Melbourne AWS User Group Monthly Meetup

Our regular monthly meetup on the last Wednesday of every month.

Kicking off at 6:00pm

We're back for 2020! Time to kick off another year of AWS related news, events and conversations.

During the break we moved our website from Wordpress over to a static site filled with Gatsby. It should be a few dozen times faster now. We've also filled it with a lot of additional information on attending our events or getting involved. Check it out at https://melb.awsug.org.au/

A huge thanks to our friends at Innablr (https://innablr.com.au/) who have signed on for another year as our Gold Sponsor. We could not put these events on without their help and support.

For 2020 we're adding a dedicated 10 minute lightning talk slot for first time presenters. So if you have an interesting subject you'd like to talk briefly about, or are interested in getting started as a presenter please get in touch. We also have speaking mentorship available to help you on your way. More information is available at https://melb.awsug.org.au/speak/

Don't forget if you can't make it on the night you can still watch the live stream: https://melb.awsug.org.au/live

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# Agenda

| 6:00pm | Introductions |
| 6:05pm | What's new in AWS |
| 6:15pm | Lightning Talk ⚡️ |
| 6:25pm | Short Break |
| 6:30pm | Matthew Merriel: 1800 Dial a Joke [Level 300] |
| 7:00pm | Marketplace (Who's Hiring) |
| 7:05pm | Pizza Break 🍕 |
| 7:30pm | Charles Bluett: AWS in China [Level 100] |
| 8:00pm | Networking + Close |

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# 1800 Dial a Joke
- Matthew Merriel

Level 300

In 1973 Steve Wozniak start San Fransisco's first dial-a-joke service using big bulky hardware that he eventually had to give up due to the operating cost. Now, thanks to the power and flexibility of AWS and Amazon Connect we can build our own service with no hardware requirements. Not only that, but we can run it for a few cents a day.

In this session, Matthew will walk through the process of getting started with Amazon Connect. He will walk through how to build and deploy a call flow as well as interact with several AWS services. Finishing off by walking through how his 1800 dial a joke service works and how much it costs to run.

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# AWS in China
- Charles Bluett

Level 100

How, why, and why NOT to use AWS China Regions (Beijing & NingXia).

Charles has been working as an IT consultant in China for the past 12 years. In this presentation he'll cover the process of registering to use the China regions, reasons why you might want to do this, and the risks that are involved. He'll also cover the limitations of these regions and the services they are missing.

A great introduction to the Chinese regions if you've ever been curious.

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See you all on the night!

If you are interested in presenting you can get in touch on the website https://melb.awsug.org.au/speak/