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Women in Architecture (WIA) Australia - Sydney Coffee Catch-up
Wed, Sep 23, 10:00 PMSydney community ☕️ Let’s take a break from the meetings, roadmaps, and architecture reviews and catch up over coffee. Join us for a casual **[Women in Architecture (WIA) Australia](https://www.linkedin.com/company/women-in-architecture-wia-australia/)** catch-up to connect with fellow enterprise, business, and solution architects, share ideas, grow your network, and meet others who are passionate about architecture and diversity in tech. Whether you're a long-time member, new to the community, or simply curious about architecture as a career, we'd love to see you there. Hosted by **[Mimi Chattopadhyay](https://www.linkedin.com/in/mimichattopadhyay/)** and **[Maria B](https://www.linkedin.com/in/maria-b-286971234/)** 📅 Thursday, 24 September ⏰ 8:00 – 9:30 am 📍 Maximus Cafe, GPO Building, 1 Martin Place, Sydney

Welcome to the next 2026 AWS Sydney Well-Architected Meetup!
Thu, Sep 24, 7:30 AMHi Architects, Welcome to the next 2026 AWS Sydney Well-Architected User Group Meetup! Each month we cover off AWS best-practices across all pillars and give away drones - lots of drones 🥳 **Please also note that AWS Security now requests a company name and company email where it is available. If you are a student, please list your institution and your student email address at that institution 👍** We'll be announcing more speakers on [https://well-architected.me](https://well-architected.me/) and previewing presentations during the coming weeks - our speakers and details this month include: * **Shilin Wu, Principal Solution Architect — VeloDB / Apache Doris** **Cost-Efficient Real-Time Analytics on AWS: Storage-Compute Separation with Apache Doris** Real-time analytics have a reputation for being expensive — you pay for fast storage you barely use, and for compute that sits idle overnight. This session walks through VeloDB / Apache Doris's storage-compute separation architecture on AWS, showing how to push warm data down to S3 while keeping sub-second query latency on the data that matters. We'll round off with a **live demo** querying billions of rows against S3-backed storage, soattendees can see the latency-vs-cost trade-off in action rather than on a slide. * **Mystery Speaker** **Generative AI Cost Optimisation** Cost Optimisation is essential but with all the anecdotal stories of massive token budget blowouts, staying on top of Generative AI best-practices is essential to avoiding these scenarios. This month's menu will include: * Pizzas * Beer: Nastro Azzurro * Wine: Big and red 🤤 So come join us at 5:30 for a 6pm **SHARP** start, followed by beer, wine, pizza and friendly networking after our talks :-) Tired of Linkedin’s "thought leadership”, spam and advertising? Join https://well-architected.me/ , the AWS community built for architects, developers and cloud professionals. * Connect with experienced AWS practitioners * Preview upcoming AWS Meetups and relive past content * Create and review beautiful AWS case studies in minutes * Prepare for AWS certifications with curated quizzes * Show your manager and reports you’re well-architected (Please note that by registering to attend you agree to your details being shared as and where required with Amazon Web Services and AWS Well-Architected User Group partners)

Cloud Concepts 101: System Design Interview with AWS Offerings
Fri, Sep 25, 7:30 AM# Workshop on Cloud Concepts 101: System Design Interview with AWS Offerings Ever wondered what it takes to design systems that handle massive traffic spikes without breaking a sweat? In this session, we’re demystifying modern cloud architecture. Instead of getting bogged down in complex configurations, we’ll focus on the core software engineering principles and cloud primitives that truly drive scalability. Whether you're building a new product from scratch, scaling an existing application, or preparing for system design interviews, this session will give you practical, production-ready knowledge. ## What We’ll Cover: * **Core Scaling Fundamentals**: Demystify horizontal scaling, stateless architectures, and elastic server setups * **Cloud Primitives First:** Learn why leaning on native cloud building blocks beats over-engineering your setup. * **Practical Walkthrough:** Step-by-step system design of a high-traffic e-commerce platform. * **AWS in Action:** Map out critical components—like a high-volume guest checkout flow—to key AWS services. * **Requirement Gathering & Trade-offs:** How to make confident architectural decisions that hold up as your user base grows from thousands to millions. 📅 25th September, 2025 ⏱️ 17:30PM onwards (about an hour) 📍 Level 8.4, 815 George St, Haymarket NSW 2000 RSVP today to reserve your spot - see you there!

