Behind the Scenes at CloudFest Europe’s Playground for Cloud, Security, and Hosting Innovation

Robert Jacobi:
Hello and welcome to another episode of OpenChannels.fm. I’m really excited today to talk about CloudFest, the premier event for hosting cloud. Obviously, it’s in the name. Security, infrastructure, software, even WordPress these days. And our guests today will be Miles and Soeren. Soeren is the chief evangelist and, uh, let’s see, owner of CloudFest. It’s a tongue twister around these things. And Miles is head of content production, or head of conference everything else, uh, so content production, I’m going to get him in trouble because I’ll probably inflate all the things he has to do, but critical in making sure that there are people to actually talk and fill in the slots. Soeren, let’s start with you right away. A quick introduction and talk Cloudfest.

Soeren von Varchmin:
Yeah, sure. Thanks to you, Robert, to have you here on your amazing show and tell a little bit what’s going to happen just in a couple of days, actually. Cloud Fest is starting very, very soon. Yeah, my name is Soeren von Varchmin. I’m the chief evangelist and also the co-owner of Cloud Fest. Over all our companies producing free shows, Cloud Fest in Germany, which is happening just now around the corner, MSP Global in Port Aventura in Spain, a conference focusing on the MSP P Channel, as well as CloudFest Americas and NamesCon happening in Miami in November.

Robert Jacobi:
You really just pick all the worst places to hang out, don’t you? Portugal, Miami, and even CloudFest, the sort of the original mothership, is at an amusement park, the sort of Disney of Germany, Disney of all Europe, maybe?

Soeren von Varchmin:
Yeah, you can say that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Voted like 10 years in a row as the best theme park in the world. A lot of people from the US who know Disneyland in and out, they don’t believe that, who are now coming the first time. No, no, let’s see. You will get convinced. It’s a very magical atmosphere which we’re able to create. So the theme park is closed to public during the week of our event. It’s like in Germany, we have these four seasons. So this is the end of the winter, just when spring starts and the opening of the summer season. So this week before the opening of the summer season, we have that theme park exclusively for Cloud Fest. And yeah, we as a team, we definitely get creative and playful to make sure we use the park to the fullest because also there’s no real alternatives. The nearest town or let’s say the closest Irish pub is maybe 40 minutes away. So everyone is fine 24/7 to that specific magical space which we use as a production ground. Yes, it’s our playground. It’s our playground.

Robert Jacobi:
Yeah, it’s truly unique. And when you say everyone, there are a lot of attendees.

Soeren von Varchmin:
Yeah, there are a lot of attendees. So we are over 13,000 registrations right now. Yeah, I think by the time the podcast goes out, there will be no more Free tickets available. Yeah, it’s a full house. Um, we will have around 10,000 people on site over the week from around 120 different countries. So that’s very international as well. Something I’m looking forward to, to see my friends from, I don’t know, from Bhutan to Paraguay. Like, yes, every country is represented. Yeah.

Robert Jacobi:
And, and around that, so I don’t want to lose Miles and all the other aspects, uh, Miles, a little bit of what you’re doing and how you’re involved with the biggest CloudFest event around.

Myles McMorrow:
Yeah, yeah. Miles McMorrow, conference producer. Lovely to meet you. Thanks, Robert, for having us on. Just picking up with what Soeren said, I mean, I was very lucky that my final interview— I’m about 9, about 10 and a half months into my role. My last— well, no, it’s coming up, yeah, just shy of a year now. My final interview was at CloudFest. So actually, I’ve got to experience it firsthand, but on the attendee side, which was, which is really nice because now I’ve got, I’ve had a full year run at actually building it from the inside. Like Soeren said, you know, this is our playground and I’ve been in the sandbox playing around, you know, building, getting to be part of all the kind of planning decisions, what we bring to our stage and why. So it’s been a It’s been a real, uh, it’s been a trip and really looking forward to it. 2 weeks to go, we’ll be on stage.

