We went to CloudFest 2018
As every year, Sysbee was present on Cloudfest (ex. Web Hosting Days). We talked about our products and services, attended great lectures and joined a party with Lords of Uptime.
Everything is changing in recent years, but WHD Cloudfest stays same. The name has changed, but the essence of the conference stayed the same. A bit of a fair, a couple of lectures, and a great party, this is Cloudfest in a nutshell. Some will say there’s too much sales going on on Cloudfest, which we kind of agree, of course, but Cloudfest is also a great networking event. You can see what’s going on in the hosting world these days, and if you attended on Cloudfest every year, you can clearly see what products and technologies are here to stay, and what is just a hype of the moment.
As of 2013, Cloudfest is taking place in the Europa Park, a stunning theme park, located in Rust, Baden-Wittenberg in Germany, almost on French border. The venue is fantastic, a huge theme park which is almost empty as the season has not yet started, with fantastic scenery of all Europe and great attractions, which you can all try for free during the event. The venue is also a big congress center, so there is a lot of space to throw a conference like this. The theme park usually opens for the general public week after Cloudfest, so every now and then you’ll find some workers doing a last-minute tweak on some of the attractions in the park.
The conference consists of talks, usually done by vendors or their guests, and the fair in within the Europa Park’s conference center. The talks are fantastically moderated by professional moderators and speakers who are fluent in English language, so usually it’s very easy to follow. Most of the talks are sales oriented, so not very interesting for IT operations staff, but for CEO’s and CTO’s it’s a great opportunity to talk with vendors and make custom deals as you can discuss them in person. A lot of vendors bring developers and technicians with them to the conference, so you can talk with them more or less about everything – from technical implementations, to future roadmaps of their products.
Cloudfest is great for networking, since there are always a few thousands web hosters and you’ll always talk with people in your industry, share experiences and hear how they cope with problems and difficulties. Whether it’s legislative issues, technical issues and implementations, or some new product and their experiences with it, you’re learn something interesting. For example when you’re struggling with an issue, you’ll usually find somebody who has the same problem and has a workaround you would never think of. It is also a great opportunity to make partnerships and collaborations, since everybody is in the same industry, and everybody is usually seeking for such opportunities.
The parties on Cloudfest are legendary. From the “get2gether” party on Monday evening to the Beerfest on Thursday, they are all super fun to attend. The pinnacle of course is the main party on Wednesday. This year, we had a Rammstein tribute band, and in the past years, we had Snap, Ace of Base, Right Said Fred, and many, many others.
Food and drinks during the whole conference are free, and there are coffee breaks every few hours, including sweets and sandwiches. Usually, it’s all you can eat and drink, along with free beer on every party for the whole night.
We at Sysbee are moving away from a classic hosting business and are turning more towards managed services, but still, Cloudfest is one of the most important hosting events in the World, even for us, so we’ll try to attend Cloudfest in the future as well.
