AWS re:Invent 2022

After a couple of years of cancelled bookings due to COVID-19, this year was the first time I’ve been able to attend AWS re:Invent. What a conference. Unlike any other event I’ve ever seen, the scale of this thing is wild, even for Vegas. Everyone warned me about travelling through LAX on the busiest travel day of the year. But overall, things were pretty smooth. After over 24 hours of flights and layovers, the trip from Adelaide->Sydney->Los Angeles->Las Vegas ended in a wonderful thanksgiving lunch with friends I hadn’t seen since 2019.

The conference was incredible. But here are five lessons for next time:

1. It’s pretty spread out

The conference is spread out over multiple properties, ranging from a five minute walk to a shuttle bus ride. Staying within walking distance of the exhibit hall makes it easy to attend the morning keynotes. I stayed at the Palazzo which was probably the nicest hotel I’ve stayed at in Vegas. Bonus: AWS provide good rates if you get in early and book when you purchase a conference pass.

2. It’s not a big deal if you can reserve a seat for a talk

There are plenty of walk-up seats available for every talk. When I didn’t have a reserved seat, I got there 30-60 minutes early and never missed out.

3. Not everything is in the name

We use AWS CoPilot heavily and were pretty disappointed that searching the program only turned up a couple of talks on the topic. But after going to a talk on ECS and seeing them use CoPilot the whole time, despite not including it in the description, we realised we may have missed a lot of valuable sessions!

4. re:Play is a party

re:Play is the big party on Thursday night. It’s not a repeat viewing of previous sessions, not a board game night, and definitely not a movie night. Probably take it easy on Wednesday night in anticipation of this.

5. Leave Friday afternoon or Saturday

The exhibit hall closes on Thursday afternoon, the big party is Thursday night, and the talks wind up by lunchtime on Friday. All of this makes a Friday (or Saturday morning if you want a sleep in) exit recommended.