WHY GARTNER’S “CONTEXT MESH” CHANGES EVERYTHING AI CONNECTIVITY: THE ROAD AHEAD DON’T MISS API + AI SUMMIT 2026 SEPT 30 – OCT 1
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  4. API Innovator Awards spotlight outstanding Kong projects and community users
[News](/blog/news)News
June 28, 2022
2 min read

# API Innovator Awards spotlight outstanding Kong projects and community users

Eric Pulsifer
Content @ Kong

Each year at [Kong Summit](https://konghq.com/kong-summit)Kong Summit, we shine a light on projects and people ahead of the pack in their use of Kong. And what better way to do that than with a shiny gorilla statue. We call them the [API Innovator Awards](https://konghq.com/conferences/kong-summit/api-innovator-awards)API Innovator Awards.

The API Innovator Awards recognize outstanding and future-facing projects from Kong customers and community users.

This year's awards will be presented September 29 at the [Kong Summit 2022](https://konghq.com/kong-summit)Kong Summit 2022 in San Francisco. Submissions are currently open for nominees.

The awards — which were previously known as the Cloud Connectivity Innovator Awards — celebrate the visionaries diving headfirst into digital transformation and driving end-to-end connectivity across modern microservices architectures.

[2021 award winners](https://konghq.com/blog/2021-cloud-connectivity-innovator-award-winners)2021 award winners included Angelo Ovidi of Kore Labs, Australia Post, Standard Chartered Bank, and Koyed.

## API Innovator Award submissions are open

Got a project or use case that deserves recognition? We want to hear from you!

Submissions are open through August 11. Visit [the API Innovator Awards page](https://konghq.com/conferences/kong-summit/api-innovator-awards)the API Innovator Awards page for more details and to submit a nomination.

Customers and community users can submit Kong projects or use cases (including Kong Enterprise, Kong Konnect, Kong Gateway, Kuma, and Insomnia) from the past five years that deserve the spotlight.

Judges evaluate submissions and select winners with consideration given to the use case, challenges faced, innovative solution, and unique differentiators. Winners will be notified in early September and listed on this awards page after the ceremony at Kong Summit 2022.

## Register for Kong Summit 2022

Kong Summit, now in its fifth year, is the conference for the builders and leaders taming the API jungle. This year's event takes place from September 27-29 at the historic Palace Hotel in San Francisco.

Registration is now open. Visit the [Kong Summit 2022 page](https://konghq.com/conferences/kong-summit)Kong Summit 2022 page to get tickets and more information.

- [API Gateway](/blog/tag/api-gateway)API Gateway- [Open Source](/blog/tag/open-source)Open Source- [Events](/blog/tag/events)Events

## More on this topic

_Videos_

## Unifying REST and Event APIs for Partners

_Videos_

## Democratizing Access to Real-Time Data: Build a Self-Service Platform your Devs Love

## See Kong in action

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**Topics**
- [API Gateway](/blog/tag/api-gateway)API Gateway- [Open Source](/blog/tag/open-source)Open Source- [Events](/blog/tag/events)Events
Eric Pulsifer
Content @ Kong

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# API innovation runs wild at Kong Summit 2022

[News](/blog)NewsJuly 28, 2022

Join the builders and leaders taming the API jungle live and in person at Kong Summit 2022 September 28-29, 2022, at the historic Palace Hotel in San Francisco, California. Registration is now open . Kong Summit 2022 will feature more than 70 sp

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[](https://konghq.com/blog/news/kong-summit-2022)

# Happy 2nd Anniversary, Kuma!

[News](/blog)NewsSeptember 10, 2021

In 2019, my team at Kong introduced a new open source project called Kuma . Now a sandbox project of the CNCF , Kuma is a modern, universal control plane for service mesh based on Envoy . As we celebrate Kuma's achievements, I want to thank th

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# Celebrating Four Years of Kong Inc.

[News](/blog)NewsAugust 27, 2021

What a year we have had! Hypergrowth, a huge community, and lots of recognition. But what we are most proud of is how Kong's technology has impacted the world, thanks to our users. We can't thank these users and the community enough for making Kong

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# Kong Gateway OSS Turns Six!

[News](/blog)NewsMay 28, 2021

🎂 Make a wish and blow out the candles…we're celebrating Kong's sixth anniversary! 👏👏👏 In 2015, Mashape open sourced Kong Gateway , launching the next generation of API management. In our last anniversary post, I took a look back at our histor

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# Announcing Solace as Kong’s Newest Premium Technology Partner

[News](/blog)NewsFebruary 10, 2026

Kong is excited to announce Solace as the newest member of our Premium Technology Partner Program, a program designed to deliver high-quality, reliable integrations that provide real business value for customers. Together, Kong and Solace unify AP

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# Stay Vendor Agnostic: Using an Abstraction Layer to Navigate Acquisitions

[Enterprise](/blog)EnterpriseDecember 12, 2025

The challenges of an acquisition frequently appear in a number of critical areas, especially when dealing with a platform as important as Kafka: API Instability and Change : Merged entities frequently rationalize or re-architect their services, whic

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# What is Apache Kafka? Guide for Beginners

[Learning Center](/blog)Learning CenterDecember 8, 2025

Apache Kafka is a distributed, fault-tolerant, high-throughput event-streaming platform. LinkedIn originally developed it to handle massive data pipelines. The Apache Software Foundation now maintains this open-source project. The Commit Log Mental

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[](https://konghq.com/blog/learning-center/apache-kafka)

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