Conference swag encompasses far more than T-shirts these days. At North America’s KubeCon + CloudNativeCon 2024, attendees can pick up anything from ski goggles to Sri Lankan tea to baby Yodas.

Savannah Peterson, host and analyst for theCUBE, featured some of the event’s best pieces of swag, representing the attending companies’ diverse offerings.

TheCUBE’s Savannah Peterson shows off some of KubeCon’s fun swag.

“It means so much to be able to show off what’s happening on the show floor, but also the creativity of the companies that are here beyond the tools that they’re creating and the stories that they’re telling,” she said.

Peterson was joined by theCUBE Research’s Rob Strechay at KubeCon + CloudNativeCon NA, during an exclusive broadcast on theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s livestreaming studio. They tried on some of the best and brightest Kubernetes-themed swag. (* Disclosure below.)

Savvy Swag: Skiing edition

Tintri by DDN Inc., which offers data management solutions for Kubernetes workloads, went all in on the ski theme, according to Peterson. The company went so far as to offer an inflatable sled for attendees to ride.

“They looked at the location [Salt Lake City] and their marketing teams really leaned in on that and getting to new heights with Kubernetes,” Strechay said.

“They went on full eighties throwback with the ski outfits,” Peterson added. “There’s mullets over there, there’s fanny packs, they’ve even got gloves in here to keep your hands nice and toasty.”

Although the giant inflatable sled might be the winner, other companies brought their game with plushies and creative kits. KWOK, a Kubernetes toolkit, offered avocado plushies and Sonrai Security brought out baby Yoda plushies. Dynatrace LLC, the data observability platform, gave away Lego-like magnets.

“This is called a MagnaSculpt,” Peterson said. “This is from Dynatrace … there’s a little packet full of magnets to create structures. Lots of Legos on the show floor, but not always other fun building tools like this.”

Fanny packs were also popular, with colorful ones coming from Google LLC, which spoke with theCUBE about the Google Kubernetes Engine. The proliferation of swag and lively discourse about the future of cloud computing was a welcome prelude to winter.

“With all this swag here right now, I feel like I could just hit the slopes,” Peterson said. “We’re going to have to plan a CUBE winter ski vacation.”

Here’s the complete video interview, part of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE Research’s coverage of KubeCon + CloudNativeCon NA:

(* Disclosure: TheCUBE is a paid media partner for the KubeCon + CloudNativeCon NA. Neither Red Hat Inc., the headline sponsor of theCUBE’s event coverage, nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE