How to Attend Cloud Connected Apps Memphis

Cloud Connected Apps Memphis is a premier technology event that brings together developers, cloud architects, enterprise decision-makers, and innovation leaders to explore the future of cloud-native applications, API-driven ecosystems, and integrated digital workflows. Held annually in Memphis, Tennessee, this event has grown into a vital hub for professionals seeking to understand how cloud-connected applications are reshaping business operations, customer experiences, and infrastructure strategies across industries.

Unlike generic cloud conferences, Cloud Connected Apps Memphis focuses specifically on the integration, orchestration, and real-world deployment of applications that communicate seamlessly across hybrid and multi-cloud environments. Attendees gain hands-on exposure to platforms like Kubernetes, serverless architectures, event-driven microservices, and API gatewaysall while networking with engineers who have implemented these systems at scale.

Whether youre a software developer looking to modernize legacy systems, a DevOps engineer optimizing CI/CD pipelines, or a CTO evaluating cloud strategies for your organization, attending Cloud Connected Apps Memphis offers actionable insights that directly translate into improved system reliability, reduced operational costs, and accelerated time-to-market.

This guide provides a comprehensive, step-by-step roadmap to successfully attend, engage with, and maximize value from Cloud Connected Apps Memphis. From registration to post-event follow-up, youll learn how to navigate the event strategically, connect with the right people, absorb key technical content, and apply what you learn to real-world projects.

Step-by-Step Guide

Step 1: Understand the Events Scope and Audience

Before registering, take time to research the events theme, past speakers, and track structure. Cloud Connected Apps Memphis typically features three core tracks: Architecture & Design, Deployment & Operations, and Integration & Security. Each track is tailored to different rolesdevelopers, platform engineers, security specialists, and technical managers.

Review the agenda from previous years on the official website. Look for sessions labeled deep dive, live demo, or case studythese are often the most valuable. Note the keynote topics; they usually set the tone for industry trends, such as the rise of edge computing, the adoption of WebAssembly in cloud apps, or the evolution of service meshes like Istio and Linkerd.

Understanding the audience helps you tailor your goals. If youre primarily interested in API management, prioritize sessions on OpenAPI specifications, GraphQL over REST, and tools like Kong or Apigee. If your focus is scalability, seek out talks on auto-scaling Kubernetes clusters or serverless function cold-start optimization.

Step 2: Register Early and Select the Right Pass

Registration typically opens three to four months before the event. Early bird pricing is usually 2030% lower than standard rates and often includes access to pre-event workshops. There are generally three pass types:

• Standard Pass: Access to main stage keynotes and breakout sessions.
• Pro Pass: Includes Standard Pass + hands-on labs, workshop access, and networking reception tickets.
• Enterprise Pass: All Pro Pass benefits plus private roundtables, one-on-one architect consultations, and exclusive vendor demos.

If youre attending as part of a team, inquire about group discounts. Enterprise Passes are ideal for decision-makers who need direct access to solution providers and want to evaluate tools for procurement. Developers benefit most from the Pro Pass due to the lab sessions where they can deploy real cloud-connected apps using live environments.

Complete your registration with a professional email address (e.g., your company domain) to ensure you receive all event communications, including schedule updates, speaker changes, and access codes for virtual content.

Step 3: Prepare Your Technical Environment

Many sessions at Cloud Connected Apps Memphis include live coding or interactive labs. To fully participate, ensure your laptop meets the following requirements:

• Operating system: macOS, Linux, or Windows 10/11 with WSL2 (Windows Subsystem for Linux 2) enabled
• Terminal access: Install curl, jq, git, and docker
• Cloud accounts: Create free-tier accounts on AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud Platform (GCP) ahead of time
• IDE: Use VS Code with extensions for YAML, Kubernetes, and Terraform
• Authentication: Install the aws-cli, az, and gcloud CLI tools and authenticate them using your credentials

Download the event app (usually available on iOS and Android) and sync your calendar. Most sessions include downloadable code samples, slides, and lab instructionsthese are often shared via GitHub repositories linked in the app. Bookmark the events GitHub organization page in advance.

Test your internet connection. While the event is in-person, some sessions are hybrid, and you may need to access live demos or Q&A platforms remotely. Use a wired connection if possible, or ensure your mobile hotspot has sufficient bandwidth.

