My notes after AWS Community Day NL 2024

Last week we organized our annual AWS Community Day NL. Everyone was very positive, so I’m really curious about the anonymous feedback. I just sent the thank you e-mail. Many people asked me if I enjoyed the event, and can only say: YES! But also, to be honest, it was a lot of work and I need a few weeks to recharge now. Time that isn't there, because of the re:Invent session deadline Oct 18. A way to recharge for me is by putting something on paper, which I did again. Sometimes I keep the notes for myself, and sometimes I publish it for anyone who's interested. I publish it now, and would be great to talk about it, after Oct 18.

Based on the feedback of last year, we changed a couple of things in 2024 and we appreciate your feedback to do better in 2025. Initially, I thought to address some things in the keynote, but decided to keep it short as it was already too long. Here we go.

Less applause and more tech in the keynote

In 2023, during the opening session, the applauses and thank you moments were considered “too much”. This year, we addressed the same topics, such as highlighting the speakers, sponsors, organizers, diversity & inclusion. But, we didn’t built-up towards an applause. I was afraid it would be awkward, but it turned out much better than expected. I think we managed to find a better balance. There were also comments about the keynote content of 2023, because it wasn’t considered technical enough while most of you are developers/engineers. We started to look for more technical leaders and found Tim and Kieren, who could dive a little deeper into their tech stack, choices made, behind the scenes, experiences with AWS. Hopefully this was a step in the right direction. Of course we hope to find a single “keynote speaker”. We had one from AWS lined up for 2023 and 2024, but they cancelled (no further details to avoid any blame, it was for good reasons).

Is it even a “keynote”?

I’m still struggling with the name for the opening and closing sessions. Were they “keynotes”, “main stage events”, “opening/closing sessions” or “panel discussions”? I’m not a keynote speaker myself, I don’t even claim to be a “public speaker”. Although I regularly do talks in public at events and conferences such as AWS re:Invent, so that might change. I do my best, I try to learn from it, improve every time, and also try to enjoy it more. It’s challenging, exciting and exhausting, so I’ve a lot of respect for public speakers. I also made a promise to myself in 2020 which never disappeared: I’m doing the kick-off of the keynote of community day. I’m happy to delegate a lot while organizing the event, but some things are non-negotiable. I do appreciate all the help I got from amazing co-speakers. I was even OK with letting Angelina interviewing Werner Vogels, a question I often get. Of course I would like to do it myself, but that wouldn’t be a great performance and that’s what also counts. This year, I was happy Milou helped me out on stage. I couldn't do it alone. I needed a ‘co-presenter’ and it had be a female from our community.

Diversity, Political Statements, Activism

Last year, someone referred to me as an 'activist.' I was a little surprised by the label, but I welcome the feedback. After all, we’re part of a community that values free speech. This year, again, we were able to have more females than males in the keynotes (opening & closing combined). It remains challenging to find enough female speakers for the breakout sessions. We’re an inclusive community, and if we forget about it, female representation will decline. So I continue taking action on this issue, while perhaps steering clear of being labeled as an 'activist.’ I also learned a lot from one of our first keynote speakers in 2020. They mentioned they would withdraw unless I increased the diversity of speakers. I think that's a reasonable request, though it can be challenging as the event organizer. Here my personal rule of having at least one female speaker at a meetup was born.

Being hero

In 2023, I received feedback that 'Martijn talked a bit too much about being an AWS Hero.' I'm sorry if it came across that way—my intentions were different. I contribute a lot to the community, without wanting or expecting anything in return. Since it wasn’t recorded, I can’t review exactly what I said, but my message was meant to be: If you want to become a Hero, we’re here to help. I’m here to help. The community is here for you! We provide a platform to present, peers to collaborate with, coaching, and feedback, all for free! And remember to enjoy the journey—earning the Hero title shouldn’t be the end goal. My best advice is: Don’t chase the Hero or Builder title unless you genuinely enjoy the responsibilities that come with it.

