AWS User Group Finland re:Invent 2025 re:Cap at Vivicta

The first AWS User Group Finland meetup of 2026 followed tradition with a re:Invent recap event. Niklas Liljestrand hosted the evening at Vivicta’s venue in Espoo, and 52 people came out to hear about what went down at re:Invent 2025. I took the stage to kick things off, and one of the attendees described what I did as “lively” – I guess that sums it up quite well.

Victor Morales opened the presentations with a talk on DRY ideas for using Terraform, which sparked some great conversation about infrastructure-as-code patterns. Then we had a special guest all the way from Sweden: Gunnar Grosch, who shared his favorite new features from AWS. Gunnar always brings a thoughtful perspective on what actually matters among the flood of announcements, and this time was no different.

Rather than just repeating the keynote headlines, both speakers dug into the details that matter for real-world AWS usage. New service announcements are exciting, but understanding how they fit into existing architectures is where the real value lies. The Q&A sessions after each talk turned into genuine conversations with the audience.

These events are always about the community and the people. I left Helsinki that evening with a full heart. Vivicta and Niklas did a great job hosting, and the Espoo venue attracted some attendees from the western side of the capital region. A strong start to another year of meetups, and based on the energy in the room, 2026 is shaping up to be just as active as the year before.