Recap: CloudNativeDays Poland 2026

Warsaw, you were wonderful! 🇵🇱❤️

It was so good to be back in Poland after way too many years! Getting to speak a little Polish again, enjoying the food (seriously, so good 😋), and exploring Warsaw while seeing how much the city has changed since my last visit was already worth the trip.

But on top of that, there were so many lovely people to meet, interesting talks to listen to, and great conversations to have. So here’s a little recap of my time at CloudNativeDays Poland.

Back on stage

One of the best parts of conferences is getting to share something you’ve learned with others, and also this time I brought my Kubernetes Operators talk. The talk went well, and apparently, the people enjoyed (or at least survived 😇) my first two introducstory sentences in Polish. I’ll take that as a win!

The people make the conference

As always, conferences are not just about the talks. And as a speaker, there’s also the wonderful tradition of being invited to the speakers’ dinner. It was a lovely opportunity to connect with fellow speakers, meet new people, and enjoy some amazing Polish food. Seriously, the food! 😋

Not super easy as a vegetarian, but I still found plenty of tasty food for me. :)

Tthe conference itself offered plenty of opportunities for conversations, too. I’m super glad I got to spend so much time chatting with attendees, speakers, and my fellow Continuous Delivery Foundation Ambassadors Yair and Pawel. Next to the hallway track, I also attended plenty of talks, and picking just a few highlights isn’t easy. But here are three that particularly stuck with me:

• Julia Furst Morgado’s keynote about her journey into tech, told through the lens of OpenTelemetry.
• Adriana Villela and Josh Lee’s keynote about the coexistence of humans and AI — and how to deal with AI slop along the way.
• David Pech’s talk sharing his experiences building his own SRE agent.

Three very different perspectives, and plenty of food for thought!

A huge thank you goes to Tomasz, Patrycja, Pawel, Kasia, Hubert, and everyone else who helped make CloudNativeDays Poland happen. Organizing a conference takes a lot of work behind the scenes, and it’s easy to underestimate just how much effort goes into bringing a community together. Thank you for making us feel so welcome!

Warsaw, it’s been a while

And then there was Warsaw itself. It’s been crazy 18 years since my last visit - and coming back was a lovely mix of familiar things and new impressions. I could practise my Polish, enjoy some seriously good food, and explore a city that has changed a lot since I was last here.

I’m very glad I got to combine a conference trip with a little time to explore Warsaw - and even to met a fellow Women Techmakers Ambassador, Hanna, for coffee & a chat. It made the whole experience feel even more special.

Summing up

CloudNativeDays Poland was a wonderful experience: a chance to share some practical Kubernetes knowledge, learn from other people in the cloud native community, catch up with familiar faces, and meet plenty of new ones.

For me personally, it was also a chance to reconnect with Poland after far too long. Between the conference, the people, the language, the food, and exploring Warsaw, there was a lot to enjoy. I hope it won’t be another 18 years before I see Poland again!