Robert Jacobi:
2 weeks. Well, even less by the time this podcast goes out since, uh, CloudFest really starts, uh, March— I’ll try and do the math. Uh, I guess March 20th, March 20th with the hackathon and then the WP Business and Agency Summit and then sort of the, the traditional CloudFest going from the 24th through the 20— well, I guess everyone will be out by Friday the 27th, but technically the programming ends on the 26th of March. Um, before we deep dive into the programming, which is always compelling, uh, and it’s getting bigger and, uh, uh, more diverse for lack of a better term because we’re adding new topics and conversations into the mix, uh, it’s fun to sort of reflect on some of the more interesting aspects. Last year we had a boxing ring. For a number of years we’ve done the roller coaster pitches. How do these ideas come to your mind?

Soeren von Varchmin:
We already said that. You know, it’s like when I need to explain, like, random people what I’m doing for work, I’m saying, like, look, people put— I wake up in the morning, people put me in a playground, they give me some tools and toys, and I’m starting to build and play. And I think we have in general this philosophy in CloudFest when we approach things. We are not narrowed down. We think everyone in our team has this— or not everyone, but I think as a whole team, we are very, very creative. And we have this attitude to think outside the box and make it playful. And we are proud of it.

Myles McMorrow:
Yeah. And this is the thing. We have these strategy sessions where we sit with our advisors before and we plan. And it was a wonderful experience to do. But the amount of stuff that just ends up on the cutting room floor that we would love to bring into the show, but there’s only so much engagement time we can fit on the stage. So it’s a privilege to put together. It’s also a challenge, right, being able to cut away bits that you really want to bring in and make sure you’re still focusing and ticking all the boxes of all the tracks that we need to meet. Um, yeah, it’s, it’s a lot of fun.

Soeren von Varchmin:
But you know, Robert, you know, the greatest idea usually gets rejected from the finance department at the end, you know. It’s really like— or by Christian, our CEO, you know. But, but we are making jokes about it internally, you know. It’s like— but that’s the rule, you know. You, you create 9 things which go to the trash, and the 10th thing is the the thing, you know, which is the server throwing or which is the new hackerspace or whatever, this new great cool thing, yeah, which no one expected.

Robert Jacobi:
It’s like being the Coco Chanel of tech conferences. Take a couple things off. Before we really get into that deep dive on the programming, the last few years there’s sort of been an overarching theme of the event. We’ve seen AI, we’ve seen cloud. What are you looking to sort of COVID very broadly this year?

Myles McMorrow:
I think something that really encompasses the thread for Cloud Fest this year is what you mentioned, like there’s so many different variables currently coalescing to kind of shape the future of our industry. So we took the lens of, well, let’s think about the sustainability of everything. Let’s think about like, yes, sustainability came up in our strategy session because we were thinking about the traditional sense of sustainability, but from there, the terminology of what does sustainability really mean in the age of AI, for the future of cloud, for the future of jobs, for the future of our ecosystem. And so we created this editorial track this year that is going to try and punctuate all of these different lenses to what sustainability can really mean for the future of cloud industry. And that’s where we’ve got to really play and get our hands dirty in the agenda. And then from there, which we’ll get into in a lot more detail, is also educating all of our partners on that core messaging and these topic tracks that we’re building this year to help them tell stories. And fit into that kind of sustainability of everything lens that we’ve built.

Robert Jacobi:
Brilliant, brilliant. Uh, other podcasts here at Open Channels are, are covering the hackathon and the WP Business Agency Summit specifically. So let’s dive into what we’ll call day 1, 2, and 3 of CloudFest, uh, official. And I guess there, there’s so many sessions, so many things. Let’s touch on some of the newer aspects for previous attendees that they should know about and look to engage with? And I guess I’m thinking specifically around the Web Pros Cloud Village and the ongoing hackathon, or what we’re calling hackers—

Soeren von Varchmin:
Hackerspace.

Robert Jacobi:
Hackerspace, thank you.

