Written by Chris Miller

In late July, Amazon Web Services hosted their first ever AWS Heroes Americas Summit in Seattle. This was a gathering of 40 AWS Heroes which met with AWS service teams to discuss product roadmaps, and give feedback on new & upcoming features. Heroes travelled from as far away as Brazil, Australia, and Peru, as well as one lucky hero from Santa Cruz.

What is the AWS Heroes program?

The AWS Heroes program recognizes and honors the most engaged and influential developers who have a significant impact within the community. It also provides Heroes a place to tell their story and connect with like-minded developers.

What does an AWS Hero do?

AWS Heroes are people who enjoy working with technology, sharing knowledge with others, and mentoring. Each Hero is unique and their contributions may include any combination of the following :

• Writing blogs, articles, books, or technical docs

• Creating content such as tutorials, podcasts, and videos

• Contributing to the AWS developer community through open source projects and sharing code

• Running AWS-focused events like user groups, hackathons, workshops, etc.

• Speaking at tech events

A local AWS Hero

In 2021 Chris Miller, CEO of local tech consultancy Cloud Brigade, was recognized as AWS Hero. During the pandemic Chris and his team were working on a number of Artificial Intelligence projects, and producing blog articles and videos on their work. The projects ranged from practical, such as traffic light management, to absurd "pet" projects like The Poopinator. Chris is pretty well known for running internships locally (60 interns as of 2022 and counting), and is currently working with UCSC students on summer internship projects.

What was the summit like?

"It was a great opportunity to break away from the business, and finally meet in person with a bunch of cool folks from all over. The summit was a pretty intimate event held at our hotel and at some local AWS offices. In parallel the AWS Developer Relations Team was having their own conference and we were able to meet with them and watch some great presentations from AWS VPs like Jeff Barr and Swami Sivasubramanian. In a series of breakout sessions, we were able to work with service teams to learn more about the products we use, and gain early access to new products in development. I feel honored to be able to have a voice on the inside of AWS to help influence products that will be used by so many people. I was also able to bring a number of my own project challenges to the table, find potential solutions, and get connected to others for further support and collaboration. It allows me to better support our own internal team, our projects, and ultimately our clients. On the last day we were treated to an evening mixer at The Spheres."