I've seen a lot of meetup talks over the years, and this is how I assess them

What I look for in meetup talks!


So a fellow AWS Hero recently tweeted that TouchID is now supported by AWS SSO, so of course, I wanted to give this a quick go:

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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">I have MAJOR and BREAKING news: TouchID is now supported by AWS SSO as a MFA device when using Safari 🎉🎉🎉<br><br>Previously you could only use it from Chrome, but now it works from Safari too!</p>&mdash; Vlad Ionescu (he/him) (@iamvlaaaaaaad) <a href="https://twitter.com/iamvlaaaaaaad/status/1466747612674105350?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 3, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

</div>

## Configuring multi factor auth

First up, I have to go to my Master account within the organisation, navigate to AWS SSO and tick security keys and built-in authenticators: 
![](/img/blog/touch-id-with-aws-sso/configure-multi-factor-auth.png)

## SSO MFA Devices
Next I head on over to login to AWS SSO and click on MFA Devices where I'm presented with a Register Device button: 
![](/img/blog/touch-id-with-aws-sso/mfa-devices.png)


## Register MFA Device
After clicking the register device button, I'm presented a dialog box with 3 options and of course, I'll choose the built-in authenticator for the Apple TouchId and follow the prompts to set it up: 
![](/img/blog/touch-id-with-aws-sso/register-mfa-device.png)

And that's it - log out and log back in with all that TouchId goodness - sooo good!


Setting up MFA using touch id for AWS SSO

Using touch id with AWS SSO



If you are here, then you've probably heard that I run a couple of tech meetups in Sydney and beyond. The three meetups I run in Sydney are:

- [Sydney Serverless](https://www.meetup.com/Sydney-Serverless-Meetup-Group/ "Sydney Serverless")
- [Sydney DataEng](https://www.meetup.com/Sydney-Data-Engineering-Meetup/ "Sydney DataEng")
- [Sydney dbt](https://www.meetup.com/Sydney-dbt-Meetup/ "Sydney dbt")

I've been organising meetups for roughly 4-5 years and in that time, I've built up a couple of tricks that help me save time when finding new speakers.

## Get structured data

There are four simple questions I ask prospective meetup speakers, and they are the following:

- name, job title, company
- talk title
- talk summary
- bio

Now that may not sound like a lot of info but it can be very revealing about who your speaker is and whether they are a good fit for your meetup as well as how ready they are to present.

It is also a great time saver as I pretty much copy and paste the information into the meetup page! :D

## Job title and company

A job title and company can very quickly tell you a lot about a speaker - I don't mean this from an elitist perspective - far from it in fact as no one at a tech meetup wants to hear from a c-suite executive, far removed from the tools. A job title can give away hints about how day to day this person is on the tech they are talking about as well as potential red flags if they are someone in sales or recruitment who may not have the best interest of the meetup community at heart.

## talk title and summary

Someone who can quickly rattle these details off in a succinct manner typically will have a very good idea of what they will present and are often ready at short notice. Watch points are verbose summaries and scattered thoughts - anything that screams a disjointed story, and you may want to get back to that speaker and provide further coaching until they have clarity in their summary.

## bio

This will often indicate whether a speaker has done this before or not (or is a regular on the speaking circuit). I'm not put off in the slightest by a bio that isn't very well crafted (or is clearly from a junior). Getting newcomers to present at your meetup is what it's all about and is another coaching point for a generous organiser.

## Final thoughts

I hope you found this post insightful - it's perhaps not the most complicated thing you will read today but I hope this little nugget of wisdown can save you some time.




# Getting started

Okay so let's get straight to it - this is what we are trying to achieve:

![](/img/blog/streaming-platform/StreamingArchitecture.png)


## AWS Workspaces

So firstly, you'll want to get yourself an AWS GraphicsPro Windows Workspace. These are quite powerful instances with 16 vCPU's, 122 gig of RAM and a GPU with 8 gig of video memory.

![](/img/blog/streaming-platform/workspaces.png)

WARNING: these things are expensive, they're either $1,232 per month in the Sydney region or $81 up front and $14.34 per hour so you'll want to use them sparingly!!!

## Things you need to install

- Download some media onto your Workspace
- VLC + NDI
- Setup OBS.Ninja
- Streamlabs for OBS

## Download some media onto your Workspace

It's important to have a few bits of media on your workspace to help with doing some nice scenes with OBS - you will get what I'm talking about when we get to that part.

Some suggestions:

- a png export of a slide from powerpoint to use as a holding slide.
- some royalty free background music
- a pre-recorded video of yourself - perhaps say something into your webcam for a few minutes!

## VLC setup

You will want to download and install VLC as well as the NDI plugin and this is probably the best blog to follow in that regard: https://www.newtek.com/blog/tips/vlc-media-player-and-newtek-ndi-vlc-plugin/

![](/img/blog/streaming-platform/VLC-logo.jpg)

## OBS Ninja setup

Getting setup with OBS Ninja couldn't be easier, simply go to this URL: https://obs.ninja/ and enter a unique room name that's easy to remember and voila, you're ready to roll. To access the director room, you'll need to use the following query string ?director=room_name

![](/img/blog/streaming-platform/obsNinja.png)

## Streamlabs setup

Okay here's where you will need to do some work. What we will need to setup is the following:

- scenes
- inputs

![](/img/blog/streaming-platform/streamlabs.png)


How does one run OBS and Streamlab reliably in the cloud

May 11, 2021What I look for in meetup talks!