AWS re:Invent 2024: An In-Depth Guide

AWS re:Invent 2024 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 #676 and meeting room #G-248, Hall G Meeting Center, 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 2024, as well as a review of the 2023 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 December 2-6 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 2024 taking place?

AWS re:Invent always happens in Las Vegas. This year, it is scheduled for December 2-6. 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 2024. 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 customer experience platform Salesforce, AI-powered developer platform GitHub, and business services provider IBM.
• Platinum: Including security platform Snyk, authentication and authorization services provider Okta, and enterprise open-source software provider Red Hat. 
• Gold: Including Spacelift, monitoring and security platform Datadog, and visual workspace provider Miro.
• Bronze: Including secure password manager 1Password, frontend-as-a-service provider Vercel, and online learning and teaching marketplace Udemy
• Showcase: Including Siemens Digital Industries Software, payment cards services Visa, 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. SMB310 | Automated vulnerability patching with generative AI and AWS tools
2. SVS337 | Building serverless applications using Terraform
3. DEV321 | Supercharge your DevOps practices with generative AI 
4. SVS208 | Balance consistency and developer freedom with platform engineering
5. DOP319 | Top tips for getting the most out of AWS CloudFormation
6. SEC314 | Accelerate your DevOps pipeline and remain secure with policy as code
7. ARC331 | Think big, build small: When to scale and when to simplify
8. DEV342 | IaC and AI: Tales from the trenches
9. SEC216 | Build trust in your CI/CD pipeline: Codify container security at scale
10. DEV343 | Platform engineering excellence: Strategy and technology

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 2024:

• 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, December 5in the Las Vegas Festival Grounds. This annual celebration features Weezer and a headlining 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:  

• Amazon Q: A generative AI assistant designed for workplace applications, Amazon Q can be customized to align with specific business needs, emphasizing security and privacy.
• Next-generation AWS-designed chips: AWS unveiled the Graviton4 and Trainium2 processors.
• Enhanced Amazon Bedrock capabilities: AWS expanded Amazon Bedrock’s features, enabling customers to customize models, execute multistep tasks in generative AI applications, and incorporate safeguards into their solutions.
• New Amazon SageMaker features: Five additional capabilities were added to Amazon SageMaker, AWS’s fully managed machine learning service, simplifying the process of building, training, and deploying models for generative AI.
• AWS serverless innovations: AWS introduced three serverless enhancements for Amazon Aurora, Amazon Redshift, and Amazon ElastiCache, aiming to help customers analyze and manage data at any scale while simplifying operations.
• Amazon S3 Express One Zone: This new storage class delivers high-performance, single-zone storage with consistent, low-latency data access, catering to applications that require rapid data retrieval.

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 at Booth #676 and meeting room #G-248, Hall G Meeting Center. We’ll have lots of great swag, a 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 2025. 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 #676. Drop by and discover why Spacelift and AWS make a perfect cloud match.