São Paulo has a new home for builders. I left thinking about what we could build together. On the evening of October 29, the talks, conversations and community encounters at the AWS Builder Loft São Paulo opening left me with a welcome feeling: many people are ready to learn, share what they know and help an idea become something real.
Fernando Azevedo
What I took home from that evening
As a solutions architect and an AWS Community Builder in AI Engineering, I spend much of my time connecting real problems with solutions that work. Good architecture takes questions, context and a willingness to reconsider choices. A good community needs those things too.
That was what excited me most that evening. Being with people who want to create makes room for conversations that are difficult to fit into a presentation or a quick exchange of messages. A question reaches someone who has faced the problem before. One person's experience gives someone else the confidence to begin. An idea gains a second perspective.
I left happy to have been part of this beginning and keen to keep contributing. The collage accompanying this piece preserves some of that memory: the talks, people gathering, the space and the small details that make an encounter memorable.
A place designed for continuity
The idea behind the Loft was already present in the official AWS announcement of the expansion to Berlin, Hyderabad and São Paulo: permanent spaces for learning, collaboration and community activities. For São Paulo, the announcement highlights connections with local communities, universities and startup networks.
That continuity matters. Having somewhere to return gives a conversation a next chapter. Someone can arrive with a question, try an approach and come back with what worked, or what needs to change. Knowledge travels with the people involved.
I see particular value in bringing beginners together with people who have production experience. Beginners ask questions that make us explain things better. People who have dealt with incidents and difficult decisions can share the precautions that do not always appear in a demonstration.
A conversation can become a partnership. A question can open the way to a solution.
Fernando Azevedo
Why this matters for Brazil
In my view, a space like this can connect people working on similar challenges who have not yet met. Developers, architects, students, data professionals, security specialists and founders have much to learn from one another. Bringing those perspectives together makes it easier to understand the problem before choosing the technology.
I also see an opportunity to create more knowledge grounded in our own circumstances. Costs, operations, accessibility, team development and the needs of Brazilian users belong in technical discussions. Sharing those experiences in Portuguese helps more people participate; publishing them in English as well broadens the exchange with the global community.
The work can reach beyond people who are able to be physically present in São Paulo. A gathering can lead to a public repository, an accessible guide, a recording or an account that explains a decision. That is how I imagine the Loft's energy reaching other cities too: through useful materials, collaboration between groups and people willing to carry ideas forward.
What I would like to bring to the table
I want to contribute what I have been studying and building in architecture, cloud and artificial intelligence, and learn from people with different experiences. In AI Engineering, I see room for sessions where we examine a real solution: the problem it solves, its limits, how to test it, what it costs to operate and what happens when it fails.
One idea would be a hands-on session about agent tools, using a small example that anyone can reproduce. Another would be an architecture discussion where the group compares alternatives and records the decision. These are ideas I would like to develop with the community, not activities already scheduled at the Loft.
My open AWS architecture MCP, architecture studies and blog articles can provide starting points. The best outcome would be someone testing an example, finding a limitation, asking a better question and helping us improve the material.
From an encounter to a next step
For someone just starting out, my invitation is simple: bring a real question. You do not need a finished project or knowledge of every service. Explaining what you tried and where you got stuck is already a good start to a conversation.
For those with more experience, it is worth bringing the difficult choices too: the alternative you rejected, the unexpected cost, the failure that changed the design. These accounts help others move forward with a clearer understanding.
When a conversation produces an idea, we can choose a small next step: write an example, review a diagram, test a hypothesis or open a repository discussion. Recording what we learn and crediting contributors keeps the encounter going. AWS Builder Center and AWS User Groups offer ways to continue that exchange. To attend future in-person activities, check the announcements and registration details for the local edition.
Thank you for being part of this beginning
My thanks to the AWS team for the invitation and organization, to the speakers, AWS Heroes, community leaders and everyone who took part in that evening. It was a pleasure to be there with you.
I left AWS Builder Loft São Paulo grateful and eager to keep the conversation going. I want to continue contributing alongside AWS builders, users and customers, sharing what I learn and listening to the problems we still need to solve.
What idea, challenge or project would you bring to the table? It could be an unanswered question, a prototype that needs another perspective or a topic you would like to teach. Let's start there.
Let's learn, share and build together. There is much to look forward to in the AWS community in Brazil.
Background and ways to stay involved
Originally published at fernando.moretes.com. By Fernando F. Azevedo: Senior Solutions Architect.
Top comments (0)