As organizations accelerate their adoption of AI and cloud native technologies, platform teams are being asked to solve a growing set of challenges. How can developers access new capabilities such as AI safely and efficiently? How can platforms reduce bottlenecks rather than create them? And how should internal platforms evolve as the needs of developers and organizations change?

These are some of the questions at the heart of Platform Engineering Day, a full-day event bringing the community together to exchange practical experiences, lessons learned, and ideas about the future of platform engineering, as part of KubeCon + CloudNativeCon North America in Salt Lake City, on Monday, November 9th 2026.

Created by the community, for practitioners

The idea for Platform Engineering Day began at KubeCon + CloudNativeCon Europe in Amsterdam in 2023.

Platform engineering was already generating significant discussion across the community, but there was an opportunity to create a dedicated space that went beyond individual tools and project updates. Practitioners wanted to talk about the principles and practices behind building and operating platforms—and, importantly, to share what they were learning along the way.

That idea became Platform Engineering Day, with the first event taking place alongside KubeCon + CloudNativeCon Europe in Paris in 2024.

Since its inception, the goal has remained simple: create a space where platform engineers and practitioners can learn from one another.

That means talking not only about successful implementations, but also about approaches that did not work as expected, trade-offs teams encountered, and lessons they would apply differently next time.

Learning from real-world platform engineering

Platform engineering rarely has a one-size-fits-all answer. Teams have different users, organizational structures, technologies, constraints, and definitions of what a successful internal platform looks like.

Platform Engineering Day prioritizes end-user stories and case studies, giving attendees an opportunity to hear directly from practitioners building and evolving platforms in real environments.

The aim is to move beyond what teams are building and explore why they made particular decisions, what they learned, and how their approaches have changed over time.

This year’s conversations will span some of the issues currently shaping platform engineering, including AI and platform engineering, sustainability, agents as both producers and consumers of platforms, Platform as a Product, and compliance.

AI in particular is introducing new questions for platform teams. Organizations want developers to experiment with and adopt AI capabilities, while still providing appropriate security, governance, reliability, and operational guardrails. Platform engineering can provide an interface between those requirements, helping teams make new capabilities accessible without introducing unnecessary friction into software delivery.

A full day for every stage of the platform engineering journey

Platform Engineering Day is designed for people at different stages of their platform engineering journey, from those beginning to explore the discipline to practitioners already operating mature internal platforms.

The day will begin with a single track in the morning, bringing the community together around shared topics and perspectives. After lunch, the program will split into two tracks, allowing attendees to explore a broader range of subjects and levels of technical depth.

Across the day, attendees can expect a mixture of keynotes, lightning talks, panels, practitioner stories, and opportunities to connect with others in the community.

No prior platform engineering knowledge is required.

Whether you are a platform engineer, product manager, solutions architect, technical leader, decision maker, or simply beginning to explore platform engineering, the program is intended to offer perspectives relevant to your journey.

Where platform engineering is heading

Platform engineering continues to evolve alongside the wider cloud native ecosystem.

The emergence of AI and agentic workloads is creating new requirements for platforms, while established challenges around developer experience, sustainability, compliance, governance, and treating platforms as products continue to mature.

Platform Engineering Day provides a place to examine these changes through the experiences of the people encountering them firsthand.

Attendees should leave with practical examples of how other teams are approaching these challenges, lessons they can apply within their own organizations, and a clearer picture of the conversations currently shaping the platform engineering community.

Just as importantly, the event provides an opportunity to share experiences with peers. By discussing successes alongside failures, challenges alongside solutions, the community can continue learning together and building better platforms.

Join co-chairs Paula Kennedy, Stacey Potter, and Ramiro Berrelleza at Platform Engineering Day and be part of the conversation about what’s next for platform engineering.