How We Grew AWS User Group Vienna to 2,000+ Members

When I first took over AWS User Group Vienna in 2020, it was a group of passionate cloud builders — but smaller, quieter, still finding its rhythm. We had under 1,000 members, and like so many community efforts, it risked fading if no one kept it alive.

Fast forward to today:
Over 2,000 members.
Five organizers.
Monthly meetups in two cities (Vienna and Linz).
Special events like Community Days and Women’s User Group meetups.

And most importantly: a real sense of belonging.
Not just for AWS users — but for builders, dreamers, learners, and teachers.

Here’s the honest story of how we did it.

🚀 1. We Never Treated It Like a “Side Project”

Community isn’t something you can half-commit to.
It’s not “just an event once a month.” It’s hundreds of micro-decisions you make between events — how you answer questions, how you invite someone new, how you design experiences that people feel, not just attend.

Even when I was juggling a full-time job, part-time study, self-teaching AWS, and learning juggling (literally and figuratively), I made time for this.

Because I knew:

If we show up consistently, others will too.

🎯 2. We Focused on Quality, Not Just Quantity

• Real talks: No vendor pitches. Every session had to teach something — not just market something.
• Community first: We prioritized speakers who live the cloud journey — practitioners, builders, hobbyists — not just polished marketing presentations.
• Consistency: Monthly cadence (except for July and August, when we hold casual “Stammtisch” sessions to keep the heartbeat going).

🌱 3. We Built a Team — and Trusted Each Other

For a long time, I managed the User Group almost alone (and Philipp did too, before I joined).
But sustainable growth needs shared ownership.

Now, we’re five organizers, spread across Austria:

• Linda (Me)
• Philipp
• Dima
• Roman
• Jakob
• Matthias (Pub-Quizmaster)

Each person brings their own energy, network, and ideas. We meet regularly to plan — but we trust each other to take ownership when needed.

It’s not about titles. It’s about trust.

🛠 4. We Automated What Didn’t Need to Be Manual

Organizing meetups manually — speaker sourcing, agenda drafting, Q&A — is hard and often repetitive.
So we did what AWS users do best: we built automation.

Together with Philipp, we created OTTO — a CrewAI-powered assistant system that helps us plan, find speakers, draft agendas, and answer FAQs.
(Stay tuned — a full blog post about OTTO is coming soon.)

Automation freed us to focus on what matters: people.

🌍 5. We Expanded Beyond Vienna

When we saw interest growing outside of Vienna, we didn’t wait for someone else to act.
We launched AWS User Group Linz meetups too — making sure we could support builders wherever they are.

We believe communities shouldn’t be locked to one city.
Cloud is everywhere. Community should be too.

🌟 6. We Celebrated Diversity

Representation matters.
It’s why I also helped launch the AWS Women’s User Group Vienna — to create more visible spaces where women feel seen, heard, and supported in the cloud ecosystem. The meetups happen once every quarter and during summertime we meet all together.

We bring more female speakers on stage,
We highlight their stories,
And we make sure everyone — no matter their background — knows they are welcome here.

✨ What Makes AWS UG Vienna Different?

• We care about the people first, not the companies they work for.
• We refuse vendor-only talks unless there’s real, practical value.
• We experiment — from casual Stammtische to technical deep-dives to massive Community Days.
• We support beginner talks and first-time speakers.
• We build automation (like OTTO) to make the experience better for everyone.
• We stay curious — always open to new topics, new formats, new ideas.
• And we remember why we started: to learn, to teach, to build. Together.

🛤 Where We’re Going Next

• Use OTTO in our real workflows — speaker scouting, Q&A, event planning.
• Grow AWS User Group Linz alongside Vienna.
• Support more new speakers from the community itself.
• Host bigger Community Days (and make them even more inclusive and fun).
• Build cross-city and cross-country collaborations — because learning knows no borders.

📬 Wanna Join?

If you’re near Vienna (or Linz!) — or just curious — check out our next meetup:
👉 AWS User Group Vienna on Meetup.com 👉 AWS Women’s User Group Vienna on Meetup.com 👉 AWS User Group Linz on Meetup.com

Or reach out directly:
📮 hello@lindamohamed.com

There’s always room for one more builder.

💡 Community isn’t built by accident. It’s built one conversation, one coffee, one crazy cloud idea at a time.
Come build it with us.