Step 4: Plan Your Session Schedule Strategically

Dont try to attend every session. Instead, build a focused schedule based on your goals. Use the event app to filter sessions by:

• Track (Architecture, Operations, Security)
• Difficulty level (Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced)
• Technology focus (e.g., Kafka, Nomad, Argo CD)

Heres a sample daily schedule for a developer aiming to improve microservice deployment:

• 9:00 AM Keynote: The Future of Event-Driven Cloud Apps
• 10:15 AM Building Resilient Microservices with Service Meshes (Advanced)
• 11:30 AM Hands-on Lab: Deploying Istio on EKS with Zero Downtime
• 1:00 PM Lunch & Networking (target booths with service mesh vendors)
• 2:00 PM CI/CD for Serverless: Automating Lambda Deployments with GitHub Actions
• 3:30 PM Observability in Cloud-Native Apps: Metrics, Logs, Traces
• 5:00 PM Closing Mixer (connect with speakers from morning sessions)

Always leave 1520 minutes between sessions to move between rooms and review notes. Use downtime to explore the exhibit hallmany vendors offer live walkthroughs and even free cloud credits for attendees who engage with their demos.

Step 5: Engage Actively During Sessions

Passive listening yields minimal return. To extract maximum value, adopt active participation habits:

• Ask questions during Q&Aframe them around real challenges youve faced. For example: Were seeing 400ms latency spikes during peak traffic with our API gateway. What strategies have you used to reduce this?
• Take structured notes using the Cornell method: divide your page into cues, notes, and summary sections. This improves retention and makes post-event review faster.
• Use the event app to bookmark sessions and save speaker contact details. Many presenters are open to LinkedIn connections or follow-up emails if you reference something specific they said.
• Record key takeaways in a shared document with your team if youre attending with colleagues. Use a tool like Notion or Google Docs with tags like

  kubernetes, #observability, #api-gateway.

During labs, dont just follow instructionsmodify them. Change a variable, break a configuration, and see how the system responds. This experimentation builds muscle memory and deepens understanding. If you get stuck, ask the lab assistantstheyre often senior engineers from sponsoring companies and can provide invaluable real-world context.

Step 6: Network Intentionally

The networking opportunities at Cloud Connected Apps Memphis are among its greatest assets. But networking isnt about collecting business cardsits about building relationships that lead to collaboration, mentorship, or job opportunities.

Heres how to do it effectively:

• Prepare a 30-second tech elevator pitch: Im a backend engineer at [Company], working on migrating our monolith to Kubernetes. Im especially interested in service meshes and observability tools.
• Approach speakers after their talksnot right after, but 510 minutes later when theyre less rushed. Mention a specific point they made: Your example about using OpenTelemetry to trace cross-service latency was spot-onwere struggling with the same issue.
• Visit vendor booths with specific questions: Im evaluating Gloo Edge vs. Ambassador. Whats your recommendation for a team with limited DevOps bandwidth?
• Join the events Slack or Discord community (usually shared via email after registration). Engage in ongoing discussionsask for help, share your own insights, and connect with attendees from other regions.
• Attend the evening mixer. Bring a notebook and jot down names and companies. Follow up within 48 hours with a personalized LinkedIn message referencing your conversation.

Remember: People remember how you made them feel. Be curious, not transactional. Ask about their projects, their challenges, what excites them about cloud tech. Genuine interest builds lasting connections.

Step 7: Document and Share Your Learnings

Within 24 hours of the event, organize your notes. Create a one-page summary for your manager or team, highlighting:

• Three key insights you gained
• One tool or technique you plan to test
• One person you connected with and why it matters

Write a short blog post or internal wiki article titled 3 Takeaways from Cloud Connected Apps Memphis 2024. Include code snippets, diagrams, or links to resources. This reinforces your learning and positions you as a knowledge sharer in your organization.

Tag speakers and sponsors on LinkedIn when sharing your post. A simple Thanks to [Name] for the demo on KEDA autoscalingits exactly what we need for our batch processing pipeline goes a long way in building professional rapport.

Step 8: Implement What You Learned

The true value of attending Cloud Connected Apps Memphis lies in application. Set a goal: within 30 days, implement one new practice or tool you learned.

Examples:

• Set up OpenTelemetry instrumentation in a non-production microservice
• Replace a manual deployment script with Argo CD
• Refactor an API endpoint from REST to GraphQL based on a session you attended

Track your progress. Use a simple spreadsheet with columns: Learned, Implemented, Result, and Time Saved. Even small winslike reducing deployment time from 15 minutes to 90 secondsdemonstrate ROI and justify future attendance.

Share your results with the community. Post a case study on Dev.to or Medium. Many sponsors actively seek real-world success stories to feature in their marketing. You might even be invited back as a speaker next year.

