What are AWS Ambassadors?
The AWS Ambassador Partner Program is a world-wide group of people who are passionate about AWS and Community Involvement. To be a member, a candidate needs to be an employee of an AWS Partner, hold at least two active Specialty or Advanced AWS Certifications and regularly contribute to the community through various channels. I’ve been part of the Ambassadors since 2021, and it has been filled with many great memories and experiences. My favorite to date is definitely the 2022 Global Summit we just had. If you’re interested in more information about the program itself, their page is here.
What is the Summit?
The 2022 Ambassador Global Summit was held at the Amazon Campus in Seattle, Washington. The campus is located in downtown Seattle. Here is the whole group of us. We had ambassadors visiting all the way from Australia, Japan, Singapore and all throughout the US and World coming together to learn, network, and grow. Taking place over three days, we all gathered in the Summit Building, near the Amazon Spheres, and enjoyed sessions taught by AWS Leaders ranging from topics such as:
- Security
- Networking
- Quantum Computing
- Inclusion, Diversity & Equity
- Robotics
- Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning
- Emotional Intelligence
- Edge Computing
- Culture of Innovation
- Lightning Talks given by volunteer Ambassadors
What did I learn?
There were many things I learned from a technology and leadership standpoint, but my favorite part about the summit was the relationships that were built. That, combined with the presence and passion of all the attendees, really fired me up about all things AWS. It’s why I feel it’s so important to be a part of the community, attend MeetUps, contribute, and try to attend at least one large event like this one or re:Invent.
In the Security talk, we focused on securing human progress – a quote that encapsulates what we learned is: “The best way to predict the future is to create it”. We dove deep into risk models, vulnerabilities, security frameworks, and AWS services to address each part of the chain.
For Networking, we discussed how networking follows security, and how a VPC can now extend to an AWS Outpost. We also talked network visualization, and AWS Cloud WAN. It has use cases for self-service IT, multi-region networking, and building extranets.
At the Inclusion, Diversity, and Equity roundtable we focused on being the ally for those who do not have as much of a voice, and many of the programs Amazon has in place to help underrepresented groups thrive in their careers.
The Lightning Talks were really fun and informative, learning about ‘The Reality of Japan’ and how their culture propels them to excel, ‘How Not to Write a Book about AWS’, an innovative IoT Cat Feeder, and much more.
In our robotics talk, we covered IoT Twinmaker, movie production on AWS, satellites with Amazon Project Kuiper, AWS Snowcones in Space, Deep Dive into quantum computing with Amazon Braket, and even touched on AR\VR. The call to action was to spend 20% of your time understanding the future.
For Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning we covered the business impact of these services and their role in growing new revenue streams, improving operational and financial efficiency, and detecting and responding to business risks. There are many solutions to look at as a starting point in the AI Use Case Explorer, and Amazon SageMaker Jumpstart with prebuilt solutions for fraud detection, computer vision, and autonomous driving.
We also had an extremely insightful talk on Emotional Intelligence, where we learned that EQ accounts for a majority of success:
Research carried out by the Carnegie Institute of Technology shows that 85% of your financial success is due to skills in “human engineering,” (EQ) your personality and ability to communicate, negotiate, and lead. Shockingly, only 15% is due to technical knowledge (IQ).
“Intelligence Is Overrated,” Forbes, 2012
We spent time learning the influence of emotions, building positivity and grit, developing EQ to help you optimize yourself and function at an even higher level than what you are already capable of.
We also talked about the Culture of Innovation at Amazon, learning many lessons on leadership, building strong judgments and good instincts, and spent time on the Amazon Leadership Principles.
What fun things did we do?
- Recorded a Podcast as part of a campaign called #DoHardThings
- Awards Dinner at the Museum of Flight, where we had the whole museum to ourselves.
- Met Jeff Barr!
- Great night of fun and games bowling with a regional competition
- Exploring the city of Seattle with the Ambassadors
- Making great friendships!
Conclusion
This was a truly great experience and I highly recommended working towards the AWS Ambassador Program! Thank you to the AWS Ambassador Team!
Jorge Rodriguez
Senior Lead Cloud Engineer
[email protected]
