AWS Community Day West African Event 2023 Report
It was an amazing and engaging moment when young and experienced cloud practitioners, solution architects, developers, data scientists, security architects, and other seasoned professionals in the cloud space gathered at the University of Lagos Main Auditorium, Lagos, Nigeria, for another edition of the AWS Community Day West Africa event on Saturday, August 19, 2023.
Event Details
The theme for the event was “Innovation and Security in the Cloud: Navigating the Future.” The theme highlights the importance of balancing innovation with security in the fast-evolving world of cloud computing. The event featured 2 keynotes sessions, 2 panel discussions and 4 super-packed experts speaker-led sessions. The event was hybrid. Part of the reason we made it hybrid was to provide a more inclusive and flexible experience for attendees no matter their locations.
Event Attendance
Overall, the event registration was impressive, as we recorded over 1,600 registrations on our Meetup event page. Out of these numbers, the event recorded 696 in-person attendees and 102 participants who registered and attended virtually. This is significant progress when compared to our maiden edition in 2022, where we recorded 102 in-person attendees with about 400+ registrations.
Attendees by Demographics
From our demographic data, the event recorded over 500 professionals and over 150 students for in-person attendance. In addition to the physical attendees, over 20 students and 70 professionals joined virtually.
Refer to the data below for more insights:
Event Sponsorship
The event wouldn’t have been successful without our amazing sponsors (individuals and corporate organizations). This post is to further express our gratitude to our sponsors, particularly Amazon Web Services (AWS).
The list of sponsors is below:
Event Sessions
The event had a total of four power-packed and insightful speaking sessions handled by experienced professionals and AWS experts. In addition, two keynote sessions and two panel discussions were featured.
Highlights of the Event Sessions
In case you missed out on the event agenda, below are the highlights of all the sessions featured on the event date.
Keynote 1: Empowering Africa’s Digital Transformation: Unleashing the Potential of AWS by Thembile Ndlovu. The Keynote session highlights the crucial, transformative, and innovative digital roles AWS is playing in Africa. The AWS Community Manager for Africa, Thembile Ndlovu mentioned the various programs available for young Africans to tap into. Such programs are the AWS Student Cloud Club Captain, User Groups, Community Builders, and SMEs.
Keynote II: State of the Community by David Okeyode and Imoh Etuk. This keynote session enlightened the attendees on what the AWS Cloud Security User Group, West Africa, has in stock for them. They shared the achievements and roadmaps for the User Group.
Session 1: Understanding AWS Lagos Local Zones and PoP by Ewere Diagboya, AWS Hero. This session demonstrated how to set up resources in the AWS Local Zone, CDN/PoP that exists in Lagos, Nigeria. It covered how leveraging these solutions can help businesses meet compliance and other government regulations like the Nigeria Data Protection Regulation (NDPR)
Session 2: Scaling AI Applications with AWS by Oluwafemi Lawal, AWS Community Builder. This session covered the basics of AI application development on AWS, touching on tools like Amazon SageMaker for model training and Amazon Comprehend for natural language processing.
Panel Discussion 1 on the role and impact of community: Thembile Ndlovu, Blessing Ogechi Nwojiji, and Wale Adeniji, Hosted by Adeshola Ajibare.
Panel Discussion 2: Impact of Campus Communities and Post-Campus Careers: Seyi Oluwawumiju, Anne Usang, Paul Aderoju, and hosted by Israel Kuti.
Session 3: By Precious Okwu on Implementing Zero Trust Architecture on AWS. This session covered the core principles of zero-trust architecture and elucidated how they align with the distributed and dynamic nature of AWS services. With AWS being a preferred platform for countless organizations, understanding how to design and deploy a zero-trust approach within this ecosystem is paramount.
Session 4: By Omowumi Amune on Moving With the Cloud as a Professional. Innovating the Future, Now. This session gave more insights into the evolving role of professionals in this cloud-first era, from IT specialists to marketers and beyond, as they collaborate to reshape industries and redefine customer experiences.
In addition, we had in-person and virtual moderators in the persons of Deshola Ajibare, Yusuf Oladejo, Kuti Israel, Promise Nwachukwu, Adeleke Tolulope, Damian Robo, and Adeleke Adegbulugbe.
Event Organization
The User Group is structured into two arms: the Core Leadership Team, who were the pioneers in the core planning and organizing of the event. The core leadership team consists of:
The event wouldn’t have been successful without the support of the co-organizers and volunteers. The co-organizers and volunteers were amazing in their various roles, and they were segmented into the various categories as follows:
- The design and visual team was led by Abiodun ‘Linkon’ Eniola, and others such as Oladimeji Oyeniran, Udoezika Odinaka, Onitolo (Lawal) Babatunde, and Ukeme Eseme.
- The moderation/registration team was led by Adeleke Tolulope, Izuchukwu Ugwu, Ogunkola Adeola, Grace Victor, Oreoluwa Jetawo, Temitope Bankole, Oyetunji Abisola, Oliveth Ndubuka and Aruna Fatim, Paul Aderoju, Titilope Odubiro, Helen (Kamsochukwu) Anyaegbuna, Sophie Ejikeme and Helen Anyaegbuna.
- The hall management team was led by Ifara Joshua, Gbemisola John Akinlolu, Bolaji Adetoye, Abdulakeem Yusuf Ademola, Okoruwa Obehi Emmanuel, Samuel Chidiebere Joseph, Chinyere Nwalie
Afolabi Abigeal, Bukola Testimony, Raji Risikat Yewande, Deborah Shodamola, Joseph Chukwuka Inweregbu , Onyekachi Anthony Anyaegbu. - The social media team was led by Blessing Ogechi Nwojiji, Olawale Adebowale, Adefowoke Oluwole , Chioma Okafor, Akande Olalekan Toheeb, Omobola Joshua Promise, and Anne Usang.
- The sponsorship team was led by Oluwafemi Lawal, Raphael Gab-Momoh, Olajumoke Toriola, and OluwaSeyi Oluwawumiju.
Next Steps
As we strive to continually improve and enhance the AWS Community Day experience, if you were at the event in person or joined virtually, we kindly ask for your feedback by taking a few minutes to complete our post-event survey. Your insights will play a crucial role in shaping the future of the event, ensuring that it remains a valuable and enriching experience for all participants. Here’s the survey link: https://bit.ly/aws-comm-day-west-africa-survey.
Mark your calendars! We are thrilled to announce that next year’s AWS Community Day West Africa is scheduled for Saturday, August 24, 2024. We look forward to having you join us once again for another day filled with insightful presentations, interactive discussions, and valuable networking opportunities.
In the spirit of cherishing memories, we’re excited to share a link to view the event pictures. Relive the engaging sessions, candid moments, and interactions by clicking these links for event photos and YouTube live stream respectively: https://bit.ly/aws-comm-day-photo-gallery and https://www.youtube.com/live/Fov4_5JzfbE?feature=share
Did you miss out on the event? Catch up with the event recordings on our YouTube channels using Live Stream 1 and Live Stream 2.
Stay in the know by following our online handles for updates:
Meetup- https://rebrand.ly/awssecwestafrica-meetup
Twitch — https://rebrand.ly/awssecwestafrica-twitch
YouTube — https://rebrand.ly/awssecwestafrica-youtube
Twitter — https://rebrand.ly/awssecwestafrica-twitter
Medium — https://rebrand.ly/awssecwestafrica-medium
LinkedIn — https://rebrand.ly/awssecwestafrica-linkedin
Website — https://awsusergroupwestafrica.com
