeka Ansari]

Hey there Kubernauts!

There’s been a lot of confusion around what’s changing with the Kubernetes Contributor Summit (KCS), so this email is here to clear things up! The Kubernetes Contributor Summit (KCS) is evolving into the Maintainer Summit, and while some things are different, much of what you love about the summit remains the same. This change is aimed at making the event more inclusive, better structured, and financially sustainable.

What’s changing?

🔹 Who Can Attend? – In addition to Kubernetes Org Members, the event will now welcome Graduated/Incubating Project Org Members, Sandbox Maintainers, and TAG/TOC Leaders.

🔹 Content Selection – A Program Committee will now handle CFP selections, scheduling, and unconference planning. Kubernetes has a dedicated Track with its own Program Committee, composed of K8s community members. This committee is responsible for handling CFPs submitted to the Kubernetes Track of the Maintainer Summit.

🔹 Sponsorship Model – Companies can now sponsor the event, enabling job postings (focused on open source hiring) and support for speakers.

🔹 Event Organization – Unlike the Kubernetes Contributor Summits, which were organized by the SIG ContribEx events sub-project, the Maintainer Summits will now be coordinated by the CNCF in collaboration with the events sub-project.

What’s Staying the Same?

✅ Still co-located with KubeCon.

✅ Community-driven unconference sessions.

✅ Contributor swag, group photo, social events, and meet & greet!

This change makes the event more structured, financially sustainable, and open to a broader CNCF maintainer community while keeping its core purpose intact.

For more details about the transition, check out this presentation: KCS to Maintainer Summit [1].

Hope this clears things up! Looking forward to seeing you at the next Maintainer Summit on Monday, 31 March 2025, one day prior to KubeCon + CloudNativeCon Europe! For more details, visit the Maintainer Summit page [2].

Best,

- Faeka Ansari, on behalf of the Maintainer Summit Planning Team 🎡

[1]: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1P1lsW2zF6R9E3i0pHk4d0f2OnAZYLTr9HDKrjjq7GfA/edit?usp=sharing

[2]: https://events.linuxfoundation.org/kubecon-cloudnativecon-europe/features-add-ons/maintainer-summit/