Soeren von Varchmin:
Yeah, okay, let’s start with the following. We have in total, we have kind of 7 or maybe 8 stages. It depends a little bit how we count it. So that’s actually a big number. And for anyone coming for the first time, if you take a look at our agenda, it looks maybe a little overwhelming. But I think once you get the overview, you know, after half a day of the first day, you are in, you arrived. And yeah, there’s a lot of sessions. I think it’s over 300 or 350 So there’s a lot of program. So let’s go through the stages a little bit. So our largest stage, the main stage, is called the Dotcom Stage. So in all our official material in the app, the biggest stage is the so-called Dotcom Stage. This is where you find exclusive editorial content with Schmalz and me curated. And we have our big and large sponsors and partners, which we call our title partners or diamond partners, speak on that stage. Then our second largest stage is in the exhibition, in the main exhibition area, and it’s the Name Studio API stage. So at that stage is actually used for the majority of our panels. Like 90% of all the panels we are having are happening on that Name Studio API stage. And we have some of our smaller partners having their speaking slots there as well. Then now coming to the third thing, and this is something which has a lot of attention from our side, and we are very proud to launch this right now. We are extending CloudFest with a complete new structure, a 1,000-square-meter structure, a pavilion called the WebPros Cloud Pavilion. So it’s a complete new area. This will be the new registration, new entrance. We have a food truck festival in that area, and we have this amazing WebPros Pavilion which includes the so-called WebPros stage. And on this WebPros stage, we have some of our most amazing highlights. We can go into that. Will be actually on that stage. We do the roller coaster pitch contest there. And we have a lot of WordPress and open source CMS related content on the, on the WebPros stage as well. From Tuesday to Thursday.

Robert Jacobi:
I’ll be moderating that stage, so I’m very excited about what will be happening at the Web Pros Pavilion. This is really exciting and greatly expands the amount of content we have. And they’re all relatively close to each other. I mean,.com, Name Studio API stage, and the Web Pros Pavilion, they’re all within like—

Soeren von Varchmin:
1-minute, 2-minute walk. Yeah, that’s it. It’s a circle. Yeah.

Robert Jacobi:
So I guess that’s for both new and returning attendees that all this is right there. Sorry, I just want to interrupt because, well, I’m really excited to be partaking in the pavilion.

Soeren von Varchmin:
I mean, we’re very happy to have you as an MC on that stage. You did the ring stage last year in the dome. So this is— yeah, that was a nice idea. Great concept. But I think now, like, this overall pavilion and what we’re trying to create there for the future, I hope we are able to showcase this. You know, this is a long-term thinking we have, how we need and want to extend Cloud Fest, and we hope to introduce that with a bang. So Robert, we’re looking forward to your skills, you know, to fire up the people.

Robert Jacobi:
No pressure, no pressure. Love it.

Myles McMorrow:
Man for the job, for sure.

Soeren von Varchmin:
Yeah, Miles, do you want to finish with the other rooms maybe? Well, besides these 3 stages, what else do we have?

Myles McMorrow:
For sure, yeah. So in terms of our regular scheduling, something that we’ve been really trying to put, educate, empower our partners with is giving them lots of different other engagement formats beyond just stage time. And you will know masterclasses and barcamps from previous years. But we have two masterclass rooms, the Rock Cafe and Petit Paris. These have a capacity of around 70 people. And this is where if a partner or, and some of our own scheduling, if we want sessions that are more hands-on practical, if we want to do technical deep dives, perhaps have a presentation that educates our delegates and then allows them to get into a workshop. This is the sort of masterclass environment which we’re building there. So lots of hands-on kind of practical engagement. We then have the Barcamp. Barcamp is similar in size, but the format is slightly different. So Barcamp, which is Tumi Ongora, again, a similar 70 capacity room, is more about discussion. It’s about allowing people to kind of break out into discussion. Have conversations, really sort of take a challenge, take a problem, and workshop it, and allow everyone in the room to get involved.

Robert Jacobi:
I gotta say, I really like the bar camps that happen at CloudFest. It’s the least formal of any of the session types, great environment, and very collaborative, and for lack of a better term, just fun, ’cause you really get to participate with everyone else involved. Having emceed those a few years ago, that’s a, that’s a great thing that folks should take advantage of, especially for first-timers so that they feel a little more comfortable with like meeting people because it can be so overwhelming with 10,000 attendees.

