AWS User Group Finland September Meetup - Sponsored by Yle

After the summer break, we gathered at Yle’s Iso Paja on Radiokatu in Helsinki for the September meetup. Yle, Finland’s national broadcasting company, was our first sponsor for the autumn season, and I was happy to see the community come back strong with about 69 people joining us. It felt like a proper kickoff for the new meetup season.

Rolf Koski opened the evening with a welcome and overview of what was new in the AWS world. Then Ilari Oras took the stage to talk about AWS and IPv6 with a hint of EKS – a topic that might sound dry on paper but turned out to be surprisingly engaging, especially as more teams start thinking seriously about IPv6 adoption. Niklas Westerstrahle closed out the presentations with a talk on the art of finetuning generative AI for images, which was the kind of creative and technically deep content that gets people excited.

I had been looking forward to this one for a while. When we announced the event and opened RSVPs two weeks ahead, the spots filled quickly. We also had speaker slots available for anyone interested, which is something we try to encourage every season to keep the content fresh and community-driven.

Iso Paja is a great venue for this kind of event. The space worked well for both the presentation portion and the networking afterward. Yle provided food and drinks, and the post-talk discussions went on for a good while.

Thank you to Yle for opening their doors and sponsoring the evening. Having the Finnish national broadcaster as our season opener was a strong start, and it set the tone nicely for the rest of the autumn.