🇰🇷 Review of "AMAZING" AWS APAC Community Summit 2022

AWS APAC Community Summit 2022 was held from September 15 to 16.

But I was lazy. Three weeks after the event, I posted a review of the event participation. 🙏
It took this long to prepare little by little, thinking about various photos and experiences. I will share my experience as much as possible, so you can look forward to it.

An invitation to an event

One day, The Leader of AWSKRUG(South Korean UserGroup) Yoon Seok-chan shared the news on the AWSKRUG Organizer Slack channel that the APAC Community Summit event was being held. AWS will send invitations only to those who apply. Looking at the offer, I thought, "I'll really regret it if I don't go."

• a round-trip airfare
• Stay at the hotel for 3 nights (September 14th - September 17th)
• All meals on the day of the event (September 15 and 16)

Event contents

1. Keynote Address by AWS Leader
2. Technical and non-technical detailed sessions.
3. Best practices for community operations and building social media influence
4. APAC Community Awards / Networking Opportunities
5. Fun activities

But I was hesitating while looking at my work schedule. Fortunately, the month-long vacation schedule that our company gave me matched the schedule of this event, so I applied without hesitation.

Travel arrangements

After working so hard, I found out that I had a week left on my trip. I prepared for the trip as busily as I did for work.

Insurance - I subscribed to insurance that supports COVID-19 quarantine costs.

Multi-adapter - Looking for Daiso all over the town. I also took a multi-tap just in case. But the hotel already had a 220 volt outlet.

TaeGukKi (Korean Flag) - Starts searching for the Korean flag a day before the trip. I went to the district office and they sold a big one, but they didn't sell a mini Korean flag. I looked it up on Daiso, but I couldn't find it. I thought I could get it easily, but it was the hardest. Fortunately, the same travel member has three at home, so I decided to rent it

User Group Gifts - I bought "YangBanGim" (drived laver, black and paper-thin) as a gift for global members. I bought about 35 from the mart and put them in the carrier, which accounted for almost 90% of the contents of the carrier. The remaining 10% is well compressed and crumpled clothes and shoes

Vaccination certificate - I printed a total of 3 certificates in English version, but when I showed the vaccination history through the COOV mobile application at Incheon International Airport, it just passed without showing the certificate...
And then when I arrived Bangkok airport in Thailand, I simply put down my fingerprint, and taking pictures without mask at the place where passport inspection. The person in charge of the passport He asked nothing like "give me some paper" and "why you are come to Thailand?".
after confirming that I am South Korean, He said "Welcome" with smile. so I finally arrived Bangkok with happiness 😀.

Riding Thailand Taxi

There is an application called GRAB, which prevents tourists from feeling bad by paying a high fee while taking a taxi.
If you enter your destination in advance in the GRAB app, you will get the exact fee you need to pay. You can even get a bike with this app!
I rode a bike with the GRAB app once and it was a thrilling and fun experience.

Day1

First Expression of Hotel

I checked in to a five-star hotel called [Anantara Siam Bangkok Hotel] (https://goo.gl/maps/q96Xtye6SCWdxXB97 provided by AWS, and the hotel was better than I thought.

I received a welcome kit prepared by AWS at the front desk. I was surprised to see that there are two APAC Community Summit T-shirts, AWS user group stickers, Thai transportation "TukTuk" wooden models, wet tissues, and so on.

The room I was assigned was one room per person, but there were two large beds 😻.

After seeing this, I realized that it is a five-star hotel.

And I heard a lot that Thailand is hot, but compared to the weather in Korea now, it was similar. But it's so cold inside because the air conditioner is operating so hard inside.

I've been feeling cold ever since the plane. But when I arrived in Thailand, I felt air conditioning sickness. So as soon as I unpacked, I took a warm shower, wrapped myself in a blanket, and slept until dinner.
(I didn't get COVID, you should know that haha 😁)

Welcome Dinner

AWS opened a big welcome dinner. Outside the door of the venue, there was a hotel buffet.

Entering the venue, other foreign members were seen holding champagne glasses, especially Western members standing up and talking and networking with other members. However, on the Korean side, I could see other members, including myself, sitting still. 😆

It was my first time, so I was intimidated at first, but a Malaysian member sat at our table and talked to me, and it was nice to talk to me first, and we talked a lot.

