AWS Finland - re:Invent 2022 Keynote Watch Party

re:Invent is the highlight of the AWS calendar, and not everyone can make the trip to Las Vegas. So we did the next best thing – a keynote watch party right here in Helsinki. Organized together with AWS, Nordcloud, Intel, Fortinet, and HashiCorp, we gathered at the AWS office to watch CEO Adam Selipsky’s keynote live from Las Vegas.

The evening started at 16:00 with a welcome, followed by sponsor talks from 16:20 to 17:20 where Nordcloud, Intel, Fortinet, and HashiCorp each shared their perspectives and latest offerings. After an activity session and a break, the main event began at 18:30 – the live keynote stream running until 20:30. 80 people showed up and there is something about reacting to new service launches and feature drops in real time with a room full of people who actually care about this stuff. The energy is different from watching alone at home.

The structured format worked well. The sponsor talks in the first half gave attendees practical content and a chance to engage with the partner companies, while the live keynote in the second half delivered the big announcements everyone was waiting for. Having representatives from all five organizations on site meant there were plenty of knowledgeable people to discuss the announcements with as they happened.

This was the perfect way to close out the 2022 meetup season. Looking back at the year, we went from regional events in Jyvaskyla to reactivating live meetups post-pandemic, broke the 100-attendee mark twice, and wrapped it all up with a re:Invent watch party. A strong year for the AWS Finland User Group.