This is Hirachi, a regular member of Home NOC. From June 23 to 25, 2026, I attended Asia Peering Forum 2026 (APF 2026), held in Bali, Indonesia. As this was my first time attending a peering event, I felt nervous and a little anxious, but I was able to interact with many people and experience the atmosphere of the event firsthand, making it a very meaningful three days.
Members of Home NOC have previously attended APF 2023 and APF 2024 as well. For an overview of APF and reports from past attendances, please see We Attended Asia Peering Forum 2023 and We Attended Asia Peering Forum 2024.
Meet Your Peers (Day1 / Day3)
APF provides a mechanism called “Meet Your Peers” that offers a venue for negotiations between participating operators. You submit meeting requests in advance through the event’s dedicated portal, and once arrangements with the other operator are made, you can hold a one-on-one meeting of about 30 minutes. Day1 and Day3 are dedicated to Meet Your Peers, and it is the main content of the peering event.
A wide variety of operators participate in APF, but Home NOC has already established peering with many major operators through past peering events, so there were only a few operators left to establish new peering with. Therefore, given that the event was held in Indonesia, we focused our new-peering meeting requests mainly on Indonesian operators.
In addition, we researched candidate peers in advance and requested meetings with ASes whose sessions had been down for a long time after we once established peering, and ASes we were already connected to but had room for additional connections at IXes we had newly joined. We also talked with operators that could become potential suppliers of racks, circuits, and other resources for the overseas POPs Home NOC operates and the regions we would like to expand into.
As preparation before leaving Japan, we heard from members who had attended in the past, prepared simple presentation materials, analyzed PeeringDB information and past traffic, and organized the main topics we wanted to discuss.
It was my first time having one-on-one meetings in English, so I headed to the venue feeling quite nervous.
At the venue, tables with number plates were lined up, and the flow was that you would hold your meeting at the assigned table when your reserved time came.
In practice, there was also a lot of waiting time between meetings, and I often approached operators I was interested in directly to negotiate during those breaks. At the conferences I usually attend, I mostly listen to talks and chat at social gatherings, so this was my first event centered on meetings, and it had a unique atmosphere.
Conference (Day 2)
On Day 2, there were conference sessions with talks covering a wide range of topics, including backbone expansion involving submarine cables, international networks and interconnection, and the state of the Internet in Indonesia (such as the structure of the ISP market and the current connectivity environment).
Peering Personals
In addition to the sessions, there was a program called Peering Personal, where participants introduce their own AS. I had experienced Peering Personal at a domestic user group before, but this was my first time participating in English. Although I was nervous, I was able to finish my presentation successfully.
My Peering Personal presentation led to many opportunities to talk with other participants, making it a very valuable experience.
Social
At the end of each day, social events were held, providing opportunities for participants to interact. On Day0, there was Japan Night, a gathering of Japanese operators that we were kindly invited to by Equinix; on the evening of Day1, a barbecue by the beach; and on the evening of Day2, the official social event.
At the socials, we could talk casually with other participants rather than negotiating, and I was able to interact with many people, especially other operators from Japan.
It was a precious opportunity to talk with people working on peering and international connectivity, and I learned many things I could only hear there. I am still a newcomer to the networking industry, and the topics related to international interconnection in particular were extremely interesting to hear about. Thank you very much for inviting me to the dinner.
Outside of the social events as well, I had chances to chat between meetings about topics such as sightseeing in Bali, which helped us build closer relationships.
Closing
This was my first time attending a peering event, and it gave me a great deal of experience.
It was my first time negotiating face-to-face in English, and there were moments when the conversation stalled after I had said everything I had prepared in advance, so things did not always go as planned. I also felt my English skills were lacking; there were many times I could not catch what the other person said and had to ask them to repeat it.
I hope to improve my English and brush up my preparation, and to apply the lessons learned this time to future opportunities, whether at peering events or elsewhere.
Although many things did not go smoothly at my first peering event, I learned so much for the first time — the atmosphere of the event, the work of interconnection, and the circumstances of various countries — and I feel it was a truly rewarding experience.
Finally, I am deeply grateful to the many people who supported my participation. I look forward to continuing to work with you all.
