Originally announced via PRNewswire on July 30, 2020. Source: IT Revolution press release.
DevOps Enterprise Summit Las Vegas 2020 Moves to Virtual Format
IT Revolution, the publishing and events organization focused on advancing DevOps adoption, announced in July 2020 that the DevOps Enterprise Summit (DOES) Las Vegas would transition to a fully virtual format in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The event was rescheduled for October 13–15, 2020, running in the Pacific Timezone.
The decision followed the successful delivery of a virtual DOES London event earlier in 2020, which served as a proof-of-concept for replicating the immersive, collaborative experience of an in-person DevOps conference in an online setting.
Registration and Attendance Limits
Registration was priced at $650 per attendee, with capacity capped at 3,000 attendees. IT Revolution cited the need to keep Slack channels and group networking sessions manageable as the primary reason for the attendance limit — a practical constraint unique to virtual event formats that rely heavily on text-based community interaction.
Registration deadlines and cancellation policies were updated in line with evolving COVID-19 guidance at the time of announcement.
What the Virtual Format Included
The virtual Las Vegas event was designed to mirror the depth and networking density of an in-person conference. Planned programming elements included:
- Keynotes and panels from enterprise technology leaders across industries
- Experience reports from organizations including KeyBank, Deloitte, T-Mobile, and Microsoft
- Breakout sessions covering DevOps transformation at scale in large, complex organizations
- Virtual book signings with well-known DevOps authors
- Interest-based video networking, allowing attendees to select and engage directly with other attendees or speakers
- Birds-of-a-Feather gatherings to connect practitioners with shared challenges or interests
- Lean Coffee workshops for participant-driven discussion and interchange
- Virtual Happy Hours for informal networking
- A community space for spontaneous gatherings and hallway-style conversations
A key design decision was using pre-recorded keynotes paired with live Slack Q&A tracks and AMA (Ask Me Anything) sessions, giving attendees flexibility to consume content asynchronously while still enabling real-time interaction with speakers.
Lessons from Virtual DOES London 2020
The virtual Las Vegas event was directly informed by feedback from the DevOps Enterprise Summit London 2020, which had already run in virtual format. Attendees of the London event offered detailed reflections on what worked:
“COVID-adapted conferences have had a hard time arranging Q&A and networking. The DevOps Enterprise Summit Virtual #DOES20 has really delivered on that. Pre-recorded keynotes with live Slack ask-the-speaker tracks as well as AMA sessions have been really helpful.”
— Ferrix Hovi, Lead DevOps and Agile Coach, Siili Solutions
“I’ve been in person to 2017 DevOps Enterprise Summit London, and I have to say that I have enjoyed this virtual experience more. It was easier to keep track of what is going on, to engage with other attendees in the Zoom sessions, I had more ‘hallway’ conversations than 3 years ago. And the talks have been just superb.”
— Jiří Klouda, Technology Leader, SRE, Cisco Meraki
“I absolutely loved the whole thing. Seeing what others were learning in the Slack channels helped point me towards new ideas I hadn’t thought of before. I got opportunities to talk to fellow attendees and pages of notes. There were so many people excited to talk about the things I’m excited about!”
— Daniel Cahill, Software Engineer, Ontario Systems
“If you’re curious about the latest on DevOps in the real world, you simply can’t get better than #DOES, and this year was no exception!”
— Steve Pereira, Founder, Visible
Gene Kim on Replicating the Conference Experience Virtually
Gene Kim, founder of IT Revolution and co-author of The Phoenix Project, The DevOps Handbook, and Accelerate, addressed the challenge of translating in-person conference value to an online format:
“Great physical conferences are magical — you learn from incredible talks, feel surrounded by the best in the game, and find fellow travelers who share similar goals and experience similar struggles to conquer together. The connections I have made at conferences often lead to lifelong friendships and changed my career. We’re so proud that we were able to create these experiences for our attendees in our first Virtual DevOps Enterprise Summit in June — we’re now planning our second virtual event this year, and we’re aiming to make it even better than our first!”
— Gene Kim, Founder, IT Revolution
About DevOps Enterprise Summit
DevOps Enterprise Summit is a conference specifically designed for technology leaders and practitioners at large, complex organizations implementing DevOps principles and practices. Unlike practitioner-focused events that emphasize individual tooling or technical skills, DOES centres on organizational transformation — the leadership patterns, operating models, and cultural shifts required to adopt DevOps at enterprise scale.
Event programming emphasizes next-generation operations and infrastructure, as well as the change management practices needed to lead widespread transformation efforts across large, often regulated industries.
About IT Revolution
IT Revolution assembles technology leaders and practitioners through publishing, events, and research. The organization’s stated goal is to elevate the state of technology work, quantify the economic and human costs of suboptimal IT performance, and improve the professional lives of people working in technology.
For sponsorship enquiries related to the event, IT Revolution directed interested parties to Molly Coyne, Director of Corporate Sponsorship, at mollyc@itrevolution.com.