If I have a chance to participate in such an event again next time, I would like to approach and talk to global members more actively first.

No more TukTuk

Because Thai massage is so famous, I tried to go to a massage shop with Korean members at night after the event.

While walking out of the hotel, a member suddenly talked to the tuktuk driver, saying he wanted to ride the tuktuk. We decided to go to 50 baht, and we managed to get five people on board in a tight space.

When I first rode the tuktuk, I was excited to drive on the road with colorful lights inside and open on all sides.

However, after more than 10 minutes of running, I realized that I was going to the wrong place when I looked at Google Maps. Actually, it's a 15-minute walk to the massage shop. So we asked the driver where he was going, and the driver spoke unknown English and suddenly asked for 200 baht. We felt a strange atmosphere and asked the driver to pull over, but the driver couldn't communicate and tried to bargain. In the end, Tuk-Tuk stopped and we got off, and when we told the driver that we would call the police if we kept doing this, he made a bold expression and gesture and just left.

In the end, we ended up using a grab taxi in an unknown place.

I made a promise at this time. I'm not going to ride "tuktuk" anymore. 😅

The Thai massage expert at the massage shop where I arrived was too professional. Thanks to the massage specialist, I was able to get rid of my bad feelings about Tuk-Tuk and end the day well 😆

Day2

Session Started

The symptoms of air conditioning disease had not yet recovered.
I had a hotel breakfast in the morning with a cloudy mind and entered the venue in earnest.

Entering the entrance of the event hall, there was a fun photo zone in front of it, and desserts were prepared in front of the door.
When I entered the venue, I was overwhelmed by the atmosphere.

A session called Future of AWS Community shows a video of community operations in different countries. As a Korean, the case of Korea stood out.
In the past, AWSKRUG rented an entire movie theater and held a community event, and the panel commented that it was Super Cool 👍

Later sessions also covered actual technical topics.
What I remember the most was the presentation about "Services' Past and Present."
And I had 2 or 3 sessions in a row, so my concentration was a little disorganized

In the next session, there was also a time to go into small rooms and have a hands-on session.
I participated in hands-on on Amazon Event Bridge, and the speaker kindly helped demonstrate and answered all the questions uploaded by the participants in the Q&A session.
I was sitting here at the same table with a member of New Zealand and Indonesia, and we talked a lot with each other during the session, but we talked so much that another member asked us to be quiet. I'm sorry to disturb others. 🙏
After the session, they exchanged contacts with members of New Zealand and Indonesia.
Personally, I think this session was very useful.

What we did in break Time between Sessions

A swimming pool

I went to the hotel swimming pool with the members during the break.

"Ttakjichigi" Game (flat and square game pieces)

The Game Ttakjichigi is a Korean game played by two or more players with "Ttakji". "Ttakji" is constructed by folding two square pieces of paper together into a square. maybe you already know if you had watched "SQUID GAME" 😆

A game taking each other’s "Ttakji" by hitting and flipping them over on the ground.

In the middle of the event, an opinion came out on the Korean member's own Slack channel "Shall we do Ttakjichigi to attract global members attention?" and one member spontaneously folded "Ttakji" using a sheet of paper in the event hall. So our members took it to the swimming pool and tried "Ttakjichigi" once, but no one showed up in the swimming pool, so we failed to attract attention. 😂

Dress code

In the picture above, I am the one wearing a black shirt with a black mask, and I knew that there was a dress code called "Smart Casual" during the event, but most people showed up at the venue wearing T-shirts and shorts they received as souvenirs when checking in at the hotel. I even thought I was misunderstanding the concept of smart casual. 😅

Group Photo

It was time for all the global members to gather in one place and take pictures waving their respective flags.
I thought it was a good thing that I borrowed a mini Korean flag from another Korean member, but when I saw the size of the flags of other countries, they all brought huge flags. At this time, I regretted it. "Oh, I should have bought a large Korean flag at City Hall."”

One of the Korean members wearing Korean traditional clothes and a mask of "Gaksital" (Korean traditional mask) drew attention from members around the world. And several global members approached and talked to me. “you look so cool!!”

APAC Community Awards & Networking dinner

Among all the communities in APAC, award ceremonies were held for each category.

