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Nick Taylor
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Posted on • Originally published at nickyt.co

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London Adventures: KubeCon EU 2025, SREday and More!

Not gonna lie, my recent trip to London was packed with stuff! It was mainly work related for Pomerium, but I was glad I was able to snag some time with friends too.

Take Off!

The flight to London was pretty cool. The meals were decent, but the cool thing was I got to see the Northern Lights in action!

Northern Lights visible from my window during my flight to London

Northern Lights visible from my window during my flight to London

The pictures have my reflection in them, but super cool nonetheless.

Pre-KubeCon: SREday London 2025

My first stop in London was for SREday London 2025. I gave a talk titled "Understanding Zero Trust: From Physical Security to Identity-Aware Proxies" at the event.

My promo for my talk,Understanding Zero Trust: From Physical Security to Identity-Aware Proxies, for SREday London

Lots of great talks including Daniel Afonso's about Chaos Engineering. I also got to meet Daniel for the first time irl!

Me and Daniel Afonso hanging at SREday London 2025

The Main Event: KubeCon EU 2025

This was my first time attending KubeCon, and wow - when people said it was big, they weren't kidding! We're talking around 10,000 attendees big. 🤯

My KubeCon EU 2025 badge

Me, RJ and Nikhil manning the Pomerium booth at KubeCon @U 2025

Me and the Pomerium crew repped the company at booth N580. It was awesome to meet my coworkers in person for the first time, and we had lots of great conversations with existing and potential clients.

The Pomerium booth at KubeCon EU with lots of people coming by to chat

We had a release at work recently, so we talked about all the new things at KubeCon along with some new stuff coming down the pipe.

During the week I met a bunch of folks.

First day I got to hang with my old coworker BDougie (@bdougieyo). We chatted about life post-OpenSauced among other things. I also got to hang with Marino Wayjay for a bit too!

Me, bdougie and Marino at KubeCon

Next up, I got to meet Hazel Weekly and learnt that there is a CNCF Deaf & Hard of Hearing Working Group.

Me and Hazel Weakly at KubeCon EU

Later on, I ran into Jeremy Meiss (@jerdog) where we chatted about all things DevRel.

Me and Jeremy Meiss hanging at KubeCon EU 2025

During the Pomerium happy hour, I also got to meet the creator of YAML. That was pretty cool.

Me and the creator of YAML

I made some more new friends near the end of the week. Shivay Lamba, who I met at All Things Open AI a couple weeks early was at KubeCon too, so we caught up and my coworker Sveta and me befriended Omolade Akinwumi who me met on the train to day 2 of KubeCon.

My coworker Sveta, me, Shivay and Omolade hanging at KubeCon EU 2025

On the last day, I caught some of the keynotes. First up was "The Science of Winning: Oracle Red Bull Racing's Formula with Open Source, Kubernetes and AI" by Sudha Raghavan and a panel on "Cloud Native Evolution in Telecom - 5G, 6G and Beyond!"

It never occurred to me that Kubernetes would be running somewhere in F1 racing. I even chatted with someone who works for the German navy and they operate it in submarines too! 🤯

Last day cool stuff also included hanging on the Kubernetes podcast!

Me on the Kubernetes podcast livestream last day of KubeCon EU 2025

Abdel Sghiouar, @boredabdel, hosted the livestream. Thanks so much for having me on!

Abdel Sghiouar hosting the Kubernetes podcast livestream last day of KubeCon EU 2025

On the last day of KubeCon I also got to meet Ian Coldwater from the Kubernetes SIG Security team. Thanks again for hanging!

Ian Coldwater taking a selfie with me

Side Quest: React Advanced London

I also hit up the React Advanced London Meetup at the Blink Office. I got to hang with my buddy Taz Singh and made some new friends Peter Piekarczyk and Ruben Casas.

Me, Taz Singh, Peter Piekarczyk and Ruben Casas at React Advanced London

My favourite talk was Peter's impromptu talk. Post meetup we grabbed some drinks and some food until late in the evening.

Thanks again for hanging everyone!

Pre and Post KubeCon EU with Some of the Old Netlify Crew

After SREday London, I met up with Ed and Taylor from my Netlify days. We went for a nice walk on a beautiful sunny day in East London, then went to the Saint Alban's Pub for a bit.

Me and Ed

Me, Ed and Taylor at Saint Alban's Pub

Before catching my flight back home, I headed to Paddington station to grab some breakfast and hang with some of my old Netlify Frameworks crew, Matt Kane and Erica Pasini.

Me, Matt Kane and Erica Pasini from the OG Netlify Frameworks team grabbing breakfast near Paddington station in London

It was awesome catching up with old colleagues.

Wrapping Up

If we met up in London, thanks for taking the time! I couldn't fit literally every interaction in this post, but just know it was awesome hanging. And if we didn't cross paths this time, hopefully we can connect at the next event.

For anyone in SF, I'm there from April 10th-13th. I'm giving the same talk at SREday SF that I gave at SREday London, but aside from that, pretty free. Hit me up if you're around! I'm also at SREday Redmond giving the same talk, so if you're in the area, come check it out! It's a free event.

'Til the next one!

If you want to stay in touch, all my socials are on nickyt.online

Top comments (2)

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jerdog profile image
Jeremy Meiss

Nice @nickytonline ! It was great meeting you

Also, it's "Meiss" 🤘😂

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nickytonline profile image
Nick Taylor • Edited

A case of my fat fingers. I won't make that "Meiss"stake again. 🤣

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