Attending Meetups

Thank you for taking the time to attend one of our meetups! They can be a great place for learning and meeting new people, but there can also be a lot going on. Below you’ll find all the information you need about attending our events.

Code of Conduct

Our community is dedicated to providing an inclusive environment for everyone, regardless of gender, gender identity and expression, age, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance, body size, race, ethnicity, religion (or lack thereof), or technology choices.

We do not tolerate harassment of participants in any form. Sexual language and imagery is not appropriate for any venue, including talks, workshops, parties, Slack and other online media. Participants violating these rules may be sanctioned or expelled at the discretion of the community organisers.

If you believe someone is violating the code of conduct, we ask that you report it by emailing melbourne@awsug.org.au, contacting the organisers on slack, or via the website.

All our speakers, attendees, and anyone else taking part in Melbourne AWS User Group activities are expected to familiarise themselves with these policies. While these policies are open to discussion and change over time, participation in the community implies that you are willing to abide by the policies in place at that time.

For more information please see the long version of our code of conduct.

Agenda

Our meetup agenda varies month to month, but they all follow the same basic schedule. After the return to in-person events following COVID lockdowns, we’ve moved the networking session to the start to make the experience better for those following the livestream.

Venue

Our main venue for 2023 is the Event Hub at NAB Place, 395 Bourke Street, Melbourne.

Getting There

NAB Place is reachable from Bourke street, between Queen Street and Elizabeth Street. When traveling by tram, the closest stop is stop 5 for trams 86 and 96. From there you cross Elizabeth Street and you’ll be able to find it quickly and it’s clearly marked.

Inside NAB Event Hub

When you enter the Event Hub from Bourke street, you walk in the direction of the escalators and will see a little bit past them on the left side a big sign for “EVENT HUB”. That’s where you need to go.

Accessibility

Our venue, NAB Place, provides step-free access from Bourke Street through to the room. Inside the room, there are no elevated spaces and space is available for wheelchairs or other mobility devices. If you have any concerns, please reach out to the organisers.

Catering

All of our events are catered, instead of serving alcohol however we allocate a bigger portion of our budget to food. This means that we generally have vermiccelli bowls for food as well as a mix of soft drinks and water.

Dietary Requirements and Preferences

We always have a vegetarian option available at each event, and vegan or gluten free options by request.

We don’t order all dietary options for every meetup in order to keep food wastage down. We are more than happy to try and accomodate any requirements that you have, so please get in touch.

Presentations

We generally have two or three presentations at each event, though this varies month to month. Our speakers are donating their time and knowledge for these events, so we ask that all attendees are polite and respectful.

Some tips:

• Be seated promptly when the presentation starts. This helps us keep the event to time as well.
• Stop all conversations. If you want to keep talking you may, but please take it outside.
• Wait until the end to ask questions. The most common answer to questions is “that’s my next slide”; give the presenter a chance to flow. (This is not a hard rule - if a presenter welcomes questions during the presentation then have at them, but don’t keep interrupting with questions).
• Ask good questions. See below.

Asking good questions

Asking good questions is important to the flow of the night and the experience of everyone there. Here are some tips for asking good questions.

• Ask questions not comments. Don’t just make a comment about the content of the presentation, speak to the presenter directly afterwards for those.
• Ask polite questions that contribute to the discussion.
• Nobody knows all the answers! Speakers often know a lot about their subject, but nobody knows all the answers to every question. Please remember that “I don’t know” is an acceptable answer.
• Don’t try to catch presenters out. Maybe you know more about the presented subject than the speaker, but don’t try to catch them out by asking some super tricky or obscure question. It’s not polite.
• Don’t have a conversation. If you feel your question might lead to several follow up questions, please speak to the presenter after the event and have a conversation with them directly.

Introductory Presentation

We like to encourage new speakers, and reserve a slot for a 10-minute lightning talk at the beginning of each meetup for someone who has not presented at the User Group before.

This can be a presentation on anything but is generally intended to be a Level 100 (Beginner to AWS) or Level 200 (Introduction to service) talk. Speaking Mentorship is available as well.

Find out more

Helping out

Many hours go into each meetup and many hands are a bounty, but it doesn’t take a large commitment to help out! There are tasks large and small at each event, such as setting out the catering, setting up AV, welcoming people or cleaning up.

No commitment is required (but also no refunds). If you’d like to help out please read more about volunteering.