At the beginning of the ceremony, a celebration performance was held. It seemed to be a traditional Thai dance. It was a very colorful and interesting performance.
At the next award ceremony, South Korea's Yoo Jeong-yeol won the "Ownership Award" category. I was proud. 👍

And a member of the Indian community came out and said he wanted to teach traditional Indian dance to everyone who participated.
So all the APAC members had a good time getting up and dancing along.

Meals and networking times continued after the awards ceremony

During the meal, a Japanese member approached me and asked me first if you followed me on Twitter today, so I greeted him warmly and talked about contacting him. I thought this was a good chance to give "YangBanGim," so I gave the Japanese member the "YangBanGim" that I prepared, and I felt good because they liked it very much.

I also distributed "YangBanGim" to Indonesian or Bangladeshi members who were sitting at the same table, and the reaction was, "What is this? "Isn't it spicy?" was the response. I think the members were a little wary because it was their first time seeing "YangBanGim."

Even after distributing it to many people, there was a little bit of "YangBanGim" left, so I gave it to all the Japanese members who responded well. Then, a Japanese male member who greeted me first drew attention to all the Japanese members sitting at the two round tables, and _"Taesung-sang presented YangBanGim as a gift! A round of applause! I remember being applauded and feeling very embarrassed at the same time, but in a good mood

However, the start time of the award ceremony was 7 p.m., and I could not have dinner until well past 8:30 p.m. I was hungry throughout the event, but this part was a little disappointing.

Final destination is Thai Massage

Thai massage is the best to warm up your tired body after all the fun events!

I received one massage a day.

Day3

Korean UserGroup Member was in Lightening Talk Session

The third day since I came to Bangkok was the official last day of the APAC Community Summit.

Hwang Soo-yeon, a member of the AUSG (AWSKRUG University Student User Group), made a presentation in English as a speaker.
He announced the journey of running the AUSG community, and it seems that it is similar in any country to worry about running a steady community. It is said that a group leader from India and other countries talked to Hwang Soo-yeon and asked her opinions on community management.

There was a session to discuss diversity within the community, and female panelists came out and talked.

This time made me think about what efforts should be made to allow many female members to participate in the Korean community.

First ever experience of Durian

I ate a lot of traditional food at Thai restaurant in a big shopping mall center near the hotel and it was very delicious.

"Morning Glory", "Tom Yum Goong", etc. I don't remember the other foods, but all the foods were delicious

And for the first time, I came across a fruit called "Durian" as ice cream.
The Korean AUSG members who saw Durian looked very concerned. Because they told me the failure experience of buying it at the mart yesterday and saying it was too bad. It was evaluated that it probably tasted worse than garbage. 😅

But this "Durian" ice cream I ordered came with a thin slice of "Durian" on the ice cream. Once I tried it, I smelled a unique durian, and it smelled a little like gas, but after that, it tasted like a fruit that was not bad.
In conclusion, my first durian experience was successful. 👍

End of AWS APAC Community Summit 2022

After several Lightning Talk sessions, the official event of the AWS APAC Community Summit ended.

Kris Howard & Shafraz Rahim, who played the role of a header in hosting the event, came out and talked about where to do it next year, and ended it with a promise of next time.

Special Dinner time with KR User Group members

The official event ended around 3 p.m., and Korean user group members booked a rooftop restaurant at another hotel for dinner.

The view of the rooftop after sunset was so wonderful. After ordering the food in such a good mood, it took more than an hour and a half for the main dish to come out. 😕
Was the food served too fast in Korea? We were so frustrated.

After that, the food finally came out, and the food was really delicious, so I think the annoying emotions have been relieved a little.

Day4

The next day, I spent all my time buying souvenirs and came back to Korea.

I went around the BigC Market and several large supermarkets near the hotel and bought a lot of gifts for my acquaintances, friends, and family. I bought them one by one, and before I knew it, I bought too much haha.
However, fortunately, I was able to exhaust all the people I met in Korea because I gave them away.

Long Live AWS community!

The final review of the trip and the AWS APAC Community Summit in Bangkok, Thailand, is so good. I want to go again. And I was motivated to work harder on AWS community activities. 👍

Thanks to AWS and the AWS Community Builders program, I was able to communicate with people all over the world in these wonderful places. Thank you very much. And thank you very much to AWS Yoon Seok-chan) in Korea for introducing us to participate in this event.

Amazing AWS! Keep going with amazing job!! 👏🙇🏻‍♀️