Cannot believe 3 weeks ago I was starting my adventure at AWS re:Invent thanks to the wonderful team behind the All Builders Welcome grant, more about this at the bottom of my post, and the epic AWS Community Builders program
PS: CB Applications start in January!
Now I had a chance to rest and recover, I've put together my top sessions that I attended and recommend you give a watch too, as they're available online for free on the AWS Events YouTube:
Developer Experience and Platform Engineering
Elevating the developer experience with Backstage on AWS (OPN405)
In an era where developer productivity and collaboration are crucial, Backstage is a game-changer. Utilizing an open source framework, Backstage streamlines the developer experience by providing a unified interface for your cloud and on-premises infrastructure tools and services. Explore how Toyota leverages Backstage as a component of their platform engineering strategy and how you can transform your development workflows to create an exceptional developer experience. Also look at how to empower generative AI models through your developer portal to drive a broad set of capabilities.GitLab Duo with Amazon Q: AI-driven DevSecOps for your SDLC (DOP204)
In this session, learn how the Amazon Q Developer differentiating agent capabilities for Gitlab Duo transform the developer experience by speeding up a range of tasks that support you as you research how to get started, evaluate system design, build secure and scalable applications, upgrade existing applications, and optimize application performance. Learn firsthand how capabilities for building, testing, reviewing, and transforming applications faster and more easily frees up teams to focus on experimentation and innovation.Leveraging human-AI collaboration to reinvent knowledge management (ARC205)
Organizations are struggling to manage the rapid growth of data and information as traditional knowledge management approaches become unsustainable. Generative AI presents an opportunity to augment human intelligence in this domain. AWS has built knowledge communities to scale cloud knowledge and address the limitations of traditional approaches. This involves creating robust, adaptive, and innovative knowledge management systems that integrate human expertise with AI capabilities. These systems can help organizations adapt to the exponential growth of information and knowledge, leveraging the complementary strengths of humans and AI to tackle the challenges of modern knowledge management.Empowering you to create a complete developer experience with GitHub (DOP327)
In the age of AI, software development is undergoing a dramatic transformation. In this session, discover how you can accelerate innovation securely at scale with GitHub’s AI-powered platform, designed to meet complex enterprise needs. Learn about new features and enterprise-grade controls across GitHub’s Copilot-powered platform, with a peek into the future of AI at GitHub. Learn how you can enhance productivity across the developer workflow, boosting code velocity, quality, governance, and developer happiness. Explore a series of examples of GitHub’s latest advancements across the end-to-end developer platform. This presentation is brought to you by GitHub, an AWS Partner.Balance consistency and developer freedom with platform engineering (SVS208)
Serverless empowers developers to build complex applications by shifting infrastructure and operational responsibility to AWS. Platform engineering plays an important role to ensure consistency and compliance and reduce the complexity of building in the cloud. Learn how platform teams can provide opinionated security, cost, observability, reliability, and sustainability patterns while maintaining developer flexibility and agility. Explore a real-world platform implementation on Backstage, with common application patterns for serverless APIs, event-driven architectures, and containerized applications.Netflix’s efficient network configuration for millions of containers (NFX306)
Netflix operates a highly efficient cloud computing infrastructure that supports a broad range of applications crucial for our SVOD (Subscription Video on Demand), live streaming, and gaming services. Titus, Netflix’s container management platform, is instrumental in managing business-critical containers within the AWS cloud environment. Proper network configuration for each container is essential to ensure seamless communication between services and connectivity with the external world. This chalk talk discusses IPMan, a system specifically designed and developed by Netflix to address the network setup requirements of millions of containers running daily.
