KubeCon + CloudNativeCon Europe 2025

SIG Contributor Experience has been wildly successful in helping grow the contributor base of Kubernetes in the first ten years of the project via New Contributor Workshops. We stressed on the importance of growing existing contributors in our last maintainer track session. However, the other side of the sustainability coin is ensuring that contributors who get started with contributing to Kubernetes, actually stick around. A lot has changed in the last decade, and we also need to change how we teach folks to contribute and interact with the community. Join us as we give a comprehensive overview of the Kubernetes governance and community structure, where you can seek help and what some pitfalls are that you will unexpectedly but inadvertently face in your contributor journey. We will highlight areas that are suited for folks from all backgrounds: marketing, content creation, event planning, community elections, automation and so much more!