This year KubeCon was back in London, England, United Kingdom. The last KubeCon in London was in 2016 and in that 9 year gap the "Cloud-Native" ecosystem has grown signficantly. In 2016 London saw around 300 KubeCon attendees whereas 2025 had 12,500 which is over 4000% growth.

The talks

My goal for the conference was to avoid any talk with AI in the title. Upon talking with my colleagues I belive that was the right decision. Instead my focus was to deep dive on Controllers, refresh my knowledge, and ensure I'm tracking up-to-date methods and practices. My secondary goal was to attend monitoring and observability talks where wasn't talks on controllers, or where there were presentations covering both.

I hope to write more detailed thoughts and summaries of the talks I attended in the future.

The CTF

I'm biased working for ControlPlane (the consultancy which designed and developed the scenarios) but I really enjoyed the CTF this year. Usually I play-test them before the events so I don't participate but this year I kept my eyes off spoilers. I was quite happy with my progress, getting through the first two and attempting the third while attending the talks I wanted to see. On the leaderboard I landed 11th overall or joint 9th just by points which isn't too shabby. Especially with many regular players showing on the leaderboard.

If you're interested in a full writeup on the KubeCon EU 2025 CTF I'd strongly recommend reading the writeup by the winner Skybound/Mohit here.

The Venue

Overall the Excel London convention centre is well equipped to support large conferences like KubeCon and frequently hosts similar events such as the AWS Summit. Being essentially a mega-warehouse overall it wasn't too complex to navigate with essentially all the rooms branching off the main coridoor. Having the

The Food

As usual with these larger KubeCon events catering is hard so the food was cold as per usual. This isn't a problem but I recommend thinking about what food you'd like cold when deciding. I generally went with sandwiches where available and they were nice. The bags have icons for what type of diet it'd suit e.g. Pork, Lamb, Vegetarian/Vegan, but be sure to view the signage which outlines what's actually inside the bags. This will ensure you get something you like but also save you from peeking inside each type of bag before you eventually pick one.

As covered prior, the Excel centre has many food options along the main coridoor; if nothing is to your liking there are many other options close by. If you have eaten elsewhere and you see at the end of lunch there's still bags I'd still advise taking one. The cost of lunch is included in the ticket and these lunches may go to waste pick something that you or someone you know would be happy to eat later.

Transport

The Excel centre is quite well serviced by the DLR and the (relatively) new Elizabeth Line (also known as CrossRail).

There are many hotels within a short walking distance. If you have only one or two DLR stops I'd advise walking as even same zone travel is very expensive. Additionally it's very easy as a visitor to forget to pay on the DLR as the touch points are out of the way. If you are going to take the DLR the east entrance is usually the closest to Tech events and was in the case of KubeCon.

Driving in is also a good option from the east side of London. The traffic can be rough but this is mitigated by arriving early, or aiming to arrive after the keynotes end and before the general talks begin. On-site parking was a bit steep at £25 a day but there are other options in walking distance. Although, on rainy days or where you need to make a swift exit, having your car parked in the same building could be a plus.

Conclusion

Overall it was a great event and it was lovely to have it in London again, especially with the shockingly good weather we had! If your employer is covering your costs attending a KubeCon can be a great experience both for learning and making contacts in the industry. The price cuts for self funding and students do also help. Overall I strongly recommend getting in on Early Bird pricing as you'll save a large amount of money and it'll make your trip feel even more worth it.