HashiDays London 2025: My First Trip as a HashiCorp Ambassador
HashiDays London 2025: My First Trip as a HashiCorp Ambassador
I’m proud to share that I’ve been selected as a HashiCorp Ambassador for 2025!. This recognition means a lot to me - not just as a personal milestone, but because it opens up amazing opportunities to connect with the global tech community. With only around 100 Ambassadors worldwide, I’ve made it my goal to meet as many of them as I can.
The perfect opportunity for that? HashiDays London 2025. As an Ambassador, I received a complimentary ticket (thanks, HashiCorp! 🙌), but all travel costs were on me. I’ve included a cost summary at the end of this post - could be useful if you’re wondering how much it costs to attend a one-day conference abroad.
Getting to London
Post-Brexit travel has a few extra steps, even for EU citizens. You need:
- A valid passport (ID was enough before)
- A UK ETA (Electronic Travel Authorisation) - costs £16
The ETA process was straightforward and quick, though the extra cost does add up, especially for short trips. On the plus side, it’s valid for two years, so I’m hoping this won’t be my last UK visit.
Travel Buddies & Exams
I wasn’t flying solo - my good friend Dominik joined me. After a 3 AM wake-up, we were off to the airport (too early, as always). That gave Dominik some time to prep for the on-site HashiCorp Terraform Associate exam - a really nice perk included with the conference pass. The exams were held the day before the main event.
With a few hours to spare before the exam, we hit up some of London’s iconic spots for a quick sightseeing tour.
Last time I was in London, Big Ben was under renovation. Not this time. 
Then it was time to get serious. The exam was hosted in a elegant, quiet, and well-organized room with proctors present.
Take your seat, open the link provided in instructions on your laptop and you are all set!
Pro tip: UK outlets are different, and of course, I forgot my adapter - but luckily they had spares. 😅
We both passed! 🎓
We walked out with digital certificates, some cool sticker badges, and even a neat metal pin. Honestly, I much prefer the in-person format - no webcam stress, no worrying about blinking too much. 
Pre-Event Meetup
After a lot of walking around the city and some delicious burgers in recommended restaurant, we met up with other Ambassadors and HashiCorp staff. First stop? A bar full of animal fursuits which was the main theme of the bar, related to it’s name - Jugged Hare. (yeah… not really my vibe)
Fortunately, we soon moved to a quieter venue where we had a proper reservation.
This second place was way better - less noise, more space, and I finally got to chat with almost everyone. We wrapped up the night with a friendly darts contest 🎯 and loads of great conversations. Such a fun start to the trip!
Congrats Wale Salami for winning the contest!
Conference Day
We arrived to the Brewery 30 minutes before the official start, however we were warmly welcomed.
At the registration desk we received:
- Name badges
- A swag bag with a Hashi-branded tote
- Organic cotton T-shirt
- “Clickers”
- Exam voucher
- Plus… Ambassador-only stickers 😎
Before the opening keynote, we grabbed coffee and breakfast. Big shoutout to the HashiCorp events and marketing team - everything was beautifully prepared, even visually. Really impressive attention to detail, with delcious food served on every break between sessions.
The clickers were really a thing! Ambassadors used are all the powers and social techniques to get as many of them as possible! It’s a keychain with, a HashiCorp button fitted on mechanical keyboard switch.
Mattias Fjellström got a lot of them!
The Keynote
Armon Dadgar (HashiCorp CTO and Co-founder) kicked off the day with a keynote full of exciting product updates and some insight into the post-IBM acquisition roadmap.
Notably, there’s going to be more love for mainframes - which makes sense, as mainframes aren’t going away any time soon, and good tooling for them is still hard to find in contrary to Kubernetes or cloud-native solutions.
Vault Radar GA
The announcement that resonated most with me? Vault Radar. It scans your data sources - Git repos, Slack, Teams, Confluence, S3 buckets, etc. - for secrets.
This isn’t some cutting-edge technology or AI magic… but honestly, it’s very needed. From my experience, secrets often slip into all the wrong places (yes, even in production repos). Vault Radar makes it easier to catch these leaks early, especially for organisations that are already using Vault - a win for security teams everywhere.
Sessions
There were two tracks - Engineering and Leadership. Sessions on leadership track were focused on how HashiCorp products can contribute to company goals and operational excellence, targeted to people on executive roles. Engineering track was packed with “how-to’s” and all deep dive details about implementing and using HashiCorp products in an effective manner.
Meeting the People Behind the Products
After the keynote, we had a chance to chat briefly with Armon. Despite being the CTO of a huge company, he felt incredibly approachable - like an engineer first, not a salesperson. Super genuine guy.
We also met more HashiCorp folks - many of whom flew in from the US just for this event. That adds to the cost, sure, but it seriously raises the quality. These weren’t random event staff - they were actual team members, deeply invested in their products and values.
We also caught up with some partners and attendees - shoutout to the team from Overmind, whose tool helps analyze the impact of Terraform changes. Great conversations all around.
Final Thoughts
HashiDays London was an amazing experience. The talks were solid, the people were friendly, and the energy was just right. I felt part of a true community.
Being an Ambassador isn’t just a badge - it’s a chance to engage with a network of professionals who care about the same things I do. This was just the beginning.
Cost Summary (from Poland)
| Item | Cost (GBP) |
|---|---|
| Flights (two-way) | 140 |
| UK ETA | 16 |
| Public transport in London | 20 |
| Accommodation (1 night) | 108 |
| Food | 55 |
| Conference Pass | 0 (worth 75) |
| total | 339 |
Thanks for reading! If you’re ever planning to attend HashiDays or wondering whether it’s worth the trip - my answer is a strong yes. I’ve made a few connections that are worth way more that money spent.
Feel free to reach out if you have any questions!