Financial services and Product Focus
NatWest: Personalizing customer experience with Amazon Connect & AI/ML (FSI316)
NatWest has been at the forefront of innovating with new Amazon Connect features and capabilities to improve the customer experience. In this session, learn how NatWest is using richer data and generative AI within its contact center to innovate faster and drive business value. Explore how NatWest uses Amazon Connect data and analytics capabilities, including Contact Lens, to analyze customer sentiment and inform agent decisions using data points like call volume, handle time, and transfers. Hear how NatWest is using Amazon Q in Connect to improve customer intent detection and deliver more personalized customer interactions at scale.Tech vs. business: How first-movers embrace emerging tech (AIM225)
The State of Tennessee is on a mission to enhance the worker and customer experience for all Tennesseans by modernizing technology across programs and departments. In this session, Anthony Burwell, representing the technology side, and Martha Donnelly, representing the business side, come together in a friendly gameshow-like discussion that showcases the unique technological advancements, data-driven initiatives, and user-centric improvements implemented throughout the State of Tennessee. This session offers compelling insights into the minds and strategic change management decisions of first-mover state organizations as they drive public service innovation. This presentation is brought to you by Deloitte, an AWS Partner.PwC, AWS, and Engine by Starling: A digital transformation in banking (COP216)
In this session, explore how PwC, AWS, and Engine by Starling are transforming banking. Discover how this collaboration helps banks worldwide rapidly launch new digital banking propositions and enhance customer experiences. Learn how Engine by Starling's modular, API-based, and cloud-native platform helps financial services quickly adopt modern banking technology. Discover the role of PwC's strategic knowledge and hands-on experience in driving business model transformations using the Engine platform. Also learn how the secure, feature-rich architecture of AWS supports continuous innovation and integration for digital banking solutions. Don't miss this chance to see a live demo and explore the future of banking technology. This presentation is brought to you by PwC, an AWS Partner.Gen AI in the workplace: Productivity, ethics, and change management (INO104)
Navigating the transformative impact of generative AI on the modern workplace, this session explores strategies to maximize productivity gains while addressing ethical concerns and change management challenges. Key topics include ethical implementation frameworks, fostering responsible AI usage, and optimizing human–AI collaboration dynamics. The session examines effective change management approaches to ensure smooth integration and adoption of generative AI technologies within organizations. Join us to navigate the intersection of generative AI, productivity, ethics, and organizational change, charting a path toward an empowered, AI-driven workforce.Reimagining IT: From cost center to innovative product builder (INO109)
This session shares insights from Amazon's enterprise-wide approach to product management, covering core elements like product-driven mental models, defining the product manager role, organizing and enabling product teams, and applying customer-centric strategies for aligning priorities. Discover how an iterative approach to launching and scaling products and services drives innovation. Explore the power of finding insights in exceptions, using data to drive behavior change, and leveraging generative AI for personalized analytics. Gain a fresh perspective on transforming IT from a helpdesk to a product builder, fundamentally reimagining the cloud as a driver of value-added services and industry-first offerings.Women-led innovation in the cloud: Shaping the digital frontier (IDE112)
The cloud has transformed the way businesses operate, enabling new levels of agility, scalability, and innovation. At the forefront of this digital transformation are women leaders who are shaping the cloud landscape. In this session, these visionaries share their insights on how women-led innovation is crucial in shaping the digital frontier, from reimagining cloud architectures to fostering more inclusive and equitable digital ecosystems. This session is a part of the Women of the Cloud program, where AWS brings together women and allies across the tech sector to hear from leaders who are delivering business outcomes powered by inclusion.
GenAI
Generative AI in action: From prototype to production (AIM276)
As generative AI (gen AI) transitions to production systems in 2024, early adopters are reaping rewards like accelerated productivity and customer experiences. Organizations must build customized gen AI models and applications aligning with their use cases and culture. Robust data strategies incorporating ingestion, storage, processing, and governance are critical, requiring architectural best practices for performance, reliability, and cost-effectiveness. Businesses are also involving business users in the build and development process through low-code no-code tools, unlocking gen AI's power. By embracing these best practices, companies can realize gen AI's full, scalable potential, driving tangible business value.Empowering women in AI: Celebrating women leading the gen AI frontier (IDE105)
Join the AWS Startups team for an afternoon empowering and celebrating women in AI. This session features a panel of seasoned AI startup founders and investors, alongside a tactical demo of Amazon Bedrock, and wraps up with the reveal of the Women of Gen AI Portrait Project, spotlighting leaders in the space. The goal of this session is to foster a community of women building and investing in AI, demonstrating how AWS can empower and elevate your success.Accelerating content production with generative AI, featuring the NFL (AIM211)
The media team at the National Football League (NFL) embraced the power of Amazon Q Business to revolutionize their content production processes. By integrating this cutting-edge technology into their workflow, they significantly accelerated the creation and publication of their media assets, game highlights, social media posts, and graphics while boosting their talented content creators’ productivity. Join this session to learn best practices from the NFL’s pioneering journey, the impact it has had on their business, and the roadblocks to avoid. Walk away with practical lessons for how you can use Amazon Q Business to boost your content production.Unleashing generative AI: Amazon’s journey with Amazon Q Developer (DOP214)
Join us to discover how Amazon rolled out Amazon Q Developer to thousands of developers, trained them in prompt engineering, and measured its transformative impact on productivity. In this session, learn best practices for effectively adopting generative AI in your organization. Gain insights into training strategies, productivity metrics, and real-world use cases to empower your developers to harness the full potential of this game-changing technology. Don’t miss this opportunity to stay ahead of the curve and drive innovation within your team.
Additional content
The All Builders Welcome grant is a scholarship program for technologists in the first 5 years of their cloud career that provides free pass to re:Invent (ticket costs more than $2000), return flights to Las Vegas, Nevada (around $1500), 5-day hotel accommodation (around $1500-1700), dedicated lounge for grantees and reserved seats for keynote talks, special events for grantees and mentors, special swag and much more!
The AWS Community Builders program offers technical resources, education, and networking opportunities to AWS technical enthusiasts and emerging thought leaders who are passionate about sharing knowledge and connecting with the technical community. The program will accept a limited number of members per year. All AWS builders are welcome and encouraged to apply.
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