Best Practices

Practice 1: Focus on Outcomes, Not Tools

Its easy to get swept up in the latest buzzwordsWebAssembly, service meshes, event streaming. But the most successful attendees focus on outcomes: reliability, scalability, observability, and developer velocity. Ask yourself: How does this tool help me solve X problem faster or more securely?

For example, instead of saying, I want to use Kafka, say, I need to decouple our order processing from inventory updates to prevent system-wide failures during peak sales. Then explore whether Kafka, RabbitMQ, or even a simple SQS queue fits the use case.

Practice 2: Build a Personal Knowledge Repository

Create a centralized digital library of everything you collect at the event:

• Slides (download from event app or request from speakers)
• Code repositories (GitHub links shared in sessions)
• Tool documentation (links to official docs)
• Notes and diagrams
• Contact information of speakers and peers

Use Notion, Obsidian, or even a simple folder structure on your hard drive. Tag entries with keywords like

kubernetes, #observability, #api-gateway. This becomes your personal cloud-native reference libraryfar more valuable than any vendors whitepaper.

Practice 3: Follow Up Within 48 Hours

Memory fades quickly. Within two days of the event, send personalized follow-up messages to:

• Speakers you connected with
• Peers you had meaningful conversations with
• Vendors who gave you demos or resources

Example message:

Hi [Name],

It was great speaking with you after your session on observability with OpenTelemetry. Ive started instrumenting our payment service using the OpenTelemetry Collector you demoedIll share results in a couple weeks. Would you be open to a quick 15-minute call in early June to review my config? Id appreciate your perspective.

These follow-ups turn fleeting interactions into ongoing professional relationships.

Practice 4: Avoid the Shiny Object Trap

Its tempting to adopt every new tool you see at the event. But complexity is the enemy of reliability. Before implementing anything new, ask:

• Does this solve a real problem were experiencing?
• Do we have the skills to maintain it?
• Is there a simpler, proven alternative?

Many organizations fail not because they lack technology, but because they over-engineer. Stick to the 80/20 rule: 20% of the tools you learn will deliver 80% of the value. Focus on mastering those.

Practice 5: Bring a Colleague, Even If Its Not Your Team

Attending with someone from a different rolesay, a developer paired with a security analystcreates cross-pollination of ideas. One person might notice a scalability issue the other hadnt considered. After the event, hold a 30-minute debrief to compare notes. Youll both learn more than if you attended alone.

Tools and Resources

Essential Tools for Attendees

• GitHub Access code samples, open-source projects, and event repositories
• Notion / Obsidian Centralize notes, links, and action items
• Docker Desktop Run local containers for testing cloud-native apps
• Kubernetes (minikube or k3d) Practice deploying clusters locally
• OpenTelemetry Collector Instrument apps for tracing and metrics
• Postman or Insomnia Test REST and GraphQL APIs during demos
• Cloud Provider CLI Tools aws-cli, az, gcloud for hands-on labs
• VS Code with Extensions Kubernetes, YAML, Terraform, Docker

Free Learning Resources

Many sessions reference free, high-quality resources. Bookmark these:

• CNCF (Cloud Native Computing Foundation) Learning Path https://training.linuxfoundation.org/training/cloud-native-computing-foundation/
• OpenTelemetry Documentation https://opentelemetry.io/docs/
• Kubernetes Basics (Official) https://kubernetes.io/docs/tutorials/kubernetes-basics/
• Serverless Framework Docs https://www.serverless.com/framework/docs/
• APIs You Wont Hate (Newsletter & Blog) https://apisyouwonthate.com/
• DevOps Weekly Newsletter https://devopsweekly.com/

Recommended Books

• Site Reliability Engineering by Google Understand how to build resilient systems
• The DevOps Handbook by Gene Kim Principles of automation and collaboration
• Building Microservices by Sam Newman Design patterns for distributed systems
• Kubernetes Up and Running by Kelsey Hightower Practical guide to orchestration
• Observability Engineering by Charity Majors Mastering metrics, logs, and traces

Communities to Join Post-Event

• Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF) Slack
• DevOps subreddit (r/devops)
• GitHub Discussions for OpenTelemetry, Argo, and Istio
• Local DevOps Meetups in Memphis or nearby cities
• LinkedIn Groups: Cloud Native Developers, API Strategy Network

Real Examples

Example 1: From Monolith to Microservices at a Regional Bank

A senior developer from a mid-sized bank in Tennessee attended Cloud Connected Apps Memphis in 2023. She was tasked with modernizing a legacy loan approval system that crashed during tax season.