SSP TUE - CITY LIGHT & SHADOWS IN MONOCHROME : Kings Cross
Tue, Sep 22, 12:30 AMExplore the light, shadows, architecture and street life of Kings Cross, Potts Point and Elizabeth Bay on a monochrome photography walk following the City of Sydney’s “Passion: Sydney’s Wild Side” cultural route.(see Photos for details) Coffee before the walk and an optional group pub lunch afterwards. **First meeting point:** For those who like coffee, from 10:00 am **Uliveto Café** Location: Bayswater Road, Kings Cross, close to Kings Cross Station **Second meeting point** (Walk starting point): The Coca-Cola Sign, at 10:30 am **Group lunch** Lunch time: Approximately 12:00–12:15 pm Location: **Kings Cross Hotel,** Darlinghurst Road, Kings Cross **Photography theme: City Light and Shadows** During this walk, look for: **Pools of light:** Wait for a person to walk through a brightly lit section of pavement while the surrounding area remains in shadow. ↳ **Silhouettes:** Photograph people against bright walls, windows, the sky or reflective surfaces. Exposure compensation may help preserve the highlights and turn the person into a strong graphic shape. **Layers and framing:** Use doorways, railings, stairways, tree branches and architectural openings to divide the frame or surround your subject. **Human gestures:** Street photography can include people as important subjects. Look for an expressive stride, a conversation, an unusual interaction, a moment of solitude or a figure whose position completes the composition. ↳ **Tonal contrast:** Search for scenes containing very bright and very dark areas. In monochrome photography, separation between tones can be more important than the original colours. **Textures and traces of history:** Weathered walls, stone steps, iron fences, old façades, signs and pavement details can communicate the character of the neighbourhood. **Suggested shooting areas** **The Cross and Darlinghurst Road** The walk begins amid the visual intensity of Kings Cross. Look for shopfront reflections, signs, traffic, pedestrians emerging from the station and contrasts between older façades and contemporary street life. This is a good place to practise **layered compositions**. Rather than photographing one person against an empty background, try combining foreground reflections, a middle-distance subject and architectural detail farther away.↳ A slower shutter speed can introduce movement into passing pedestrians or vehicles, while a faster shutter speed can isolate gestures and brief interactions. **Victoria Street and 202 Victoria Street** As we move away from the commercial centre, the visual rhythm changes. Terraces, apartment entrances, balconies, fences and trees create repeated lines and alternating patches of light and shade. Look for people entering and leaving buildings, figures partially hidden by trees, and subjects framed by gates or doorways. In monochrome, small differences in texture—paint, brick, stone, foliage and clothing—can become important. **Butler Stairs and McElhone Stairs** The stairways are among the strongest locations for our theme. Steps, handrails and retaining walls naturally produce leading lines, repeating geometry and deep shadows. Try photographing: \*a single person ascending or descending the stairs * shadows cast across the steps \*a figure positioned between railings↳ * a high-angle or low-angle composition \*the contrast between a sunlit landing and a darker staircase Be considerate here, as the stairs are public access routes. Keep camera bags close and leave space for residents and pedestrians. **Embarkation Park** The park provides a visual transition from the dense streetscape to a more open environment. Trees can create broken or dappled shadows across paths, walls and people. Look for small figures within larger compositions and relationships between people, foliage, surrounding buildings and open sky. This can be an opportunity to make quieter photographs rather than concentrating only on dramatic contrast. **St Vincent’s College, Challis Avenue and surrounding streets** The institutional architecture, mature trees and residential streets offer strong vertical lines, formal façades and framed views. Challis Avenue may provide opportunities to photograph café activity, local residents, deliveries and everyday interactions. Watch for people passing between sun and shade or appearing briefly between parked cars, trees and building entrances. **Yellow House** Around Yellow House, consider the relationship between the neighbourhood’s artistic history and its present-day appearance. Instead of making only a straightforward record of the building, look for fragments, details, reflections and human activity nearby.↳ A person walking past an unusual façade can give the image scale and turn an architectural photograph into a street photograph. **Elizabeth Bay House and nearby streets** This section introduces more formal heritage architecture and landscaped surroundings. Columns, gates, windows, paths and symmetrical elements can be used as compositional frameworks. Try waiting for a person to enter a carefully arranged architectural composition. The human subject does not need to dominate the frame; a small figure can provide scale, contrast and narrative. **Kingsclere, Tusculum and Wayside Chapel** These locations bring together different layers of the area’s architectural and social character. Look for contrasts between grand buildings and ordinary street activity. At Wayside Chapel and the surrounding streets, approach photography with particular sensitivity and respect. Do not photograph people who may be vulnerable or experiencing distress merely for visual effect.↳ Strong street photography is not only visually interesting—it should also recognise the dignity of the people being photographed. **Orwell Street and Llankelly Place** This area offers narrow streets, pedestrian movement, café activity and changing light between buildings. It may be one of the best locations for using shop windows and reflections. Experiment with: * photographing through glass \*combining reflections with people inside or outside * waiting for several figures to occupy different parts of the frame \*underexposing slightly to preserve bright highlights * using narrow passages to create depth **Fitzroy Gardens and Darlinghurst Road** Near the end of the walk, Fitzroy Gardens provides opportunities for candid moments involving people sitting, walking, talking or moving between the trees and surrounding streets.↳ As we return to Darlinghurst Road, the busier environment gives us another chance to work with pedestrians, signs, traffic and strong graphic contrasts. Consider how your photographs from the end of the route differ from those taken at the beginning.

