AWS re:Invent 2023: An In-Depth Guide

AWS re:Invent 2023 is the event of the year for all things cloud. Cloud professionals from around the world will gather to hear about the latest cloud industry developments, engage with AWS experts, build connections, and gain valuable skills. 

Join Spacelift at AWS re:Invent! We’ll be at Booth #603 in the Infrastructure Solutions Zone, so drop by to say hello and talk to our team about our favorite subject — infrastructure as code (IaC). 

Read on to discover everything you need to know about AWS re:Invent 2023, as well as a review of the 2022 version, and suggestions for other events that might interest you.

AWS re:Invent is the world’s biggest cloud conference, created by leading global cloud provider Amazon Web Services (AWS). A learning conference for the international cloud community, AWS re:Invent has grown to become the no. 1 annual event for cloud enthusiasts the world over. Taking place in Las Vegas, Nevada, it is scheduled for November 27–December 1 this year. 

Naturally, the focus is on all things AWS, promoting AWS Cloud technology as a key mechanism for advancing your business and serving your customers, but there is something here for all cloud users. Attendees get access to literally hundreds of sessions on a huge range of topics, keynotes given by AWS leaders, and important opportunities to make lasting connections in the cloud community.

Interested? Here are a few things you need to know:

When and where is AWS re:Invent 2023 taking place?

AWS re:Invent always happens in Las Vegas. This year, it is scheduled for November 27–December 1. The event takes place across six venues: 

• Caesars Forum
• Encore
• Mandalay Bay
• MGM Grand
• The Venetian
• Wynn. 

You can get free, direct campus shuttle routes for any venue more than a 15-minute walk from another. You can also use the campus monorail service between MGM and Caesars Forum during campus shuttle hours.

Pricing

A full conference pass costs $2,099. This entitles you to access to all the sessions — and there are hundreds to choose from! There is also a free, virtual option. ​​The virtual re:Invent features a livestream of keynotes and innovation talks and access to breakout sessions.

To register for the in-person event, you will need to create an AWS Events account and purchase by credit card. You have the option to buy Group passes if you are going to attend with colleagues.

Accommodation

As you might expect with an event this popular, all of the campus hotels are booked out for AWS re:Invent 2023. You are advised to book accommodation on the strip, so that you can be close to all the venues and won’t have to depend on taxis to get to all your sessions. The organizers list all of the venue hotels mentioned earlier as “sleeping-room” hotels. 

Other sleeping-room hotels listed are:

• Treasure Island
• Mirage
• Harrah’s
• The LINQ
• Flamingo
•  Bellagio
• The Cosmopolitan
• Aria
• Signature at MGM
• Delano 

Transport

If you are traveling on foot, leave at least 30 minutes to get from one venue to another. You’ll find re:Invent ambassadors to guide you across the re:Invent campus. There are direct, indoor routes between the Encore and Wynn and also between Caesars Forum and The Venetian (during conference hours).

Shuttles connect most of the properties, except the Encore/Wynn and The Venetian and between Caesars Forum and The Venetian. Each campus venue also offers rideshare and taxi pickup locations.

You’ll find the latest technology on show at the re:Invent Expo, where you can engage directly with sponsors from industry-leading companies and learn from subject matter experts at sponsored speaking events. Sponsors are categorized as follows:

• Emerald: Including global professional services company Accenture, computing giant Intel, and monitoring and security platform Datadog
• Diamond: Including security platform Snyk, customer experience platform Salesforce, and business services provider IBM.
• Platinum: Including AI-powered developer platform GitHub, enterprise open-source software provider Red Hat, and technology services and consulting company Wipro
• Gold: Including project management platform Asana, technology and business solutions provider Fujitsu, and authentication and authorization services provider Okta
• Bronze: Including Spacelift, frontend-as-a-service provider Vercel, and online learning and teaching marketplace Udemy
• Showcase: Including visual workspace provider Miro, AI platform Perplexity, and Zoom Video Communications, Inc.

We asked some of our DevOps engineers for their must-attend re:Invent sessions. These are some of the ones they have bookmarked (and don’t worry if there’s a clash — many of these are repeated):

1. DOP313-R | Multi-account and multi-Region deployments at scale 
2. SVS312 | Building serverless applications with Terraform
3. SAS406-R | SaaS DevOps deep dive: Automating multi-tenant deployments 
4. CON311 | Platform engineering with Amazon EKS
5. DOP316-S | Building a multi-account, multi-runtime service-oriented architecture (sponsored by HashiCorp)
6. BOA202-R | DevOps in practice for beginners 
7. COM213 | Infrastructure as code showdown: AWS CDK and declarative tools
8. DOP315-S | Self-service infrastructure is no longer a dream (sponsored by HashiCorp)
9. DOP314 | Simplifying cloud infrastructure creation with the AWS CDK
10. BOA206 | Stateful vs. stateless workloads with IaC: Together or not?

