In this newsletter, you'll know the story behind the reboot of the Sydney Snowflake User Group. Want to attend the next event? Register via the link in this article.

Numerous individuals within the community collaborated to ensure the success of these sessions. From dedicated speakers who generously offered their time and traveled to present, to the efforts put into securing a suitable venue, promoting the event, and even taking care of pizza orders and collection. It was truly a team effort with many individuals going above and beyond to make these gatherings a success.

The user group which had been inactive finally had a reboot! This time, the city is Sydney, Australia, and the technology is Snowflake. We at INTELLIGEN and our partners at Snowflake joined forces to revive the Sydney Snowflake User Group. 

Our venue of choice was the Snowflake offices in Sydney, which boasted breathtaking views. With just a couple of weeks' time, we dedicated ourselves to promoting the event, gathering speakers, and ensuring its smooth execution. The remarkable success of the event stands as a testament to the hard work of those behind the scenes who brought this endeavor to fruition.

When organising an event in a new location, uncertainty often looms. Questions arise: How many people will register, and how many will actually attend after a long day at the office? Will participants easily access the building? Will the timing be suitable for all?

Snowflake Sydney User Group May 2023

Thankfully we had a strong turnout from the loyal data community and the logistics such as getting access to enter the building and people finding their way to the right floor, although challenging we made it work just fine. To ensure an engaging and captivating session, we planned for a concise and dynamic format. Recognising the need to keep participants interested after a long day at work, we carefully curated three talks, each lasting 20 minutes. The overarching theme for the evening revolved around the ‘Snowflake and AWS better together’, highlighting their recent partnership. It is worth noting that AWS has recently invested in this partnership with Snowflake, given that the majority of Snowflake customers globally rely on AWS infrastructure. By aligning our talks with this theme, we aimed to showcase the seamless integration and the benefits of utilising Snowflake on AWS.



Snowflake User Group Speakers

Our first speaker was Sagar Kulkani, a Sales Partner Engineer, who, with the assistance of Rishu Saxena, delivered an informative technical presentation on Snowpark with AWS Sagemaker. Certainly a hot topic within the community at the moment as Snowflake continues to evolve and introduce more capabilities in the AI/ML space. Following Sagar, we welcomed Navan Tirupathi from Core Logic, a prominent provider of housing market data and insights in Australia. Navan and his team demonstrated the value they have derived from Snowflake and their utilisation of AWS. They presented three compelling use cases, including building a single customer view, data marketplace, and listings and sales.

Core Logic's 3 Use Cases on AWS and Snowflake

Lastly, we had the pleasure of hearing from James Weakley and Chris Chandler, both from the startup Omnata. Despite having day jobs like many of us, they fearlessly ventured into the startup world to create products that address genuine business challenges. James and Chris are getting ready to release a product that uses the native app framework to the market.

Notably, it was this very product that propelled James and Chris to the semi-final round of the Snowflake Startup Challenge. This contest is designed for early-stage startups that are leveraging the power of Snowflake's Data Cloud to build innovative applications and products. The winner and finalists may receive up to $1 million in investments from Snowflake, mentorship from industry leaders at NYSE-listed companies, along with global exposure, and the opportunity to ring the NYSE Bell! For more detailed information, please click here.

Following the presentations, we transitioned into a vibrant networking session, graciously sponsored by Snowflake, complete with pizzas and drinks. In the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, the value of networking has been amplified, and the chance to meet individuals in person whom we had only interacted with virtually was truly fantastic.

Special thanks to Andrew Montgomery and Sagar Kulkarni from Snowflake, whose instrumental contributions were vital in making this event a success. We are grateful for their support, as well as the efforts of the entire Snowflake team.

We are already looking forward to our next event on July 27th, so register as early as today via this link. To receive timely updates, follow us on LinkedIn and on our other social media accounts.