Hey everyone! I recently had the opportunity to attend the Docker Captains Summit.
This year, it took place in June 2024 in Lisbon, Portugal. There were approximately 50 captains, including the fantastic Docker staff: the DevRel team and the product engineering team.
I was excited to learn about the newest and hottest features in Docker technologies and to give feedback on these features. It was also an intensive two-day event where we created content and learned as much as possible from other captains looking for collaboration opportunities.

Note: If you prefer a more visual recap, check out the video I made about our Captain Summit on YouTube. Enjoy!

Here's a quick look at the exciting topics we covered at the summit.

DevRel and Docker

We learned how the DevRel team at Docker operates and their behind-the-scenes initiatives.
The team also shared details about the benefits and contributions a Docker Captain can make. The networking opportunities and the chance to contribute back to the community stood out to me. As for contributions, they are very open and unique to each captain. They can choose between developing, creating content (videos, blogging, podcasts), doing demos, or speaking at conferences. There is no pressure, and it's open to creativity for all captains. It’s what I love the most!

This was one of the talks I delivered at the Umbraco Codegarden Conference in Denmark after the Docker Captain’s Summit, where I shared about Docker, Kubernetes and Operators. Additionally, I briefly provide an overview of how these technologies give rise to Percona Everest, a platform to manage databases on Kubernetes using a GUI.

You can learn more about becoming a Docker Captain in the Docker Captains Program and check out these different ways to get involved in Docker community programs.

Speed networking

One of the goals of this activity was to find common tech interests for future collaborations. I met around 10 Docker captains, and we shared interests in various tech stacks. My goal is to collaborate with captains who create content about databases, containers, and Kubernetes. We compiled three or more potential collaborations from these interactions, including blogs, videos, and podcasts. I found three opportunities for cooperation:

• Michael Yuan, maintainer of the Cloud-native WebAssembly project
• Nirmal Mehta, Principal Specialist Solutions Architect at Amazon Web Services (AWS)
• Julien Maitrehenry, Cloud Architect at Solutions Kumojin

We have so many exciting collaboration ideas, but we had to pick just a few of the best ones due to time!

Some results from the captains' collaborations are already live. For example, you can see Bret Fisher and Nirmal Mehta on Cloud Native DevOps: Live Q&A (Stream 272).

I also connected with more Docker Captains from South America: Yhary Estefania Arias, Rossana Suarez, and Camilla Martins - exceptional Docker Captains.

Testcontainers: hands-on demo

We had a fantastic presentation by Oleg Šelajev, where we did a demo with Testcontainers.

Testcontainers is an open-source framework for providing throwaway, lightweight instances of databases, message brokers, web browsers, or anything that can run in a Docker container.

Testcontainers can work with any database. I was curious about integrating Percona databases with Testcontainers and asked Oleg about it, this as his answer:

MySQL and Percona Server for MySQL likely work with the same MySQLContainer if:

• The images use the same command to start the database.
• Configuration files are in the exact location.
• The database port matches.
• The waiting strategy is the same (usually based on a log pattern like "database is ready").

And here are the things we can test with databases:

• Connection Tests
• CRUD Operations
• Schema Validation
• Transaction Management
• Performance Testing
• Data Integrity Tests
• Backup and Restore Tests

If you want to learn and are curious about Testcontainers, check out the Getting Started demo and join the Slack community.

Hack Days

We did different activities like coding, testing, social media content creation - anything where we could feel comfortable and show our creativity 🎨 ,
This activity was fascinating because it completely differed from what we do daily on the computer. These activities required creativity, provided an opportunity to overcome fear of the camera, and encouraged teamwork.

You can see Tobias Fenster in this Docker TikTok trend.

AI/ML Talk Working Group and Product Feedback Session

There were also opportunities to participate in the AI/ML Talk Working Group, where we discussed how AI/ML teams work, the tooling ecosystem, and the application development status in this AI era. We also discussed the Docker Extension for GitHub Copilot, where the team showed a very nice demo, as described in the previous link.

The team also provided opportunities for us to give product feedback on several products:

• Docker Scout Roadmap
• Docker Desktop
• Docker Hub
• Docker Testcontainers
• Docker Scout
• Docker Build Cloud

You can join in the Docker Public Roadmap and share your feedback

Boat Ride

I almost forgot about our fun boat ride in Lisbon. This was so much fun!! Really fun! :)

Ayacucho Docker Moby met the Docker Captains

I took Moby, the Ayacucho version from Peru, to meet other Docker captains. And well, Moby found a new home.

Conclusion

Attending the Docker Captains Summit came at the perfect time for me. It was like a refreshing break from my daily activities, and I found a family there. Everyone was really friendly to each other—we laughed, ate a lot, and collaborated.
What I will cherish the most are the happiness, comfort, and personal lessons I learned from all the captains. Thanks, Docker and all the captains, for making this possible! I'm waiting for the Docker Captains’ Summit 2025!