During my visit to the AWS Summit in Stockholm last year, I was impressed by the Community Lounge’s display of Nordic AWS User Groups on a single map. This sparked a question: why doesn’t our region have something similar? While Prague’s Cloud Days featured a community lounge, it only showcased User Groups from the Czech Republic and Slovakia. As the saying goes, “If the mountain doesn’t go to Muhammad, Muhammad goes to the mountain” – so I decided to take action. 🏃♂️
From Inspiration to Action
Upon returning from Stockholm, I began organizing the joint community. After researching existing groups, I noted successful regional collaborations like AWS Community DACH (covering Germany, Austria and Switzerland), the Nordics (encompassing Sweden, Finland, Norway, and Denmark), and Adria (covering Adriatic countries). Central and Eastern European countries clearly lacked this type of collaboration.
Assembling the Team
A good idea attracts strong partners naturally. I immediately reached out to my friends from Slovakia (Michael Salenci, Lydia Delyova) and Romania (Lucian Patian), who enthusiastically joined. It became evident that a joint organization would benefit our region tremendously. Michal helped bring Linda onboard – one of the region’s most active community members and an AWS Hero who also serves as the chairwoman of AWS Community DACH, bringing valuable expertise. Paula Kis, Oleksii Bebyc, Traian Ciobanu and Urban Jurca also happily accepted my invitation. Our community now includes six member countries: Austria 🇦🇹, Croatia 🇭🇷, Moldova 🇲🇩, Romania 🇷🇴, Slovenia 🇸🇮, Slovakia 🇸🇰, Hungary 🇭🇺, and Ukraine 🇺🇦.
Identity and Branding
Finding the right name proved challenging. I initially considered “AWS Community Danubian” but questioned whether we could effectively manage such a vast region, especially with potential overlaps with Adria and DACH. During the ExecLeaders dinner, I discussed this with Piotr Gralec, an AWS sales representative with extensive regional knowledge, who recommended sticking with “AWS Community CEE” – an advice I gladly accepted. 🫶
Inaugural Community Day Event
What better way to introduce our community than with a joint Community Day? My vision is to host AWS Community Day CEE in a different participating country each year. While I was open to any location, everyone suggested Budapest, Hungary for our inaugural event. Although organizing an event at this scale is a considerable challenge, I’m thankful that I can draw upon the experience and lessons learned from previous local Community Days to make it successful.
I am happy to announce that AWS Community Day CEE will take place in Budapest on Thursday, October 16. I’ve already secured an impressive lineup of speakers, including Massimo Re Ferre (Director of Product Management in Next Generation Developer Experience) and Maria Encinar (Global User Group Manager for AWS). This promises to be an exceptional event, and we welcome everyone to participate. Visit awscommunity.eu for more information.
I’m delighted to see this regional community come to life. I’ve always believed in the power of collaboration and am thankful to the regional User Group Leaders supporting this initiative. 🙌