Not all feedback helps

Every year, we got constructive feedback about the location, facilities and food. Facilities are often found OK. For the venue we often get impossible feedback: "free parking and close to a train station in a large city like Amsterdam/Utrecht…" Or, "max 1-hour drive for everyone in NL, without traffic jams on their route". And about the meals: "premium food and many choices/kitchens and less waste, less sponsors". The venue and catering are the most expensive part of our budget. Organizers and crew are all volunteers, and for some work we hire an professional event-organizer, because some things must be done by pros. AWS doesn’t pay anything, so we need all budget from sponsors. We often need to make a decision: are we going to upgrade venue/food/side-activities or do we invite more people to attend? We often choose for more people! In 2024, we even decided to spend all our savings from previous events. Yes, we’re now almost bankrupt. But that’s fine.

What’s the budget for an event like this?

To give you a little more insights on the budget. The average budget from last 3 years was €200 per attendee. That’s a lot more than a meetup for example, but a bit less than events like the AWS Summit or AWS re:Invent. If we find 10 sponsors paying an average of 5K, we can invite 50.000/200 = 250 attendees. In 2022 and 2023, we were able to invite almost everyone who was interested. This year, we had 650+ pre-registrations. We only had room for 350 (venue- and budget-wise). So, we couldn’t invite everyone which was for me the most disappointing thing this year.

How many people can we invite?

We decided to invite as many people as possible in a fair invitation process. Eventually 430 people registered and (should have) received a ticket. We expected ~40 would cancel (or have a valid reason not to come). We expected ~40 no-shows. No-shows are people who signed up, and never had the intention to come or to cancel. They hold tickets, just in case they have nothing else to do. This year, we had 320 unique attendees. We expected a 15% no-show (430-365)/430 and it appeared to be ~25% (430-320)/430. Which is a bit higher compared to last years, because at these events we had a very low no-show (far below 10%!). [Edit: if you process the cancellations (430-40-320)/430 = 16%, it's just 6% more than expected, which was good]. If we had lower than 10% no-show this year, 430*90%+1-350=38 attendees above max capacity… That would mean: longer queues for drinks / meals, not enough food / choice. And what if we registered more people for the event combined with a low no-show: 480*90%+1-350=83…? I think we did the best we could inviting as many as possible community members.

Summary and statistics of AWS Community Day NL

In 2020 we had 1000 registrations and 600 unique visitors at the online event. In 2022, with Werner Vogels on stage, we welcomed 475 attendees in De Rijtuigenloods in Amersfoort. In 2023, in TivoliVredenburg, 399 were present. All events, sponsors and statistics are on our website: awscommunityday.nl. As of 2024, also the speakers/sessions will remain available and that will happen for next editions as well.

This year we had 650 people pre-registered, they are "interested to come". We invited most of them and 430 received a ticket of which 320 checked-in at the event. There were 15 sponsors, of which 11 also had a booth and 4 had a breakout session. Actually even more, because some sponsors also got a breakout session through the official CFP process. There were about 40 speakers at the event, distributed across 5 cinema rooms and 1 silent-disco.

Conclusion

We’ll start organizing 2025 soon. We expect more speaker proposals, some great keynote speakers, and more attendees. The event location will probably be a cinema again, because the AV is great, the venues are quite flexible, for example to expand or shrink the event, or even to cancel the event. Things that I expect to change next year: 1) We’re looking for a real keynote presenter. 2) We’ll aim for 500 attendees next year. 3) We’re not sure if we’ll provide free meals next year, to save costs. 4) Sponsors can get a base sponsor package and choose various add-ons. 5) The networking and drinks is a great sponsor opportunity, and again is a great cost saving for us! 6) We open a ‘stay-tuned’ sign-up form soon, so stay tuned. Everyone who signs-up will receive an invite to register a few weeks before the official registration opens.