AWS Community Day Slovakia | Kosice

From MacBook to Bedrock - Kicking Off 2025 at AWS Community Day Slovakia

The first AWS Community Day of 2025 took us to Košice - a city that’s growing its tech scene with noticeable momentum. It was the very first edition of AWS Community Day Slovakia, and yet the energy felt like a community that has been building for years - quietly, steadily, patiently.

Nearly 200 people showed up. Not for vendor pitches. Not for flashy announcements.
But simply to learn, share, build, and be in the room together.

Why Košice Felt Special

There was something grounded and intentional about the event.
The organizers - Michal Salanci and Lydia Delyova - put in a kind of care that you feel, not in decorations, but in how the conversations unfolded. People weren’t rushing between talks. They stayed. They asked questions. They challenged ideas. They connected.

This is the kind of environment where real knowledge-sharing happens.

Our Session: From MacBook to Bedrock

Together with Philipp Bergsmann, I shared the “From MacBook to Bedrock” session - showing how you can start prototyping Generative AI applications using only your laptop, and then scale that prototype step-by-step into a production-ready workflow on Amazon Bedrock.

The message was simple:

You don't need a massive budget or a research lab to begin.
You just need a starting point and a willingness to build.

The Q&A afterwards confirmed something important:
Teams are no longer asking “Should we do something with GenAI?”
They’re asking “How do we build in a way that remains scalable, understandable, and cost-predictable?”

That shift matters.

A Community in Motion

The speaker lineup included experienced builders, first-time stage voices, and a wide spread of backgrounds - Gunnar Grosch, Faye Ellis, Jimmy Dahlqvist, Darya Petrashka, Ari Palo, Filip Pýrek, Tala Qraitem, Jakub Gaj, Marek Šottl, Victoria Shutenko, Nataliya Godunok and many others.
Different perspectives, same curiosity.

You could see hallway clusters forming that will turn into future collaborations, meetups, projects, maybe companies.

This is how ecosystems start - not with funding announcements, but with people deciding to keep talking after the session ends.

Watch the Highlights

I recorded a short aftermovie to capture the atmosphere, the energy in the room, and the small moments that make these gatherings real:

🎥 Video: https://youtu.be/tqsvhGKhZLw?si=p5z-aSJwugRnSeuy 

Next Stop: Milano

From Košice, we moved directly to AWS Community Day Italy - bringing the same curiosity, slides, and probably some of the same jokes.
And this spring, two more Community Days are coming.
I’ll share those stories as well - each event with its own character.

Why These Gatherings Matter

Not because of the slides.
Not because of the brand logos.

But because people are still willing to show up in a room together to learn from each other.
That is rare.
That is worth protecting.
And that’s why I keep showing up too.