Myles McMorrow:
This year we’ve got, you know, we’ve got more BarCamps than ever before. We’ve got Wednesdays, a full schedule. Tuesdays, Tuesdays, the whole morning is full of, full of sessions. So definitely plenty of opportunities to get involved.

Soeren von Varchmin:
Let’s call it for our listeners here, it’s a little bit of a hidden gem. Like, but BarCamp doesn’t have the attention yet that it used to get. Actually, it’s an amazing format. The room has a good vibe, a good karma for this, to meet other people. It’s completely undervalued. So yeah, everyone who has a chance, stop by at least one session, or whatever we call it. You know, sometimes we just call it the meetup.

Myles McMorrow:
Group.

Soeren von Varchmin:
You know, we did it with Ubuntu one time, or for sysadmins who do migration projects, whatever it is, you know, you meet your peers. That’s why, yeah.

Robert Jacobi:
Yeah, it’s, I think it is, I love that term, hidden gem, because you could, and what folks, I guess, who’ve been there already know, but for a lot of the new attendees, you get to have conversations with CEOs, executive-level people, really kind of by accident. I mean, it’s rare to have that opportunity at a conference where someone gets on stage, quickly runs off, and they’re taken care of by their handlers. A lot of, not just the BarCamps, but a lot of the sessions overall allow you to connect with people. And I think that’s the magic in a much more remote world. We can take COVID out of the mix. We’ve seen the industry go more and more remote. And having that opportunity to really connect one-on-one with, you know, your next customer, your next client, your next job. The opportunities are amazing. And then there’s the evening stuff. But let’s stick with the programming because there’s so much evening stuff that we don’t have 2 more days to talk about it.

Soeren von Varchmin:
Let’s make a separate podcast on that.

Myles McMorrow:
The post-show report. Yes.

Soeren von Varchmin:
Oh, wow.

Robert Jacobi:
Everyone just looks like this if we do the video, just tired and exhausted. Everyone has to take their 1 to 2 weeks off.

Robert Jacobi:
let’s hit maybe a topic of highlights for returning guests. I’d like to then kind of just sort of be able to touch on, you know, what new attendees should do. But for returning, uh, uh, CloudFest attendees, what would be things you might want to point them to? Obviously we have the new Web Pros Pavilion, so that’s, that’s an easy one.

Soeren von Varchmin:
On Monday, for everyone who was there before, we had around 400, 450 attendees the last 2 years on our Monday WP Day. Now with a new format, we are over 2 stages and we put a lot of attention to invite web agencies with a focus rather on the large web agencies than on the small ones. And on European bonds. So we don’t know exactly how many people show up on Monday, but we are very confident from what we know with the numbers. So we are really planning to more or less double what you saw last year. So by Monday will be double the capacity. It will not only be in Colosseo now, it will be in the Colosseo and the Santa Isabel Hotel. So it’s stretched over those two locations. So then on Tuesday, something new which Miles and me launching this year is together with Patchstack, which a lot of you guys might know here, is the hackerspace. So, and the idea behind this is if you look at the demographics of our attendees, we had the feeling that, that like a very high percentage without knowing exactly how many like our audience is technically enough to play CTFs. So let it be maybe 10, let it be maybe 15 or 20%. But it’s an overall high number on these 10,000 people we expect overall over the week. So, and I mean, we heard it here and there, you know, so that there was some demand for it. So we will do catch the flag. We will do this hacker competition. Everyone is willing to participate. The format is the following. It’s happening in Santa Isabel on Tuesday afternoon. There will be sessions running on stage, and you can sit down basically and work in the back on a table, you know, listening to the sessions. If that’s too much to you, you go to a separate room where you have more quietness. But that is a program which is particularly for security threat researchers and security experts, which we add to our ecosystem. Similar how we add with Hackathon 10 years ago, the open source community and some of the head developers out of it, out of some of the projects to Cloud Fest, to that community. Have. So our next part is to, to do these special things for cybersecurity experts and threat researchers. So that is something completely new, you know, the WebPros Pavilion is completely new and very interesting for, for, for basically here our listeners, because like I said before, there’s a lot of open source CMS content on that stage, around 50 or 60%. From Tuesday to Thursday. Yeah, we do our legendary parties here. Lots of uptime. March.

