@rohini_gaonkar @ghumare64 @catchbox I used one at a meetup in Australia once! The challenge I found is that, well, not a lot of tech people are great at catching things thrown at them. 😂
Happy Oktoberfest! Round 2… ❤️🍺 @ Oktoberfest https://t.co/jpKhyDgQGO
Ich bin die Prinzessin. ❤️👸 @ Oktoberfest https://t.co/FDa396VHJz
RT @helenanders26: Thank you @web_goddess, @shafjag, and the AWS team for such a well-planned and executed event. I can’t wait for the next…
RT @ThePracticalDev: In this article I am going to share my experience of attending the first ever AWS Community Summit APAC 2022 and my fi…
Many thanks to my colleague Kame-san for the gift of some fancy ramen, which I enjoyed for lunch with the Moomin chopsticks I got in Thailand! 🍜 https://t.co/vJ23VdrWyG
Many thanks to my colleague Kame-san for the gift of some fancy ramen, which I enjoyed for lunch with the Moomin chopsticks I got in Thailand! 🍜
Taking the fam to Nuremberg… 🚄☀️ @ Munich, Germany https://t.co/f8FRRrPsys
Happy Oktoberfest! ❤️🍻 https://t.co/o7N0adJR64
RT @VividVoid_: I have eaten
the marshmallow
that was on
the table
and which
you were probably
saving
for your experiment
Forgive me
it…
Oktoberfest part 2! Folk dancing and beer and big crowds in the evening… 🍻🎶 https://t.co/Jc8F3NLbRe
I headed off earlier this week to Bangkok, Thailand to attend the first ever AWS APJ Community Summit. This event brought together 130 AWS Heroes, Community Builders, and User Group leaders for two days of learning, sharing, and networking.
It was about a 10 hour flight for me from Munich straight to Suvarnabhumi Airport in Bangkok.
I found a couple of my coworkers in the airport – Rohini and Mark! We agreed to carpool to the hotel together.
Unbeknownst to us, we were about to hit rush hour traffic so it took us more than an hour to get to the hotel. I had a great first view of the city though.
The event was being held at the Anantara Siam Hotel Bangkok, and wow, it did not disappoint. Rohini and I were invited to sit down and have some tea while they checked us in.
My room was lovely! I felt very welcomed. 🙂
It felt odd to be taking a trip without the Snook! I sent him a selfie to show him I’d arrived safely.
I was pretty hungry, so I headed downstairs to have dinner with my colleague Ridhima.
To my delight, we ran into a crowd of AWS Community folks from Australia and New Zealand! A few of them were familiar faces to me, but others I was meeting for the first time. For most of them, this was the first overseas trip since Covid.
The next morning, I headed out on a city tour with the full contingent of Aussies and Kiwis. (Because of their long travel time, the Antipodeans all arrived a day early.) I’m sitting with my colleague Jason, who runs the Community Builders program.
Our first destination was the Grand Palace, the residence of the kings of Siam (and later Thailand) for hundreds of years. We parked some way away and then walked over with our local guide.
We entered the Palace complex, and it was already turning into a brutally hot day.
We walked past amazing murals showing scenes from Thai history and the Buddhist religion.
The Palace was very opulent and beautiful. I loved the colourful statues.
The Palace complex also contains Wat Phra Si Rattana Satsadaram, also known as the Temple of the Emerald Buddha. The gold tower here is the Phra Si Rattana Chedi.
You might notice in the photos that several of us are wearing questionable skirts and trousers. This is because the Temple is the most sacred Buddhist temple in Thailand, and having bare legs is not allowed. I bought a sarong from a local seller to tie around my waist.
The Temple of the Emerald Buddha itself was amazingly beautiful. It’s covered in gold and colourful tiles and precious stones.
You have to take off your shoes to go inside, and no photos are allowed. A crowd of people were sitting on the floor, just having a moment of peaceful contemplation. Many people brought in lotus flowers as offerings. After a short visit, I went for a walk around the outside of the temple.
I ran into my colleague Belinda, who helped organise the tour for us! ❤️
Even the ceiling was elaborately decorated.
We had some time to walk around, so I just wandered on my own, taking photos of beautiful statues and peaceful corners of the Palace complex.
This is a statue of a kinnara, a mythological half human, half bird.
I was starting to feel a bit pink by this point…
…so it was time to break out the sun protection. Behind me is the Phra Thinang Boromphiman, where visiting Heads of State stay when they visit Bangkok.
From the Palace, we walked the short distance to the Chao Phraya River, where we caught a ferry across to the other side.
Me and Belinda again.
That river water did not look very inviting, despite the heat of the day.
