What is an AWS Community Day?

aws community day Nov 03, 2025

What is an AWS Community Day?

AWS Community Days are community-organized conferences that bring together cloud builders, open source contributors, speakers, and learners. They are run by the community, for the community - which means the topics, speakers, and stories come directly from real-world experience, not from marketing announcements.

The DACH Community Day connects the AWS communities across Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. Every year, it takes place in a different city and is organized by local user group leaders and volunteers.

The Evolution: From AWS Community Day Germany → to DACH

The event as we know it today didn’t start as “DACH”. It began as the AWS Community Day Germany, where community leaders across Germany came together to create a space for sharing and learning.

As the community grew and more AWS User Groups formed across Austria and Switzerland, the event naturally expanded - both in collaboration and in spirit.

Around 2020/2021, the organizing community made a decisive shift:
The event would become AWS Community Day DACH - reflecting the reality of a cross-country, multilingual community working together.

Since then, the event has grown steadily in strength, scale, and cultural diversity.

Past AWS Community Days:

Each year, hundreds of builders come together to learn from each other — whether they are first-time speakers, experienced AWS Heroes, or people simply curious about cloud.

Community Days I’ve Spoken At and Helped Organize

In the past years, I have been fortunate to speak, support, or co-organize AWS Community Days across Europe:

Every community day has its own character - shaped by the volunteers, the city, the speakers, and the conversations that happen in hallways and corners, long after the slides are gone.

How We Organize AWS Community Day DACH

As Chairwoman of the Förderverein AWS Community DACH e.V., I help coordinate the board and the broader volunteer team that makes this event possible. Our organizing board works collaboratively with clear areas of responsibility:

Content & Agenda: Led by Philipp Garbe - managing CFP, speaker selection, and talk curation.
Sponsorships: Led by Thorsten Höger - coordinating partner support and event funding.
AWS Contact: Led by Markus Ostertag - coordinating with AWS Community teams and speakers.
Marketing & Communication: Led by me - live event coverage, content planning, brand narrative, speaker announcements, and attendee experience enablement.

We meet weekly during preparation, align decisions together, and support each other’s areas. It’s truly community-built infrastructure.

Why Community Days Matter

Unlike commercial tech conferences, AWS Community Days are not about announcements or vendor sales. They are about:

Real stories from real builders
Learning from experience, not slides
People helping each other grow
Finding belonging in the global cloud community

This is why I care so deeply about this work - because community is where learning becomes meaningful, shared, and human.

Where to Explore More

→ Past AWS Community Days

→ My Community Day Recaps

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What is an AWS Community Day?