2018 - The first ever AWS Community Day in Sydney, Australia
I was presenting about AWS IoT and Amazon Sumerian during my AWS customer days. I was so nervous, and did pretty much the full rehearsal at the stage with all my memorised lines.
I remember the "community spirit" and how everyone including volunteers, AWS partners and AWS staff worked as one to get this event off the ground. It changed the trajectory of my career, as it was the catalyst to me joining AWS to give back to the community and mentioned this in my interview at AWS. I met many AWS Solutions Architects (now ex-AWS) and now AWS Heroes and Community Builders there.
2019 - AWS Community Day in Melbourne
This event was bigger than the 1st one and exactly 4 weeks before I joined AWS. I remember awkwardly telling my boss at the time who also traveled to attend this event, that I've decided to join AWS as an Associate Solutions Architect. What was memorable from that event was that Kris was talking at this event (unfortunately I can't recall what topic it was), and there was a panel session with diverse women speaking about their experience in tech which was relatable.
Fast forward to March-April 2025
It all started with an announcement from Alan that this year’s community day after a hiatus of many years (2177 days!), is going to be in Brisbane.
I got super excited and sent through quite a few suggestions for the speaker expression of interest back in March/April and was lucky to be selected.
May-August 2025
My talk for revolutionising drones with Amazon Bedrock got selected!
Speaker prep (insert Rocky theme here)
- After that, it was the usual presentation prep cycle that I did back at AWS.
- Come up with a rough idea for my slides (really basic dot points to begin with).
- Start creating proper visuals for my slides.
- Think about where and what demo to put in and build that demo.
- Record that demo, re-record it, edit to a reasonable length.
- Start writing dot points around the talk track.
- Actually practice out aloud, scrap the talk track, start again.
- Keep practicing eventually without any speaker notes with just the visuals - rinse and repeat.
2 weeks out, Stephen sent me a Slack message to ask if I wanted to be on the Community Day panel as well.
Of-course, my answer was yes!
I set on the way to Brisbane and because I somehow have nightmares of being late to meetings and conferences, I stayed overnight in Brisbane so I can be there at the Brisbane Convention Center nice and early.
I met up with the AWS Community Day crew including volunteers and speakers for the pre-party. It was great to see some old and new friends in the community. I left early so I can go and practice some more.
T-0 - AWS Community Day
Woke up at 5:30AM, got ready, practiced my talk again and the panel responses. Headed on my way across the bridge to get a Nodo Donut for breakfast.
Turned up around 7:30AM at the Brisbane Exhibition Centre.
There was a flurry of activity but patiently waiting for testing my laptop on the stage and get logistics around microphones etc.
The day started off with a blast with the keynote with Alan Blockley and his ode to Brisbane and the rest of Australia with what makes a community special.
What I got was that it’s not just about knowledge and skills on AWS but the spirit of helping others so that this event is successful.
I can hear the passion in his voice around bringing this community day to Brisbane and all the effort that the team of volunteers and sponsors put in.
And what a day! Big thanks to Alan Blockley, Michael Kingsley, Arjen, Lucy, Jade, Stephen, Mark P, countless AWS partners and sponsors for all the blood sweat and tears! I can imagine that there must have been so much planning that went on after-hours to get this off the ground.
Jason’s session talking about the Ibis aka Bin Chicken being the mascot of the Brisbane User Group got me in stitches!
Despite being in Brisbane myself, I forgot about the iconic Bin Chicken = AWS User Group.
Also the BBS from back in the day, brought back some memories from way back with racking up 100s of dollars on my parent’s phone bills on a dial-up modem.
Then it was the Community Day panel session with Dmytro, Jason and I with Stephen as the moderator.
Stephen, who is also an AWS Hero did a great job of moderating our panel session with the questions to the right person at the right time and did it with a natural flow. I commend him on continuing to give back to the community by giving guidance and opportunities for speakers across diverse backgrounds within the AWS Community.
I was really interested in hearing from Dmytro about his journey from Ukraine to Australia to leading the AWS Gold Coast User Group as an introvert.
The introvert part, I can really relate to as well and I’m sure others will too.
I’ve been to the GC User Group myself, and I highly recommend to drop by even if you’re visiting on holidays.
How Jason was able to build out the Community from AWS Builders and how they can be awarded the golden jacket through official means.
Soon after, it was my turn on the stage.
I was glad that I was able to articulate my main points around how drones can revolutionise disaster recovery in the real sense using AWS.
My emphasis was around “drones for good” for the community as sometimes it can literally be weaponised.
Looks like Kiro was the hot topic for the day with other speakers. I made a note to myself that I’ll change up the content a bit for any future iterations of the talk.
Nevertheless, I was relieved that I finished my panel and session, so I was much more relaxed after that.
In between the sessions, I was busy catching up with current and former AWS folks, and talked about the good old days.
It brought back a lot of nostalgia around when we all rallied around and built something for customers, purely because we care.
We still have that startup mentality inside and that special AWS LP of “Think Big” that excites us even for those have since left AWS.
Speaking of which, it was Kris’s talk about “Chat GPT did not write this talk”. It was a very thought-provoking session, that made me re-think the use of gen AI in certain settings. How can we use AI for good while trying to be authentic?
What makes humans be our messy, imperfect selves?
Somehow John Legend’s song comes into my mind “with your perfect imperfections…”.
The last session was with Derek and Mike. It started off with an intro video about the 3 little bears which was super creative.
Then there were Minecraft references. I didn’t expect snippets of news articles in between with different opinions for and against and in-between the gen AI bandwagon.
I won’t give too many spoilers, but you’re going to have to check out the YouTube video when it comes out.
I said to both Derek and Mike, you guys need to do more sessions together because I loved it!
The closing keynote by Alan left us all warm and fuzzy thanking all of us, including the volunteers, partners and speakers and the community for making this day the best day ever - after 18 months of planning.
I’m keen to help for the next community day as a volunteer next time.
Let me know, and I’ll travel to help this AWSome crew.
We always say find your tribe… Looks like I found mine.
You might find yours if you go to your local AWS Community Day or User Group.
Top comments (1)
This was such a heartfelt and energizing read. It’s amazing how community events like AWS Community Day can shape not just careers, but identities turning nerves into purpose and connections into lifelong impact. Your story captures the essence of what makes these gatherings special: not just the tech, but the people, the shared laughter (Bin Chicken!), and the quiet moments of growth behind the scenes. The way you’ve evolved from rehearsing lines to leading panels and driving meaningful conversations around “drones for good” is inspiring. Thanks for sharing the behind-the-scenes it’s a reminder that community is built one brave talk, one donut-fueled morning, and one generous gesture at a time.