Robert Jacobi:
Oh, yeah. Don’t worry, I was going to give you plenty of time to advertise the Lords of Uptime.

Soeren von Varchmin:
Okay.

Robert Jacobi:
The most famous band at CloudFest.

Soeren von Varchmin:
I think that’s the rough overview from my side. Yeah, we have some more formats which Miles is introducing with his guided tours. And yeah, Miles, I give the microphone to you.

Myles McMorrow:
Yeah, yeah. Well, before, before I will switch back to sort of talking about guided tours, speed networking, because these, these are, these are really going to be the crucial developments in the way that we’re thinking about how people show up at our events, particularly what our partners look to get out of our events. It’s not always get up and stand up on stage and present a new product or share your thought leadership. Sometimes it’s lead generation and, you know, often it is. This is a B2B event at the end of the day. So we’ve introduced these additional formats in order to help our partners and our community find those connections that really matter and to do it in different ways. That are fun, that are engaging, that are outside-of-the-box approaches, because it’s the way that we do things. So, the format’s just taking them one by one. So, speed networking is where we’re working with partners to identify specific topics that are gonna help showcase, well, help build somewhat of a, imagine it like a group therapy, we’re creating a group therapy environment. Where if you’re facing XYZ challenge that this particular partner offers a solution for, why don’t we all just come together and have a conversation about this topic, the challenges we’re all facing, and support each other in 3-minute bursts, quick rapid fire. And if there’s a connection, wonderful, that is the whole purpose, right? Then with guided tours, we’re working, we’re trying to subvert what it means to kind of go onto an expo floor and be lost get caught up in the buzz of everything and actually not know where to go for your solutions, right?

Robert Jacobi:
There’s a ton of buzz, a ton of detail, a ton of vendors. Again, it is, it’s a conference.

Myles McMorrow:
It is, exactly. And so what we’re trying to do is take our core topics, the things that we know the industry, you know, the community is asking for, and our vendors are showing up to present or showcase or bring to the show. And so we build a tour, we’ll take up to 20 participants who are pre-vetted and registered in advance, and we go and visit several of the booths, these vendors, for them to be able to tell their story in a fun and engaging way. Not a boring, plasticky, you know, out-of-the-box product pitch, but something fun, something entertaining. Because again, that is the Cloud First spirit, right? We want people to walk away having actually had a lot of fun. So, and then we’re finishing that with a networking tour and drinks, links because again, that’s how we roll. And then the final format is, the final format, which is actually probably one I think I’m most excited about for the future, is executive roundtables. And this is something that we’re working particularly, this year is the first time we’re trialing it at our event to enable our biggest partners to join us and talk and facilitate a conversation about, about some of the key topic industry, key industry challenges with the right people, like real hand-picked profiles to kind of come and have these really difficult, challenging conversations. It’s only a max of about 12 to 15 people, so it’s really small format. But we think these rooms are going to be where some incredible decisions are gonna get made for the future of our industry. And that’s what we want to pioneer. We wanna lead those conversations and, and actually provide that environment for our partners. So those, those three formats, I think they’re gonna be really powerful as we continue to scale CloudFest.

Robert Jacobi:
And even a lot of recurring guests don’t realize how many deals literally get done at the conference. Contracts are signed, the handshakes are made. I mean, it is, It is incredible from just getting work done. CloudFest, it may seem like, you know, glitzy sessions, all that, but the real work is happening in and out for both recurring and— well, I actually want to do touch on first-time attendees. You know, 3 bullet points. What should a first-time attendee really do, for lack of a better word? I mean, they’ll get a ton out of it, but, you know, what are the, you know, you walk off that bus, you walk off that train, you get out of that car, you know, besides checking in, what are the next 3 things that first-time attendees should really be aware of?