Our destination was Wat Arun (“The Temple of Dawn”), one of Bangkok’s most well known landmarks.
The central tower (“prang”) is encrusted with porcelain.
I climbed up a couple levels and walked around, checking out the statues and decorations.
The final part of the tour was a long-tail boat ride along the river. We had to scramble out on the prow to get onboard!
I’m on a boat! And thankfully by this point the sun had gone behind the clouds.
Our guide took us down some of the canals off the river and pointed out landmarks along the way.
At one point, we stopped along the riverbank near a temple. Our guide had a surprise for us, he said. He pulled out a bag of bread rolls, and I thought for a minute he was going to hand out a snack. Then he chucked one of the rolls in the river, and the surface suddenly ERUPTED with giant catfish fighting over the bread. It was one of the most astonishing things I’ve ever seen.
O’zapft is! (They’ve just tapped the first kegs at Oktoberfest, and shot off fireworks that rattled the whole house!) 🍻🎇 https://t.co/dkhyV4fF9T
@bmusedbystandr 🤷♀️
“Is there a parade going by our house… in the pouring rain??”
Pretty much! (Those lederhosen are going to be SOAKED.) I suspect this is what the next two weeks of Oktoberfest are going to be like. 😂🍻🥁 https://t.co/yqbYM6Aggh
Absolutely loving this talk from some of the @jawsdays leaders talking about how they ran their 24hr online global Pankration event. Amazing effort, totally serverless, and really fun! 🇯🇵 #AWSCommunityAPAC https://t.co/Teu51L7d6s
@Typhon666_death @jawsdays I will! I had hoped to go for the JAWS Days next month. 😢 Next year!
RT @NeetuMallan: An amazing talk by Sunyeon Woo on how the AUSG (AWS User Group In Korea focused on College students) creates awareness amo…
Great point from Geethika Guruge – when you are architecting for sustainability, consider whether you can accept a bit of latency by moving your workload to a Region with more sustainable energy. 🌏 #AWSCommunityAPAC https://t.co/G05kV6lZfB
RT @Typhon666_death: Hide (@hide04241990 ) & Shun (@Typhon666_death ) talked at AWS Community Summit APAC. | Efforts to Organizing & Broadc…
RT @marksbirch: Super inspiring and practical panel on how community leaders are fostering diversity & inclusion in our AWS communities acr…
Blown away by Hiromi and everyone at the #AWSCommunityAPAC Summit who are presenting not in their native language! I have been learning German for several years and I would still be intimidated to present in it. You are all AMAZING! 👏 https://t.co/9O7u7Fv8Mg
Nice shoutout to @WITWA from @MalekiZainab today! ❤️🇦🇺 #AWSCommunityAPAC https://t.co/WbfzTguKVs
@adrianco It was a Kiwi… a bit of advance advertisement for the Auckland Region I think. 😉
RT @marksbirch: Super geeked for this topic, cost optimization is a hot topic for startups #AWSCommunityAPAC https://t.co/u35AbPYAzZ
Wooo! @marksbirch bringing the energy at #AWSCommunityAPAC! 💥 https://t.co/WQCp0oYZZu
Legend – @abc_wendsss got sick right before the #AWSCommunityAPAC Summit but still recorded her lightning talk for us! (This is why she won Community Builder of the Year last night.) ❤️ https://t.co/Am5ZezwaGZ
RT @marksbirch: LOL on the color of my face (selfie problems 😂), but so honored to speak on the topic of community at the AWS APAC Communit…
Final lightning talk of the day is from @VivekRaja007 and @NeetuMallan, two of the most energetic UG leaders I’ve met this year! Can’t wait to learn from their experience catering for diverse skill levels outside big metropolises. #AWSCommunityAPAC https://t.co/4zLvfS3IGl
RT @nao_spon: Awesome graph!
#AWSCommunityAPAC https://t.co/lDZCpXJW7d
The slide had an error (it was supposed to be in Tamil), but I think it actually demonstrates @VivekRaja007’s point and the problem quite well! Local language training is so important for those new to cloud. #AWSCommunityAPAC https://t.co/2jtzrYH68v
Okay wait, the @awsugmdu folks created a COMIC BOOK?! That’s so cool!! 💥☁️ @VivekRaja007 @NeetuMallan #AWSCommunityAPAC https://t.co/6dICJLCHor
@philnash Oh no! I’m so sorry to see this. Will be on the lookout for opportunities for you.
