This year's Kong [API Summit](https://konghq.com/events/conferences/api-summit)API Summit is no ordinary virtual conference. We are taking our attendees into the heart of San Francisco for an action-packed interactive event. This is not one you will want to save for later.

## Reasons to Attend Kong Summit

First and foremost, we have a packed agenda of industry experts that will go deep to help uplevel your skills in microservices, [service mesh](https://konghq.com/blog/learning-center/what-is-a-service-mesh)service mesh and kubernetes. You will also hear case studies and use cases that can help improve your company's technology initiatives.

In the spirit of our theme for 2021 – Developing the Connected World – we have hand selected the following presenters from a long list of submissions and requests. [Our agenda is now available to review](/conferences/kong-summit/sessions)Our agenda is now available to review.

Interact directly and in real-time with some of the industry's best and brightest. Chat with attendees, submit questions, and get them answered live. Here are a few of the featured customer and partner sessions to watch for.

Cargill will provide two of their best: *Colin Schaub* – Lead API Engineer and *Rob Hayes* – Senior Engineer – to share Cargill’s Experience With Lua and Go and how they Extended Kong via Custom Plugins.

*Ryan Swanson* will share how Vanguard leverages a combination of Kong and some open standards to protect all of their apps and services, how this pattern can improve the overall developer experience, and how you can do the same at your organization.

Intel's *Sakari Poussa* will discuss in which scenarios your service mesh will gain from the acceleration and how to deploy and configure your mesh to get the best possible performance.

Amazon Web Service cloud solutions architect, *Jason D’Souza*, will present how and why NAB runs Kong across both AWS and Azure, as well as demonstrate how quickly NAB can swap API traffic between AWS and Azure hosted workloads.

And AWS API Technologist and Strategist, *Emmelyn Wang*, gives us a look into the world of APIs, integration and low code. Emmelyn shares how DevOps would not exist without microservices, and business value would not exist without APIs and collaboration among key stakeholders.

## Bringing San Francisco to you

We were planning on a hybrid event, but in an overabundance of caution, we have decided to keep the event completely virtual. But we want to make sure you don't have to miss out on the San Francisco experience. That's why we are bringing San Francisco to you during Kong Summit 2021.

On top of all of the stellar content, we'll be bringing **local artists, musicians, and industry experts** to you throughout the two-day event. Enjoy iconic views of the San Francisco Bay from Kong's HQ where we'll have plenty of surprises in store — including a special live broadcast of our keynote session.

Make sure you join us live for a digital visit to the Bay, all from the safety of your kitchen table, home office, makeshift workspace, viewing party, or wherever you're watching from.

## Games and Prizes

**Come for the speakers, stay for the prizes.** If there wasn't already enough of a reason to watch our Summit live, here is one more. We are rewarding our attendees with a number of great prizes: from Apple AirTags, to Wifi Smart Locks and Waterproof Speakers, plus a number of gift cards. The more you interact during the event, the more points = prizes.

So what are you waiting for? Join us virtually September 28-29 for Kong Summit 2021 and let us bring San Francisco to you. Register now.