In this post, we’re thrilled to share highlights from the first-ever Los Angeles Amazon QuickSight User Group meetup, which marked an exciting milestone in our growing Amazon QuickSight Community. On February 6, 2025, over 40 business intelligence (BI) innovation leaders gathered in Santa Monica, with an additional 10 joining virtually, to connect, share insights, and explore the latest in Amazon QuickSight.
Capturing our community’s first milestone: LA QuickSight User Group leader, Andy Sydnor (CSU), documents our inaugural LA QuickSight gathering.
A community comes together
This groundbreaking event fostered local community engagement, with attendees from higher education powerhouses like California State University (CSU) and UC Irvine to innovative companies like Unisys, Veeps, Magid, and Amazon engaging in meaningful discussions.
Knowledge sharing and innovation
The meetup featured presentations focusing on real-world implementations and the latest QuickSight capabilities.
CSU’s Andy Sydnor, leader of the User Group and CSU’s Sr. Director of BI and Data Operations, Office of the Chancellor, kicked off the meetup welcoming attendees and setting the stage for an engaging session. Ramon Lopez, Principal Worldwide Solutions Architect from Amazon QuickSight, followed with an informative presentation on recent QuickSight announcements from AWS re:Invent, including the much-anticipated generative AI capabilities powered by Amazon Q in QuickSight and the introduction of Highcharts visuals.
Bringing knowledge and excitement: CSU’s Andy Sydnor welcomes our community and AWS’s Ramon Lopez showcases Amazon QuickSight’s latest generative AI capabilities.
One of the meetup’s highlights came from Berto Thuvanuti, Manager of Data Analytics at CSU, who shared the University’s compelling journey in developing public-facing dashboards using QuickSight. As the largest higher education system in the nation, with 23 campuses serving over 450,000 students, CSU’s implementation provided valuable insights into QuickSight capabilities at scale.
Innovation at Scale: Berto Thuvanuti of CSU shares about developing public-facing dashboards with QuickSight in the largest higher education system in the nation.
The open forum session proved particularly valuable, generating thoughtful conversations about what attendees would like to see at future meetups, including potential presentation topics, practical use cases, migration experiences, and technical deep dives.
The event received overwhelmingly positive feedback, achieving a satisfaction rating of 4.8 out of 5.
Thank you to our leadership team
The success of this inaugural meetup stems from the dedication of the leadership team, including Andy Sydnor and Angela Williams from the CSU Chancellor’s Office, Stephanie Padilla from Unisys, and Arun Maniyan from AWS. Their collaboration established a strong foundation for the User Group’s future growth.
Building for the future: Join a local leadership team
As we build on this momentum, we’re seeking passionate leaders to help shape the future of our User Groups. Particularly, we are looking for leaders in Santa Monica/LA so that we can have two greater LA locations: Santa Monica/LA and Irvine/Orange County. We are also looking for innovative leaders to launch groups in NYC, Seattle, Austin, and Chicago. This is an excellent opportunity to:
- Drive the strategic direction of our growing community
- Contribute to User Group meetup planning and content development
- Network with industry leaders and peers
You don’t have to be a QuickSight expert. In addition to content leaders, we are looking for leaders with expertise in event planning, project management, and getting the word out. If you’re interested in taking an active role in building a vibrant localized community, we encourage you to reach out to kmandia@amazon.com and complete our leadership interest form. You could help make future meetups even more impactful!
Community builders in action: QuickSight team members Madi Hsieh, Kristin Mandia, and User Group leadership team member Arun Maniyan (AWS) celebrate a successful launch.
Keeping the momentum going: User Group leadership team member Stephanie Padilla (Unisys) thanks attendees and guides them on ways to stay connected.
Next LA User Group meetup: Save the date
Register now for our next LA QuickSight User Group meetup: June 5, 2025, 10:00 AM–3:00 PM PST at the California State University Chancellor’s Office in Long Beach. Get connected:
- Join the LA Area Amazon QuickSight User Group on LinkedIn
- Watch the meetup recording on our QuickSight YouTube channel
- Stay tuned for quarterly meetups as they are posted on our LinkedIn group
Connect with the global Amazon QuickSight community
The successful launch of the LA QuickSight User Group represents just the beginning. As we look to expand User Groups to New York, Seattle, Austin, and beyond in 2025, we’re excited to build on this foundation and support the launch of vibrant User Group QuickSight communities across the US and the globe. In the AMER Region, check out the Phoenix QuickSight User Group. In the EMEA Region, connect with the DACH and UK and Ireland QuickSight User Groups. In Denpasar, India, explore the AWS Data & AI User Group led by QuickSight expert Sanjeeb Mohapatra.
Connect with the global QuickSight community through our Amazon QuickSight Community hub, where you can access learning resources, engage with Solutions Architects, and participate in weekly live learning webinars designed for users at all skill levels—from business users to dashboard authors to developers.
Together, we’re building more than just User Groups—we’re creating a community of innovation, learning, and collaboration. Join us!
Sign up for the online QuickSight Community, and innovate and learn together.
Learning and leading in innovation together: Jill Florant, Madi Hsieh, and Katie Gray from AWS invite attendees to join the global Amazon QuickSight Community.
About the Author
Kristin Mandia is the worldwide Senior Online Community Manager for Amazon QuickSight, a cloud-centered, fully managed AI-driven BI service.
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/business-intelligence/building-community-for-business-intelligence-and-generative-ai-innovation-los-angeles-launches-inaugural-amazon-quicksight-user-group/