Why Your KubeCon Talk Got Rejected (It's a Numbers Game) feat. Imma Valls Bernaus

Your KubeCon talk wasn't rejected because it was bad, it was a numbers game.

Imma Valls Bernaus has reviewed hundreds of KubeCon submissions, run cloud-native communities across Europe for over a decade, and served as Observability Track Chair for KubeCon (picking 50 talks from 250 submissions). In this episode, she pulls back the curtain on what Developer Relations really is — and it's not just traveling and speaking at conferences.

Hosted by Isabel Ruiz, Don't Forget the Pizza is the podcast for Developer Advocates, DevRel Managers, Technical Evangelists and Community professionals who run events as the unwritten part of their job. Community, Served by the Slice. 🍕

IN THIS EPISODE YOU'LL LEARN:

• Why community building is a long-run game — Imma's Stardew Valley analogy for reviving communities after COVID

• What a KubeCon Track Chair actually does and why great talks get rejected

• How to handle conference talk rejection without taking it personally

• Step-by-step advice for first-time speakers: where to start and how to play the CFP numbers game

• How Imma manages DevRel chaos with a simple Todoist system to reduce cognitive load

• Behind the scenes of co-hosting the Grafana OpenTelemetry Community Call

• Cultural lessons from organizing developer events in Barcelona, Amsterdam and Japan

• How to adapt event formats when logistics force you to scale down

ABOUT THE GUEST:

Imma Valls Bernaus is a Developer Advocate and community organizer based in Barcelona with 10+ years in enterprise architecture and cloud-native communities. She has organized 20+ Cloud Native, DevOps and Grafana events across Europe, served as a KubeCon reviewer and Observability Track Chair, and is passionate about building intentional spaces for women+ in open source.

CHAPTERS:

00:00 — Intro — Welcome Imma Valls Bernaus

00:45 — The Stardew Valley analogy for reviving communities

02:56 — What people underestimate about Developer Advocacy

06:32 — From enterprise architect to DevRel: project management superpowers

08:16 — Inside KubeCon as Observability Track Chair: 50 talks from 250 submissions

12:22 — Advice for first-time speakers: start small & play the numbers game

15:50 — How to survive DevRel chaos with Todoist + co-hosting the Grafana Community Call

23:39 — What works in Barcelona won't work in Japan: cultural lessons from events

29:34 — Lightning Round: languages, stickers & pineapple on pizza?

RESOURCES MENTIONED:

• Todoist — https://todoist.com

• Grafana OpenTelemetry Community Call

ABOUT THE PODCAST:

Don't Forget the Pizza helps Developer Relations and community professionals run better developer events — from venue Wi-Fi and catering to CFPs, community building and ecosystem strategy. New episodes weekly.

Hosted by Isabel Ruiz — Community Engagement Manager at Autodesk, 10 years in developer community & events.

🎧 Watch the video version on YouTube: https://youtu.be/99bD70Fl8gI

Subscribe to the podcast page: https://dontforgetthepizza.riverside.com/

#DevRel #DeveloperRelations #DeveloperAdvocacy #CommunityBuilding #KubeCon #CNCF #CFP #ConferenceSpeaking #TechCommunity #Grafana #OpenTelemetry #DevRelPodcast