Preparing for the First Kiro Korea User Group Meetup

My interest in Kiro wasn't particularly special at first. I had it in mind as just another option among widely-used AI coding tools like Claude Code, Codex, and Cursor. If anything, knowing that Kiro was built by a separate team within AWS gave me a sense of familiarity since I was already comfortable with AWS. For AI tools, I mainly used n8n for workflow automation, Notion AI, the free version of ChatGPT, and Gemini for enterprise. For simple PoCs, demo apps, data processing scripts, and managing my AWS data infrastructure, I used VS Code + Amazon Q Developer and CLI. I was juggling between personal and work email accounts, trying to survive within the monthly free credits (holding out until my company would support AI coding tool costs).

While feeling uncertain about advanced prompt writing methods, I became interested in Kiro's approach of spec-driven development using EARS (Easy Approach to Requirements Syntax) notation and started using it gradually. During the long Chuseok holiday in 2025, I finally tackled tasks I had been putting off—hosting n8n on my personal AWS account, managing personal domains, and simple app development—all with Kiro. I rediscovered the joy of building something I wanted to create (not work-related). What really made me adopt Kiro as my main tool was deploying 5 apps to Apify marketplace and being able to handle frontend work (where I had near-zero practical skills) entirely through AI assistance.

Since Kiro was a latecomer, there weren't many users around me, and Korean content and shared tips were scarce. During the AWS Korea User Group organizers' year-end party, while discussing new sub-groups and activation strategies, I decided to create a Kiro user group. I had been an organizer for the Data sub-group since 2018, but this was my first time actually starting a new group from scratch. Wondering where to begin, I built the Kiro Korea User Group website using Kiro. Then I created an event registration page on Luma and started recruiting participants. Like the AWS Korea User Group's Goormi character, I thought about creating a main character for the Kiro Korea User Group. Using Gemini, I tried putting a traditional Korean "gat" (hat) on the Kiro character, and it turned out well enough to use as our group mascot.

For the first meetup, I prepared a main session introducing Kiro Powers and planned for attendees to briefly share their thoughts and experiences with Kiro as speakers. Of course, I had two speakers lined up in advance in case no one volunteered. On the day, it wasn't lack of participation but time constraints that prevented additional attendees from speaking, which was disappointing. Personally, preparing the Kiro Powers session was meaningful as I got to compare it with Claude Skills and understand the pros and cons. Based on QR check-ins, 17 people attended, and we filled two hours with planned sessions and a live Q&A.

• Introduction to Kiro Powers - Yan So | Slides
• Boosting Dev Team Productivity with AI-Workflow - Taekwan Kwon (Woowa Brothers) | Slides
• Kiro Wild Adaptation Story - Kiwoong Nam (VPP Lab) | Slides

I'm thinking about how to run the Kiro user group going forward. While Kiro as a technical topic is the medium, I believe thinking about what kind of community I want to create comes first. From my past community experience, I want to create the joy of participation—where people with similar interests and concerns share an unfamiliar sense of belonging, exchanging understanding and context rather than definitive answers, in a loose solidarity.

From an organizer's perspective, to activate a new group, I plan to: 1. Host meetups consistently for at least 6 months, 2. Create opportunities for external exposure of group activities, 3. Contribute to Kiro promotion to expand potential participants. I'll be discussing and executing these plans with other organizers.