Introduction:
Back in 2022 at the AWS Community event in Bangkok, when I first heard Hidetoshi San and Shun San present their talk about Jaws Pankration event held in 2021, I knew I had to be part of this incredible event.
Here’s a detailed account of my experience and the impressive organization behind JAWS Pankration 2024.
What is JAWS Pankration?
It's a 24-hour virtual event hosted by the Japan AWS User Group in a follow-the-sun format. It features AWS enthusiasts and experts from around the world sharing knowledge and best practices.
This year the event was conducted from 24th Aug,2024 3:00 AM (GMT) to 25th Aug, 2024 3:00 AM(GMT).
Event Page: https://jawspankration2024.jaws-ug.jp/en/
Submission and Selection:
The Call for Papers (CFP) was announced in late May, with a submission deadline of June 30. I submitted two topics and was thrilled to receive notification by July 10 that my session, "Cloudy with a Chance of Precision: Deploying Scalable Weather Forecasting Apps on AWS EKS," was selected.
This year the committee had received 146 submissions in response to the CFP for almost 70 available session slots. In the final list of sessions there were speakers from 25 countries, some even giving sessions in their native language.
The complete time table was posted on the Pankration website by 12th Jul, 2024:
https://jawspankration2024.jaws-ug.jp/en/timetable/
Preparation and Communication:
Slack Channel: Upon selection, I joined the event’s Slack channel for communication with the committee.
Swag Coordination: The team efficiently handled swag distribution, overcoming international shipping challenges and ensuring timely delivery. The swag included a Prairie card—a digital business card for easy networking.
The team published news articles for important announcements, one such about the use of Prairie card is available here:
https://jawspankration2024.jaws-ug.jp/en/news/la8ky_-d2yp/
Promotion: The committee provided promotional materials and a speaker map created using AWS Location services.
Speaker Map: https://speakermap.jawspankration2024.jaws-ug.jp/
The commitment and the technological innovation shown in planning and execution of each stage of this event was phenomenal.
Technical and Logistical Details:
Translation Environment: This year, the team built a solution utilizing AWS IVS and Translate services for real-time translation and distribution. A demo site helped us practice before the event.
All speakers were supplied with instructions for connecting to the final streaming env and a do's and don'ts list.
Translation Architecture published by Jaws Team:
https://jawspankration2024.jaws-ug.jp/en/news/7__wsyicbqsy/
An awesome 30 second video was created by the team to be played just before the speaker introduction and after the presentation was completed.
https://x.com/jawsdays/status/1826598303662023076
Final Preparations: We were required to complete our sessions within 15 minutes and allowed 5 minutes for Q&A. I prepared my presentation, ensuring all AWS resources(ECR,EKS,ALB) were correctly set up and running
Event Day:
Pre-Talk: On August 24, 2024, my talk was scheduled for 2:30 PM IST. The event started at 8:00 AM IST. I joined the Speaker waiting room via Voice Ping at 2:00 PM IST, where I was welcomed by Ai Hayakawa San speaking in Japanese, at my end I could see the Japanese text being translated real time into English.
Live Session: On logging into the Zoom, Masanori San welcomed me and after few system checks, friendly conversation & a countdown, I delivered my presentation within the stipulated time. The meticulous planning by the team made the session delivery a breeze.
Post-Talk: For answering any Q&A , I re-joined the "Ask The Speaker" room in Voice Ping where I could experience the real time translation magic again while catching up with Shun San!
The entire event broadcast allowed subtitles in viewer's preferred language.
On the same day, an accurate summary of my talk was published by the Pankration team powered by Amazon Bedrock.
Conclusion:
The dedication and innovation shown by the JAWS Pankration team were remarkable. The event’s execution and the support provided to speakers exemplify excellent organisation. I’m grateful for the opportunity to participate and contribute to this fantastic global event.
In the subsequent blog posts, I would be documenting technical details behind the preparation for my talk on the event day. So stay tuned!
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