With access to the world’s leaders in cloud technology, all together in one place for a week, you probably need no convincing that AWS re:Invent is a must-attend event for cloud professionals. Between attending learning sessions and meeting AWS experts, you could absorb a year’s worth of learning in a single week. 

Here are just some of the benefits of attending re:Invent:

• Increase your expertise in core AWS services, such as Amazon EC2, Amazon S3, Amazon RDS, Amazon Redshift, and Amazon Aurora.
• Apply technical best practices in areas including cloud architecture, continuous deployment, large-scale migrations, and machine learning.
• Gain real, practical experience at technical bootcamps, self-paced labs, two-hour workshops, and hackathons.
• Meet cloud experts from all over the world and build truly valuable connections.

Before you embark on what promises to be a highlight of your year, think carefully about what you want to achieve with your first trip to AWS re:Invent 2023:

• Which sessions do you consider unmissable?
• Is in-person networking going to be a priority for you?
• What about hands-on learning?

Once you’ve set your priorities, make a plan for what to do during the day and after hours. 

Research: Review the AWS re:Invent campus map and figure out how you are going to navigate it to make sure you attend everything and don’t miss out on only-at-re:Invent opportunities. 

Be prepared: Before you fly, make sure you have everything you need to make the best impression. Whether it’s a glossy digital portfolio or sleek business cards, everything should align perfectly with your brand.

Pick your spots: There is no shortage of places to meet, so plan where you are going to have your business meetings in advance. Whether it’s a quiet cafe or a buzzing lounge, there is somewhere on the strip with the vibe you’re looking for. 

Have fun: After hours, Vegas really comes alive. Apart from the always-on entertainment everywhere, re:Invent has its own don’t-miss social events. Keep some energy for the re:Play Party on Thursday, November 30 in the Las Vegas Festival Grounds. This annual celebration features great music headlined by Portugal. The Man and a mystery headliner DJ, plus a host of other acts. It promises to be an epic night! 

Hundreds of new capabilities and improvements were announced in Vegas last year. Here are just a few takeaways:  

• General availability of AWS Local Zones in Buenos Aires, Copenhagen, Helsinki, and Muscat.
• Amazon Redshift integration with Apache Spark, making it easier to build and run Spark applications on Amazon Redshift and Redshift Serverless
• Amazon Aurora zero-ETL integration with Amazon Redshift, enabling almost real-time analytics and machine learning (ML) using Amazon Redshift on petabytes of transactional data from Aurora
• Upgrades to CloudWatch, including Amazon CloudWatch Logs, a new set of capabilities for detecting and safeguarding sensitive log data in transit, as well as Amazon CloudWatch Cross-Account Observability for searching, analyzing and correlating cross-account telemetry data
• Announcement of Amazon DataZone to help catalog, discover, share, and govern data
• You can now protect and restore your AWS CloudFormation stacks with an automated solution that eliminates  the need to manage custom scripts.
• AWS Marketplace for Containers has introduced support for direct deployment to Amazon EKS Clusters, making it easier to find third-party Kubernetes operation software from the Amazon EKS console and deploy it to EKS clusters using the same commands used to deploy EKS add-ons.

Spacelift loves re:Invent! We always have a full-strength team in Las Vegas to answer your questions about infrastructure management — and this year is no different. 

Find us in the Infrastructure Solutions Zone at Booth #603. We’ll have lots of great swag, a Lego giveaway, and the friendliest and most knowledgeable team always ready to chat about how our product helps platform teams, DevOps practitioners, SREs, and application developers free up  time to do work that adds real value.

Attending re:Invent is not something you do on a whim; it requires considerable advance planning, so if you’re too late for this year, start making plans early for 2024. In the meantime, don’t forget about all the other valuable tech conferences out there. There’s something happening somewhere almost every week — your biggest issue might be trying to decide which ones to attend!

Don’t worry, we keep an up-to-date list of DevOps conferences and events to make it easier for you.

AWS re:Invent is the highlight of the global cloud community’s calendar. Cloud professionals the world over gather to discover the latest industry developments, learn valuable skills, network with AWS experts, and meet friends old and new. Contributions from such cloud leaders as AWS CEO Adam Selipsky mean the quality of conference content is unrivaled.

With hundreds of sessions and opportunities for learning and networking, it makes sense to identify your priorities and plan your schedule in advance. We’ve highlighted sessions on everything from building serverless applications with Terraform to automating multi-tenant deployments. You can also book meetings in advance with industry-leading companies such as Spacelift. 

We’ll be at Booth #603 in the Infrastructure Solutions Zone. Drop by and discover why Spacelift and AWS make a perfect cloud match.