This article is based on a CloudBees announcement originally published on devops.com on March 25, 2020. Details reflect the state of the event at the time of the announcement.
DevOps World 2020 Call for Papers Is Now Open
CloudBees, the enterprise software delivery company, announced the opening of the DevOps World 2020 Call for Papers (CFP) on March 18, 2020. DevOps practitioners were invited to submit session abstracts covering a broad range of topics relevant to modern software delivery teams.
The conference was scheduled for September 21–24, 2020, at the Aria Resort in Las Vegas, Nevada. DevOps World is widely recognized as one of the largest gatherings of DevOps practitioners and Jenkins users globally, providing a forum for learning, networking, and exploring emerging trends in software development and delivery.
Topics Sought for CFP Submissions
The CFP invited proposals across a wide range of DevOps and software engineering disciplines. Suggested topic areas included:
- Continuous integration and continuous delivery (CI/CD) best practices
- Feature delivery automation
- Test automation strategies
- DevOps at scale
- Data-driven change management
- KPIs and engineering metrics
- Organizational and cultural transformation
- Open source tooling and community contributions
These topics reflect the core challenges that DevOps teams face when scaling delivery pipelines, measuring software performance, and driving cultural change within large organizations.
New Addition: The Software Delivery Leadership Forum
A significant new feature for the 2020 event was the introduction of the Software Delivery Leadership Forum, a track running throughout the entire conference and chaired by Accelerated Strategies Group, an independent analyst firm.
The Leadership Forum was designed to bridge the gap between strategic business thinking and deep technical expertise. Unlike purely technical sessions, this forum would deliver content through a mix of:
- Presentations by industry leaders
- Panel discussions
- Hands-on exercises
- Peer networking and collaboration
The goal was to equip executives and senior leaders responsible for driving digital transformation with the tools, frameworks, and peer insights needed to accelerate their organizations’ DevOps journeys.
“Accelerated Strategies is excited to chair the Software Delivery Leadership Forum at this year’s DevOps World, in partnership with CloudBees. As the pace of digital transformation increases, we believe a greater emphasis on educating the executives responsible for leading the transformation will help organizations find the fastest path to success.”
— Mitch Ashley, CEO, Accelerated Strategies Group
Key Dates and Registration Pricing
The following timeline and pricing structure was announced alongside the CFP:
| Milestone | Date / Detail |
|---|---|
| CFP Opens | March 18, 2020 |
| CFP Closes | April 24, 2020 |
| CFP Notification | On or about May 22, 2020 |
| Agenda Announced | June 1, 2020 |
| Super Early Bird Pricing | $799 (until April 9, 2020) |
| Early Bird Pricing | $1,199 (April 10 – July 10, 2020) |
| Regular Admission | $1,499 |
COVID-19 Contingency Planning
Given that the announcement was made in March 2020, at the onset of the global COVID-19 pandemic, CloudBees included an important caveat regarding in-person event planning:
“In light of the global health concerns due to the novel coronavirus (COVID-19), CloudBees is monitoring public health guidance in relation to in-person events. We are not taking decisions lightly, but the health and well-being of our employees, partners, customers and other guests remain our ultimate priority. We will continue to monitor and make any necessary changes as the situation evolves. If the conference must be canceled at a later date due to guidance from public health authorities, the event will be held virtually and all CFP submissions will be reviewed for potential inclusion.”
This foresight proved relevant across the technology conference industry in 2020, as many large events pivoted to virtual formats throughout the year.
Sponsors
At the time of the announcement, confirmed sponsors included: CloudBees, Sonatype, MacStadium, Sauce Labs, Go2Group, LogDNA, NowSecure, Plutora, SmartBear, WhiteSource, Compuware, GitLab, LaunchDarkly, Synopsys, Xray, ZeroNorth, FOSSA, Gradle, and Zimperium.
Why the Leadership Track Matters for DevOps Teams
The addition of a dedicated leadership forum reflects a broader maturation of the DevOps discipline. Early DevOps adoption was largely practitioner-driven, focused on tooling and automation. As organizations scale their DevOps programs, the strategic decisions made by engineering leaders, VPs of Engineering, and C-suite executives become equally critical to success.
Key leadership challenges in DevOps at scale include:
- Measuring ROI — Defining and tracking meaningful KPIs that connect engineering output to business outcomes
- Cultural change — Breaking down silos between development, operations, security, and product teams
- Governance at scale — Managing compliance, security, and reliability without sacrificing velocity
- Platform strategy — Deciding when to build internal developer platforms versus adopting commercial tooling
Forums like the Software Delivery Leadership Forum provide senior leaders with structured peer learning opportunities that go beyond vendor-led product demonstrations, offering insights grounded in real-world organizational experience.