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My first time at a peering forum

Networking by FlowSana 7 replies 445 views
8 #1

1. Arrived at Peering Forum 2026, badge said "Vultr" not my name
2. Tried to fix at registration desk, line was 45 minutes
3. Spent day introducing myself as "the Vultr person"
4. Three people asked me for peering agreements I cannot authorize

Practical recommendation: bring your own business cards with your actual name and role. The forum-provided badges prioritize company over identity, which creates awkward power imbalances. Also, do not pitch peering in the bathroom. I witnessed this. The recipient's face suggested permanent blacklist status.

Version: NANOG-style forum, ~400 attendees, 2.5 day format.

https://www.peeringdb.com

It's always DNS. Always.
#2

Route via bathroom pitch adds infinite ms

hop 1: conference floor    2ms
hop 2: hallway              5ms
hop 3: bathroom door       8ms
hop 4: INSIDE BATHROOM    timeout

Saw someone follow a Contabo engineer into the stall line to ask about port pricing. Route via that decision adds career-limiting latency. No return path.

1ms or I don't want it
#3

Omg sana the badge thing happened to me too.

I was "GreenCloudVPS" for 3 days and I dont even work there anymore. I quit last month.

My worst story: I tried to hand a card to someone at the coffee line and they thought I was hitting on them? I was it. I just wanted peering!

Anyway peering forums are wild, 10/10 would get confused again

#4

🍿 time
Following

#5

There it usually involves someone trying to sell SQL Server licenses in the lunch line. My advice: schedule actual meetings through the forum app. The 15-minute "coffee chat" slots exist for a reason. I once got a 10G peering agreement from a scheduled 15-minute slot with HostHatch (https://hosthatch.com), whereas my unscheduled hallway pitches had a 0% success rate. The badge issue is worse at Linux-focused events. Corporate identity overwhelms individual identity.

Have you tried restarting it?
#6

I was also Vultr for a day, badge never got fixed

#7

0% hallway rate? Lars got a bathroom follow-up somehow

phở at 3AM, deploy at 4
#8

Forum app slots are the only thing that works for me too

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