Lara Meacock/Edgar Anzaldua
Tue, Sep 22, 8:00 AMOur CCX Sydney September event features two awesome designers and speakers: Lara Meacock from CBA on a AI themed Systems designing back and Edgar Anzaldua Moreno from Compare Club on the complimentary talk You loved your Craft, Now you prompt. Will be applying a $10.00 cover charge to cover Food and drinks and on this occasion will be kindly hosted again by our new friends at Lorikeet. Details below on the venue location (Surry Hills) **IMPORTANT NOTE FOR THIS SESSION!** **An Important detail is that due to gaining entry to Lorikeet we will need any CCX Member planning to attend this session to supply us with their First and Last name in advance of attending.** On this occasion we will not be able to accept Members who do not supply these details. Many thanks CCX Sydney. **About Lara's talk** **Systems designing back - when systems start thinking with us.** AI is rapidly changing how digital products are designed and built - but the most interesting shift isn’t simply that we can work faster. It’s what happens when the systems, rules and decisions designers create can increasingly be interpreted and executed by AI. In this talk, Lara explores the evolving relationship between design systems, AI and the role of the designer. Drawing on real-world experiments in AI-enabled design and delivery, she’ll look at what happens when design systems become more than libraries of components and start acting as the infrastructure AI uses to create. As execution becomes increasingly automated, the designer’s role begins to shift too - away from being the person producing every outcome, and towards defining the systems, constraints, judgement and quality standards that shape what gets produced. **About Lara** Lara Meacock is a Principal Product Designer at Commonwealth Bank, working across product design, systems and emerging AI-enabled ways of working. Across her career, she has worked at the intersection of product, design and technology, helping teams turn complex problems into digital experiences that are useful, intuitive and built to scale. Her practice combines a strong product lens with systems thinking, exploring how the decisions, patterns and foundations behind an experience can enable better outcomes for both customers and the teams building them. More recently, Lara has been exploring what generative AI means for the future of product design: how we design with it, how it changes the way products are created, and how the role of the designer evolves as the systems around us become increasingly capable. **About Edgar's talk** **You Loved Your Craft. Now You Prompt.** You picked design because you loved designing. Now you prompt. More comes back, faster, and it looks fine, so you ship it. Something about that mechanism feels off, and you can't name it. So you sit with that feeling. It isn't nostalgia. Let's talk about what it is. The uncomfortable part is that the better the output gets, the less often you scrutinise it. And something gets lost. Designers weren't the first ones to experience that loss, and we can learn from others. This talk is about how you keep using AI without losing what makes you good at design. It's about getting your mojo back. Ending with something you have that the machine doesn't, besides a heart. **About Edgar** Edgar Anzaldúa-Moreno is a design leader, researcher, and engineer with more than two decades of experience working across technology, product design, strategy, and organisational change. His career has spanned startups, consultancies, and large organisations, including leadership roles at KPMG, Canon, CarsGuide, Compare Club and Sweat. He describes his practice as that of a designgineer — combining research, strategy, design, and engineering to solve complex product and organisational problems. His work includes published research, a US patent, award-winning digital products, and the development of research-led design teams and practices. Edgar is currently exploring how artificial intelligence is changing the nature of design work and leadership. He is writing Leading Design after AI: From Operator to Orchestrator, a book about what happens when AI makes production increasingly cheap, while judgment, critical thinking, and the ability to frame the right problems become more valuable. Therefore don't miss out on this awesome pairing of two creativity and AI themed talks that will certainly asks as many questions of our audience as well as our presenters!

Coffee & Collage | The Grounds
Sat, Sep 26, 4:00 AM#### Coffee & Collage @ The Grounds is a energetic 1-hour self-guided analogue collage experience designed to help you stay off screens, reconnect with your creativity and enjoy some time away from the digital world. **$30 - All materials included** **[Book your spot](https://www.theinspiredwithin.com/shop/p/coffee-collage-thegrounds)** You’ll create in the most instagrammable café in Sydney and spend the session cutting, layering and creating while sipping your favourite brew. The session will be hosted at The Grounds Cafe (indoor area). Please look for the Coffee & Collage sign. **A note about the venue:** The Grounds is a busy café, so expect background chatter and the general buzz of a lively venue. Only 8 spots.
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