RT @VivekRaja007: The heroes behind the screen for making the event an amazing experience 😍✨ #AWSCommunityAPAC @web_goddess @FarrahC32 @roh…
RT @anuvindhs: #AWSCommunityAPAC https://t.co/J5Jp2FCA39
RT @rothgar: When @web_goddess told me to ride a Tuk Tuk in Bangkok I thought we were meeting @AlanTudyk #AWSCommunityAPAC https://t.co/Wyx…
Cameos in my photos from @redambition, @ImagiNERDtive, @pyko, @shvedma! ❤️ https://t.co/1tS9KaEJMg
RT @NeetuMallan: An interesting session on “Super charging the AWS Community” #AWSCommunityAPAC #AWSCommunity featuring @jasondunn @Farrah…
RT @NeetuMallan: @jeffbarr and @web_goddess speaking about Jeff’s journey in AWS and the changes he has witnessed over time and how he writ…
RT @NeetuMallan: @web_goddess talking about the AWS DeveloperRelations vision and I am so proud of being part of this community & that I ha…
RT @NeetuMallan: The Lookback at the Jaws Pankration at @web_goddess ‘s talk at Future of AWas Communtiy! Looking at this one can see that…
@Typhon666_death @NeetuMallan @knuna_t How cool! I loved it. So creative!! 💯
RT @ilan_g: Great to see @installjournal get highlighted in #AWSCommunityAPAC in Thailand by @web_goddess
Kudos to her ..
#AWS @AWSCloudIn…
RT @Typhon666_death: A video created by @knuna_t was introduced along with the event introduction of JAWS PANKRATION!!!
#jawsug #jawspankr…
Overheard in the DevOps breakout at the #AWSCommunityAPAC Summit: “The Devil played a trick on us that made everybody think they needed a kubernetes cluster…” 😂😈 https://t.co/GxXBo98gQT
@redambition @ImagiNERDtive @pyko @shvedma If you and Tia hadn’t gone with me to that first GGD Syd meetup, I might not be here on stage today! ❤️
I’m excited to learn about Lambda Power Tools from @walmsles! #AWSCommunityAPAC https://t.co/I7XfGA6a0p
RT @Aviboy2006: AWS Community summit APAC – photo with @shafjag @web_goddess #AWSCommunityAPAC https://t.co/ytiuLDwbOh
First post-lunch session is Alvin Delagon talking about Cybersecurity for Developers. Does it mean more work? It can, but it’s also an investment in order to sleep better at night! #AWSCommunityAPAC https://t.co/IhTWPHRKrP
Lots of interest in the session from @deekob and @petehanssens about running hybrid video meetups! 🇦🇺❤️ #AWSCommunityAPAC https://t.co/0mATUeWFE0
We made a point at the #AWSCommunityAPAC Summit to mix technical content with best practices for people who run developer communities. Faz is sharing his flywheel for building technical competencies in user groups. https://t.co/lhfXQuYZa9
Oh good grief – I forgot to tag @_cloudranger !
Surprise special guest at the #AWSCommunityAPAC Summit – @ghohpe! (I had to twist his arm to get him to be in a selfie with me and @marksbirch.) 😂 https://t.co/lyvNGq1eiK
Final talk of the day is @rothgar sharing the art of storytelling. I’ve seen this talk, and I think it’s a great note to end this inspiring day of sessions! #AWSCommunityAPAC https://t.co/OKBmPajWTD
Aussie ingenuity. No flags, no problem! 😂🇦🇺 #awscommunityapac @ Anantara Siam Bangkok Hotel https://t.co/H4wvH3I1KL
The AWS dress definitely sets off the sunburn nicely… 😬 #awscommunityapac @ Anantara Siam Bangkok Hotel https://t.co/mu3fUDc22G
RT @marksbirch: Time for some community awards here at the AWS APAC Community Summit 🏆🏆🏆
Also awesome AWS dress by @web_goddess 👏👏👏
#AWSC…
RT @Typhon666_death: Japan🇯🇵style #AWSCommunityAPAC https://t.co/6mHWhEszbT
@lauravieloma @ghohpe @marksbirch Haha, Gregor getting dragged into so many selfies 😂
RT @VivekRaja007: This is us! AWS APAC Community! This photo adds a biggest vibe to #AWSCommunityAPAC Community Summit!
#AWSCommunity http…
RT @VivekRaja007: Congratulations @installjournal for winning “AWS Hero of the year” award at #AWSCommunityAPAC Awards! You are a true hero…
Akubra FTW. 🇦🇺🤠 @deekoob @kapoor.ridhima #awscommunityapac @ Anantara Siam Bangkok Hotel https://t.co/R9CRVy79YX
Oh no 💃💃💃 https://t.co/PEhTbGEEua
@anuvindhs Thank you!!
