Thankyou for your interest in being a speaker for the 2024 Vancouver AWS Community Day.
You can learn more about the history and why AWS run this globally at
https://aws.amazon.com/events/community-day
The 2025 event will be held on October 25th, 2025, at BCIT Downtown Campus.
This will be the second AWS Day in Canada and we are very excited that AWS selected Vancouver again to be the host city.
In 2014 we started the Vancouver AWS Usergroup, with events every month, a member base of over 3,000 people and on average an attendance rate each month of 100 people with most events having long waitlists due to limited venue space. The same organizers put together the annual Vancouver Cloud Summit. The largest community run Cloud Conference in Western Canada.
We've put together a brief FAQ below to help you answer the questions on this form, but to also help you picture how the event and lead up to the event will run.
FAQ
How long does my talk need to be?
All talks will be 25mins in length with a 5min intermission between talks.
Will there be a timer on stage to let me know how long I have been talking for?
On the main stage Yes, we have a large floor clock which will run during your talk so that you can keep yourself on pace.
For other stages, one of our members will be there to signal to you when you have 5mins remaining, and then when to wrap up.
What is the schedule leading up to the event?
Great question! We will be reaching out to everyone who makes a submission, at the end of August. We will let you know if you were selected or not. There are only a small number of spots, but we will communicate with you even if you are not selected and we're happy to provide feedback to give you a stronger chance at one of our future events.
After selection at the end of August, we will do an online dry run with all speakers during the month of September.
The end of September will be the deadline for all speakers to submit to us their presentation decks. We take a copy of your deck in the unlikely event that your laptop is not compatible with the venues equipment or the venue has technical difficulties.
You will need to provide your own laptop and clicker. Please ensure your laptop takes hdmi output or you have a tested adaptor to allow for this.
On the day we will provide an orientation of the stage for you. It is a very large theatre with a huge screen behind you, so we want to make sure you are comfortable and that we have tested your laptop.
What will be provided for me?
We will look after providing you with everything you need to give a great talk if you need. By default we will assume that you are using your own laptop and clicker, unless advised otherwise. We will provide the large screen, microphone, and floor timer or assistant to ensure your talk stays on time.
Can I talk about my company?
You are welcome to let people know where you work and how to contact you, however this should take up no more than 30 seconds of your talk. Your talk itself should not mention your company or product. We want people to be educated not sold to. We do not allow branded company decks.
Will you be providing a video recording of my talk?
Our intention is to post a video of every talk on Youtube with-in 1 month of the event concluding. However, we only guarantee recordings for Sponsors.
What should I talk about?
Anything related to AWS. We will be looking for talks which are interesting, new, hot topics, and raise the interest of a large audience.
Can I run a live demo
Please let us know what you have in mind. We'd love to have you do a demo, but we also want to ensure that technology doesn't get in the way.
Can I make multiple submissions?
Yes. But please don't skimp on details, because the submissions that paint the best picture of their talk will have the best chance of being selected.
