My 2025 Year in Review - Conferences, Community, and Growth as an AWS Community Builder and Leader

Source: Dev.to

2025 – A Transformable Year

Engineering Manager • Public Speaker • AWS Community Builder

2025 has been an intense, fulfilling, and transformative year for me — filled with conferences, community contributions, flights, new experiences, and meaningful connections. It has also been a year of growth: as a leader, as a communicator, and as part of a global technical community that energises me every day.

Below is my look‑back at the journey.

Kicking Off the Year in Milan – AWS Community Day Italy

Date: 2 April 2025 – Milan

• Talk: “Road to Compliance: Will Your Internal Users Hate Your Platform Team?”
• Context: Shared the journey of my team at sevdesk – how we implemented internal governance, operational guardrails, and FinOps without creating friction with engineering teams.
• Key Takeaways:
  • Balancing rule enforcement with autonomy requires empathy, communication, and a customer‑centric mindset.
  • Services such as AWS Security Hub, AWS Config, SCPs, and Tagging Policies automate compliance, reduce risk, and preserve trust and collaboration.

AWS Summit Hamburg – Something Different

Date: 5 June 2025 – Hamburg

• Assisted in selecting speakers for the Community Stage.
• Represented the AWS Community Builders booth: talked to attendees, shared my experience, and explained why the program is a powerful career accelerator.
  • (Note: Applications for 2026 open soon – see the guide here.)

Later that month:

• Introduced another speaker and moderated the Q&A session.

Serverless vs Kubernetes – The Final Showdown

• A lively, no‑holds‑barred debate about two polarising cloud approaches.
• Follow‑up blog post (link TBD) explains why the debate was a great learning experience.

Come to Code – A Conference Like No Other

Date: Mid‑September 2025 – Basilicata, Italy

• Re‑delivered “Road to Compliance: Will Your Internal Users Hate Your Platform Team?”
• Why the event stands out:
  • Pizza nights, Bavarian dinner, “Cloud Taboo” game, AWS Builder Cards, Lucanian food & drinks.
  • Music, laughs, deep conversations with other Engineering Managers.
  • 180 passionate participants gathered in a small southern‑Italian mountain town.
• Huge thanks to the organisers for flawless logistics, warm hospitality, and heartfelt attention to detail.

AWS Community Day DACH – Behind the Scenes

Date: 7 Oct 2025 – Virtual

• Could not attend in person due to a packed conference schedule.
• Joined the AWS Community DACH Association Booster Club selection committee again.
• My own submission wasn’t selected, but the process remains inspiring, fair, and filled with well‑crafted abstracts.

InfoQ Dev Summit Munich – Beyond AWS

Date: 16 Oct 2025 – Munich

• Presented “Road to Compliance: Will Your Internal Users Hate Your Platform Team?” – a multi‑platform, highly professional conference.
• Moderated a Birds‑of‑a‑Feather panel on Platform Engineering – a brand‑new experience for me.
• Wrote a post‑conference blog summarising impressions and the talks I attended (link TBD).

Closing the Conference Year – DevFest Hamburg

Date: 14 Nov 2025 – Hamburg

• Co‑presented “Serverless vs Kubernetes — The Final Showdown” (with Tiago Bilou) on the Container Stage, in front of an audience primarily focused on Google Cloud.
• Featured in the Serverless Advocate Newsletter (Lee Gilmore) – “Ask the Expert” section, sharing tips and practical advice for engineers working with serverless.

Publications & Reflections

“This year I didn’t publish as many technical articles – partly because the Engineering Manager role limits deep hands‑on exploration, and partly because the conference season was incredibly busy.”

Articles I’m Proud Of

1. Multiplier – The Rising Tide

   • Follow‑up to an older post about being a multiplier, one of the reasons I became an EM and Community Builder.
   • [Be the Rising Tide: The Multiplying Effect of Lifting (and Pushing) Others] (link TBD)

2. Discomfort Isn’t the Enemy

   • Reflection on imposter syndrome, vulnerability, and personal growth, inspired by moments when I cried at work.
   • [Lessons from 3 Times I Cried at Work] (link TBD)

Internal Impact – Building Communities at Work

(Not directly part of AWS Community Builders, but still related to sharing knowledge.)

• March 2025: Delivered a talk on Observability and Incident Management – “From DevOoops to SRE.”
• Launched internal Guilds and Tech Communities.
• With support from the AWS Enterprise RAMP‑UP program, organised workshops for engineers on Amazon Q, SQS & EventBridge, and Micro‑frontends, delivered by AWS experts.

These contributions rank among the ones I’m most proud of.

Goals & Outcomes

Thank You

Thank you to everyone who made 2025 unforgettable – fellow speakers, organisers, mentors, and the vibrant communities that keep me inspired every day. Here’s to an even more impactful 2026!

2025 – A Year in Review

Reflections in 30 days
I sincerely hope conference organisers coordinate better in the future — autumn is becoming impossibly crowded!

Just as a reminder for anyone struggling with CFPs: I was rejected by 15 events this year.
Rejection is part of the process.

Goals & Outcomes (Additional Reflections)

• Leadership talks – My second goal of speaking about leadership didn’t happen.
• DORA Metrics & high‑performing teams – These proposals weren’t accepted this year.

Personal Takeaways

2025 was exhausting, energising, emotional, and unforgettable.

• I love being part of the AWS Community and the broader engineering world.
• Sharing knowledge makes us all better.
• Speaking publicly creates connections that last.
• Helping others grow amplifies our own growth.

Community Insight

Real community happens when people bring passion, vulnerability, curiosity, and kindness.

Looking Ahead

Here’s to another year of learning, building, speaking, and lifting others.
A special shout‑out to the AWS Community Builders program, which continues to be an incredible catalyst for personal and professional growth.

See you in 2026!