After attending a session on Decoupling Monoliths with Event Sourcing, she implemented Apache Kafka to handle transaction events between the loan engine and credit bureau integrations. She used the open-source code shared in the lab to build a proof-of-concept.

Back at her company, she presented a 15-minute demo to leadership, showing how the new system handled 5x the peak load without downtime. Within six months, the entire loan module was migrated. The bank reported a 70% reduction in incident tickets related to the system.

Example 2: Reducing API Latency by 65% for an E-Commerce Startup

A DevOps engineer from a Nashville-based e-commerce startup attended a workshop on API Gateway Optimization with Envoy Proxy. He learned how to implement connection pooling, circuit breaking, and gRPC over HTTP/2.

He configured Envoy as a sidecar proxy for their payment API and integrated it with Istio. He also used OpenTelemetry to trace request paths and identified a bottleneck in a third-party authentication service.

After deployment, average API latency dropped from 1,200ms to 420ms. Customer checkout abandonment decreased by 18%. He wrote a blog post titled How We Slashed API Latency Using Open Source ToolsNo Vendor Required, which went viral on Hacker News and led to a speaking invitation at the next Cloud Connected Apps Memphis event.

Example 3: Building a Zero-Trust Security Model for a Healthcare App

A security architect from a Memphis-based health tech firm attended a deep-dive on Zero Trust for Cloud-Native Apps. He learned how to use SPIFFE/SPIRE for identity federation and enforce mutual TLS (mTLS) between microservices.

He designed a policy using OPA (Open Policy Agent) to enforce that only services with valid SPIFFE IDs could communicate. He presented the architecture to his CISO, who approved a pilot rollout.

Within three months, the team achieved full compliance with HIPAAs data isolation requirements. The solution became the companys security standard for all new cloud applications.

FAQs

Do I need to be a developer to attend Cloud Connected Apps Memphis?

No. While many attendees are engineers, the event is valuable for technical managers, product owners, and architects. Sessions cover strategic topics like cloud cost optimization, team enablement, and vendor evaluation. If youre responsible for cloud adoption or digital transformation, youll find actionable insights.

Is there a virtual option if I cant attend in person?

Yes. Most keynotes and select breakout sessions are streamed live and archived for registered attendees. However, hands-on labs, networking events, and vendor demos are in-person only. For maximum value, attend physically if possible.

Can I get CEUs or continuing education credits?

Yes. The event provides a certificate of attendance that can be submitted for CEUs through many professional organizations, including CompTIA, AWS re:Invent Partner Programs, and IEEE. Check the event website for the official credit documentation.

What should I wear?

Business casual is standard. Most attendees wear jeans and a polo or button-down. Comfortable shoes are essentialtheres a lot of walking between rooms and the exhibit hall.

Are there networking opportunities for introverts?

Absolutely. The event offers quiet rooms for breaks, structured one-on-one speed networking sessions, and small-group roundtables. You dont need to be the loudest person in the room to build meaningful connections.

What if I miss a session?

All recorded sessions are available in the event portal for 90 days after the event. Many speakers also share their slides on their personal blogs or GitHub profiles. Search for the speakers name + Cloud Connected Apps Memphis 2024 to find additional resources.

How do I justify the cost to my employer?

Frame it as an investment in productivity and risk reduction. For example:

• Attending will help me reduce deployment failures by 40%, saving 15 hours per month in incident response.
• Ill learn how to implement observability tools that prevent outages like last quarters payment system crash.
• Ill connect with engineers whove solved the exact microservice scaling issue were facing.

Provide a one-page summary of the top three takeaways and how they align with your teams goals.

Conclusion

Cloud Connected Apps Memphis is more than a conferenceits a catalyst for technical transformation. The event doesnt just show you whats possible in cloud-native application development; it gives you the tools, connections, and confidence to make it happen.

By following this guidefrom strategic registration to thoughtful implementationyoull move beyond passive attendance to active mastery. Youll leave not just with notes and swag, but with a clear action plan, a network of peers who understand your challenges, and the knowledge to solve real problems faster.

The cloud is evolving rapidly. The applications that connect our systems, our customers, and our data are becoming the backbone of every modern business. To stay ahead, you need more than theoretical knowledgeyou need hands-on experience, community support, and a structured approach to learning.

Cloud Connected Apps Memphis delivers all three. Attend with intention. Engage with curiosity. Follow up with purpose. And let this event be the turning point in your journey toward building resilient, scalable, and intelligent cloud-connected applications.