Myles McMorrow:
So one, one thing they should do before they even turn up at the show is, is look at, so if you go onto the website cloudfest.com, you go to the agenda, you’ll see that we’ve introduced a lot of opportunities for filtering by stage, by topic track. Go and educate yourself on what is happening at the event before you turn up. There is, the app is coming shortly. Make sure you get on there, you start to tag and build your agenda for the day because you need, there’ll be so much content you could get lost. Choose the sessions that you really want to see and ensure that those are Pinpointed in your agenda for your own personal development. That would be like step one before you even enter the show. Network with people on the app. Get to know you, your little clique before you even show up.

Soeren von Varchmin:
Okay. My recommendation is the main hotel or the biggest hotel in this resort area is called Colosseo Hotel. And in the Colosseo Hotel on the fifth floor, that’s the Colosseo Bar. So my recommendation is go to the Colosseo bar. You immediately make friends and you will have friends for life who will help you through your first days at the show. It can be overwhelming. It’s a theme park, so it’s a little weird, you know, like how things are set up, you know. So it really can take some time. But, but like, believe me, like people are really friendly. Like everyone has a wide open heart. So just talk to people.

Myles McMorrow:
It’s—

Soeren von Varchmin:
you will immediately make friends. It’s a very international playground. People are very respectful, at least what I learned about it in the last 15 years. So yes, so you will find new friends very, very easily. Just be open, be yourself.

Robert Jacobi:
So great that you brought up the Colosseo bar, which I think is only open Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday nights, if memory serves.

Soeren von Varchmin:
It’s open every night. It’s open every night.

Robert Jacobi:
Oh, God. That’s even worse. I mean, even better. But there are a lot of— I mean, there are also many side events, private events, invite events, but there are core CloudFest events happening every night as well. So I guess, I mean, starting Monday, we have Connections to make connections, right?

Soeren von Varchmin:
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, even Sunday, for the participants who, for Monday, who arrive on Sunday evening for the web agencies and our open source community. We have already something planned on Sunday evening. So a couple of drinks. It’s like I said before, our ambition is high to get Monday the population up to around 800 people. So a lot of people arrive already on Sunday. So it’s the first time we have something already happening on Sunday evening. And then Monday evening is like this traditional opening of Lords of Uptime. It’s this industry band, executives, whatever, people who work in the industry, let’s say, you know, it’s the right word, amateurs. Okay, so our guest this year in a couple of days is going to be Cherry Curry from The Runaways. Do you remember that, Robert?

Robert Jacobi:
Yes, sir. Yes, sir. I’m old enough.

Soeren von Varchmin:
So it’s our audience too, you know. No, um, um, the, um, no, we’re going to play with Cherry Curry, so this is going to be amazing. You know, we start with that on, on Monday night. This is the traditional opening. It’s a great easygoing party. And then Tuesday and Wednesday we have, um The evening, the main part of the evening entertainment is happening in the Colosseo Hotel. There’s like this Colosseo, like, indoor plaza thing, you know, which fits like 4,000 people or so.

Robert Jacobi:
It’s the Roman Colosseum. I mean, that’s the gimmick, and that’s what it kind of, you know, is attempting to do on a Europa Cloud level.

Soeren von Varchmin:
So there will be bands Yeah, you know, as you know it, there will be a band on Tuesday, there will be a band on Wednesday, there’s food booths, you know, there’s entertainment, things are happening. However, on Wednesday evening, there’s another new thing which we are introducing, which Miles was helping to organize.

Myles McMorrow:
Yeah, it’s called DSlam. DSlam. I don’t know if you’ve, if you haven’t seen it on the website, check it out because it’s really exciting. It’s something that we’re building. So, so what we build in the Colosseo is wild. It’s thousands of people at a massive festival. That’s what it feels like. That was what my first experience was like of CloudFest. Um, but we, as, as we mature as an event, we’re realizing as well that perhaps that, that big wild format isn’t for everyone. Perhaps we want to invent another format. That can run concurrently and allow people who maybe are looking for something in a little, a little bit of a slower lane perhaps, um, can still go and enjoy themselves, be entertained and network. And, and, um, so this is— so DSlam has formed in partnership with, uh, Reinhold, uh, now worth, uh, at CloudFest this year, where, um, think of it this way, right? Imagine if TED Talks met a poetry slam and stand-up comedy. So you, we’re still bringing, you’re staying in the lane, you’re, it’s still IT issues, it’s looking at cloud, AI, automation, cybersecurity, but it’s about no PowerPoint, no advertising, no name dropping, no bullshit, none of that. It’s about having fun, entertaining people. It could be, uh, someone singing with a guitar on one session. Poetry, yeah, some slam poetry next, you know, and we keep it fresh like that. So if you’re looking for something in a slightly slower lane, but still going to have a wonderful evening, actually looking for a slightly quieter format, this is what we’re introducing. And it’s the first year we’re testing this. So really excited. Please do come along and get involved.

