A brand-new conference created to support the expanding cloud computing community in the North of England is set to take place in Newcastle this October.
Powered by Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Leighton – a leading AWS software development company, the AWS North Community Conference will bring together the regional technology community, along with national and international speakers, to facilitate discussions and foster a community that can shape the future of cloud computing with AWS together. Prolific North has joined the event as media partner.
The conference, which is first of its kind to run in the North East, will take place at The Catalyst on Thursday 16th October 2025 and is designed to give the North East AWS community a space to innovate together as well as showcase the fantastic work happening in the region on an international stage.
Steve Morland, along with his Leighton colleagues AWS Practice Lead, Lee Gilmore and Solutions Architect, Dan Pudwell and former AWS Solutions Architect, Mark Sailes are some of the North East’s biggest AWS advocates and have been responsible for shaping the conference.
Speaking on the new conference, Steve Morland, Chief Technology Officer at Leighton said: “We’re delighted to be running the AWS North Community Conference. There’s a real gap in the region for a place where our professionals can come together and innovate so to be able to organise an event of this calibre, with the support of organisations such as Dynamo North East and Prolific North, is great.
“It’s really important that the North East has the infrastructure in place to support our talent with their continued professional development. Leighton’s decision to fund the conference will allow us to create that and the backing from AWS has really bolstered our ability to put on a conference of such high quality.
“The event will help to really foster collaboration across the AWS community and give opportunities for everyone to learn and develop in their own way. By making sure that we have an event which is closer to home, but that also equals some of the other events happening nationally and even internationally we will be able to engage more of what is a thriving ecosystem in this region.”
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The organisers have secured an impressive lineup of international speakers – from as far as Texas – including, AWS Heroes, Sheen Brisals – who has been responsible for a huge amount of innovation within lego.com, Allen Helton – host of tech blog and podcast ‘Ready, Set, Cloud’ and Yan Cui, host of the real-world serverless podcast.
Speaking on the announcement of the event Al Alzein, Membership Engagement Manager at Dynamo North East said: “As a not-for-profit tech sector organisation on a mission to build a stronger tech ecosystem in the North East of England, we at Dynamo are thrilled to support this community-led initiative.
“This is a landmark moment for the region, as the North East hosts a technical conference of this scale for the first time in recent history.
“It’s fantastic to see AWS community leaders like Steve Morland and Lee Gilmore driving this forward, bringing together talent, world-class expertise, and ambition to further strengthen our region’s thriving tech sector. A huge thank you to the team at Leighton for investing significant resources to make this community conference possible.
“We encourage all AWS users in the region and beyond to get involved – this is an excellent opportunity for CPD and networking.”
Over the course of the day the conference will bring together AWS practitioners and technical experts, developers and engineers, SMEs, tech innovators and disruptors, industry leaders, academics and students to explore how AWS is transforming the tech landscape and how as a community the sector can transform how it designs, builds and scales software solutions.
In addition to the future of the tech sector in the region, speakers will also present on key themes including modernisation, AI, serverless, containers and modern cloud architecture and migration. To register for tickets please click here.