Navigate North America 2024 has come to an end, and we couldn’t be more grateful for everyone involved, from our sponsors, attendees, and most importantly, the Civo team. It was a packed event with over 50 talks and workshops on a range of topics, such as artificial intelligence (AI), emerging technology, LLMs, and gaming in the cloud native space. We also had the chance to announce new product launches and hear from renowned speakers, including Laura Santamaria, Marino Wijay, Kat Morgan, and Sully Martinez.
Keynote Sessions
Keynote with Solomon Hykes
Day 1 kicked off with our hosts, Lisa-Marie Namphy and Kim McMahon, on the main stage, where they gave an opening speech reflecting on Civo Navigate and what attendees can expect from the upcoming event.
We then had an amazing keynote session from Solomon Hykes, co-founder and CEO of Dagger.io and co-founder of Docker. Mark Boost (CEO at Civo) and Dinesh Majrekar (CTO at Civo) had the chance to sit down on stage with Solomon Hykes and talk about his remarkable career journey, uncovering the insights and experiences that have shaped his path in business and technology.
Solomon spoke about how, at the start of his career, he felt like an outsider every step of the way. It was through building communities around his projects, that Solomon was able to recognize the importance of embracing unique ideas and address the pain points felt by those around him. This session concluded with insights into the challenges of open-source projects, stressing that while open-source collaboration is a gold standard in software engineering, it faces cultural and accessibility challenges that need addressing to avoid gatekeeping valuable technological advancements.
Keynote with Mark Boost
After an opening speech from our hosts, Heather Trumpfheller and Emily Gupton , on the main stage, day 2 started with our keynote session from Mark Boost, CEO at Civo. Throughout this session, Mark touched upon a future where the frontiers of technology and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) converge to redefine business and society. He pained a broad, inspiring picture of a world transformed by innovative technologies and a renewed corporate ethos, highlighting the endless possibilities that await.
Mark started off his session with a bold statement that the cloud is broken. Whilst the majority of the audience raised their hand to agree with the statement, Mark spent the next hour taking everyone through the history of the cloud and how it has failed to evolve with the community. He continued to take us through survey results that showed that managing cloud spend was the highest-rated cloud challenge in modern times.
While Mark shared statistics that the cloud has failed to live up to the promise of cost-effectiveness, he outlined how he doesn’t believe that it should be this way. This session outlined how we should be creating a bigger purpose to align with the fast changing world.
Civo’s Latest Innovations
Dinesh Majrekar, Saiyam Pathak (Field CTO at Civo), and Josh Mesout (Chief Innovation Officer at Civo) took to the stage to discuss the upcoming projects we have been working on at Civo. This included the introduction of more GPUs and more data centers! However, with this comes the need for more electricity. With a finite number of resources available, we want to ensure that we are looking after the resources that we have.
Introducing Deep Green. Through the use of Deep Green, users have the opportunity to run their cloud workloads on Deep Green’s servers, giving them access to a sustainable cloud solution. This aims to help organizations move towards a sustainable and net-zero future and provide Deep Green with a constant workload to generate zero carbon heat to power its community-based projects.
Another area that was widely spoken about was the introduction of Civo Logging, and within the machine learning landscape, we announced the release of Nvidia GH200. Over the next few weeks, we will begin to release more information about these launches.
Hot Topics from Civo Navigate
Artificial Intelligence (AI)
Earlier this year, we released a blog on how 2024 promises to be an exciting year for AI, and Navigate NA 2024 proved just that. With 9 sessions touching upon the topic, attendees were able to learn about everything from getting started with AI, LLMs, and the future of gaming with AI.
A highlight was on the main stage where Josh Mesout, Rafi Qumsieh, Peter Voss, Aurora Quinn-Elmore, Blake Burch, and George Munguia, dove into the world of AI and machine learning (ML) in a thought leadership panel. Through this session, the panelists were able to touch upon the cutting-edge developments shaping the future of these technologies, from advancements in deep learning and neural networks to ethical considerations and AI governance.
LLMs were touched upon in talks with Peter Voss, Xiaowei Hu, Michael Yuan, and Abhishek Choudhary, where they covered topics such as running ML / LLM models on Kubernetes across major cloud providers and creating Wasm functions as extensions and plugins for LLMs like ChatGPT and Llama 2.
Joey de Villa, who was a previous attendee favorite at Navigate North America 2023, returned for a session on why it isn’t too late to engage with artificial intelligence, offering a friendly introduction to AI technologies, from early rules-based models to contemporary neural networks and large language models, and showcasing practical code demonstrations.
Cloud Native Security
Security in the cloud native landscape came up several times throughout the event, with sessions from Chad Crowell, M K, Laura Santamaria, Marc Boorshtein, and Dwayne McDaniel. These topics took attendees through a range of scenarios, such as ML-based API & web app security, the Open Web Application Security Project (OWASP), and the dangers of third-party tooling.
Diversity and Inclusion
During the event, we were able to hear from Emily Gupton, Ahna Boley, Megan Murray, and Numa Dhamani in the "Women In Tech: Beyond The Job," panel discussion. Through this session, they shared their varied experiences in the tech industry, focusing on the importance of roles beyond technical expertise and the value of identity beyond work. They discussed the challenges and opportunities faced in their careers, from technical positions to leadership roles, emphasizing the critical nature of customer-oriented roles in making technology accessible and successful.
The speakers highlighted the significance of supportive communities, mentorship, and leadership in advancing women's careers in tech. By sharing personal insights and encouraging the exploration of diverse interests and strengths, the panel inspired attendees to recognize their worth beyond their professional titles, advocating for a balanced approach to personal and professional development in tech.
In addition to this, Aakansha Priya gave a talk on navigating unconscious biases in cloud native communities, which explored how people can recognize them and the different types of biases to look out for. Aakansha went on to give the audience advice surrounding the SPACE2 Model of Inclusion, which helps people reduce or avoid unconscious bias.
Sustainability
During a session with Matt Butcher and Chris Matteson, they covered how to build Serverless AI with Civo and Deep Green. In the first half of this session, they took attendees through an example TypeScript serverless function that uses AI inferencing, on Fermyon Cloud. Then, they looked at how each inferencing operation is handled on Civo and DeepGreen GPUs. Both of these parts allowed them to explore the sustainable impact of doing AI inferences while heating a swimming pool!
You can learn more about our work with Fermyon and Deep Green here.
Community and Sponsor Highlights
Once again, we want to say a massive thank you to all of our sponsors who made this event possible. Over the upcoming weeks, we will be updating our website with more information from the event and uploading all recordings. Follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn to keep up with these announcements.
“This is my third time coming to Civo and honestly is one of my favorite conferences. I am always connecting with awesome people and the community is so supportive!” Sully M
Upcoming Civo Navigate Events
Earlier this year, we announced Civo Navigate Local, a new, more intimate yet equally impactful event. Navigate Local is more than just a conference; it's a hub of innovation and education. The event will feature a series of talks and workshops delivered by some of the brightest minds in cloud native technology. Whether you're a seasoned expert or just starting out, Navigate Local promises to enrich your understanding and skills with sessions tailored for all levels.
📆 April 16th, 2024
🌍 Armature Works, Tampa, Florida
We are now offering tickets for this event at just $40. Secure your spot to join us in Tampa and be a part of this unique experience in the cloud native world > https://www.civo.com/navigate/local-tampa-2024