Robert Jacobi:
That’s also at the Coliseum?

Myles McMorrow:
At the hotel? This is at Santa Isabel.

Robert Jacobi:
Yeah, so right across the street. I mean, everything is actually— for as big as a park it is, uh, you all have done a great job of like, okay, evening happens in this kind of area, work happens in this kind of area, you know. Uh, you’re not like running around like a crazy person. I would be remiss not to mention, uh, because I’m one of the co-organizers of it, uh, Tuesday night will also be the karaoke and Rainbow in the Cloud Madness right after the official shows, also at the Coliseum. So we hope to see a lot of folks there as well because we always do and it gets packed and we have to not let people in.

Soeren von Varchmin:
Yeah. And thank you for organizing that every year. It’s such a pleasure to do that with you and your team. And I mean, karaoke is great. I mean, you can’t do anything wrong with karaoke. So especially at that time of the day. And I mean, As you can see, you know, I’m the day kind of guy, you know, but Robert is like to do the after parties.

Robert Jacobi:
It’s coffee always in my hand. That’s how you have to go through Cloud Fest.

Myles McMorrow:
No, the one other thing, particularly for yourself as a Blackwall Robert, is we’re not all evening. We’re not all party in the evening. We’re also getting up. If you fancy a bit of a health kick, you want to be up early in the morning, morning run every single morning, 7:00 AM to 8:00 AM. Join us outside the front of the Colosseo Hotel with your running shoes ready to go because we’ll be gaining kilometers under our feet.

Robert Jacobi:
That’s right. Well, we’ll get them no matter what. But yes, if you need a little healthy boost before you hit the expo floor, yes, there will be the Blackwall runs every morning. We just don’t get to sleep for 5 days. That’s how we like to do it.

Soeren von Varchmin:
Fantastic. That’s a little bit our philosophy, actually. You kind of summarized it very well. And with CloudFest, we are doing this now for 20+ years. MSP Global is a new event. We realized we did the same kind of speed for this new audience of MSPs. And, you know, it’s— we are going very strong at CloudFest, you know, so we understood it’s very hard to put it on another industry so easily. But that’s the whole idea. You know, we want to deliver this extremely high-energy, high-impact environment of one week where you go home like, wow, what was happening last week? You know, I got home with so many new friends, so many new business. So much more inspiration, you know, like I’m motivated for the rest of the year. Let’s keep it coming. That’s what that is. Very true.

Robert Jacobi:
Yeah. High impact, high inspiration, high quality. Presenters are amazing. Just the variety of things you can actually interact and learn from is really a treat. And I look forward to this every year. It’s running a marathon or two. At Sprint Speed. So that’s how I like to prepare folks for it because so much is going on. Any quick last things that we can just sign off? We— but you guys sell out so quickly, it’s crazy.

Soeren von Varchmin:
Yeah, we are looking forward to welcome, yeah, everyone who’s coming again and all the new folks.

Myles McMorrow:
Yeah, and if you’re sitting on the fence, don’t wait. There won’t be tickets left. Get it booked.

Robert Jacobi:
If you’re within Europe, certainly you can make a last-minute decision. It might be harder for folks that are, uh, far, far abroad, but, uh, don’t miss out on the opportunity. Uh, thank you, Miles. Thank you, CERN. I really appreciate the time. So looking forward to another year of CloudFest and becoming wiser, smarter, faster, stronger.

Soeren von Varchmin:
Thank you.

Myles McMorrow:
Thanks for having us, Robert.