Preparing for re:Invent 2025

#aws

Its time for re:Invent 2025

Seventh time is the charm. I’ve been lucky to be able to attend re:Invent every year since 2017— with the exception of 2018. During the years my priorities have changed a lot: first years I had a hugely packed daily planner, and I was running like a headless chicken from one session to another, calendar looking like Tetris on hard mode - to last years focusing on what matters most: hands‑on first (workshops, builder sessions), gamified learning second (Jams, GameDays), and real conversations with people I only ever have the opportunity to meet in Vegas.

I plan my week with Raphael Manke’s (AWS Hero) Unofficial re:Invent Session Planner. Highly recommend you take a look at it, and plan your agenda before reserved seating opens.

Workshops first, talks second

Breakouts are great for awareness but workshops are where the learning sticks. Lot of the breakouts are available on YouTube after the event. So I start my day in a workshop or builder session. If a keynote or a flashy breakout conflicts, it becomes nice-to-have. The non‑negotiables are the seat‑limited, hands‑on blocks—you can’t stream yourself into a lab, and standby lines are not a strategy.

I block time on my calendar for the reservation release, go in with a preselected selection of workshops, and when reservations open - click as fast as you can in the portal. If I miss the first wave, I’m ruthless with alternates and fully expect to use standby a few times. It’s fine if I planned for it; it’s pain if I didn’t. If you need to standby, you need to reserve anything from 30-60minutes prior to the session for that - if you really want in, be there early, really early.

The campus is “walking or shuttle distance,” which sounds reasonable until you’re sprinting between Venetian and Mandalay in afternoon traffic. I group sessions by venue: for example Venetian/Forum in the morning, Mandalay/MGM in the afternoon. I leave 45–60 minutes of buffer across venues and accept that one shiny session will die so the rest of the day lives. The busses between venues will kill your enthusiasm. On paper they're good, but they're slower than you'd expect. I've walked from Venetian to MGM and back, in almost the same time the shuttles take as worst times (specially if you're at the other side of the venue to start with). If you have comfortable shoes - try walking.

Jams & GameDays

These are my happy place, if you don't count the hallways and community lounges etc. Jams are structured challenge boards with scoring and hints; GameDays are narrative scenarios where a team keeps a live-ish environment healthy while requirements change. Both reward calm teamwork, triage, and observability over trivia.

You can go with friends, or just join a group of random people. I've done both, winning is a lot easier with non-random people. And I'm competitive as hell, so always go there to win.

But I've also done events with random people in the table, and met new and interesting people - had interesting discussions with them. Depends on what kind of people you end up seated with.

My advice is to talk to the people in the table, learn while you share your experiences.

In the game itself. Start all the tasks immediately. Assign tasks to every team member, and discuss when you hit any blockers - help each other out. Starting all the activities also makes sense, as sometimes they have a long wait before the environment is up and running in the background. So unless the task is timed (you have a limited amount of time to finish) - start all of em.

If you hit a blocker, first read the task again, and one more time. I've more than once skipped some important detail ("you have to put this exact name to the task" - for monitoring purposes). If I know what I'm doing, I tend to skip naming items exactly like the game expects - just using my own naming convention for whatever I build.

Communication in the team is the key to victory. And sometimes asking stupid questions from the AWS staff at the event.

People > sessions (on purpose)

The best outcomes usually begin with “you free near Venetian at 14:00?” I schedule two intentional micro‑meetups per day—AWS folks, partners, community friends, clients—and I stack them near my venue block. I go in with a plan but leave room for hallway track conversations; that’s where roadmap comments, napkin architectures, and “we tried this and it broke” stories surface. Treat these as first class sessions.

Daily template I’m using this year

Morning: workshop/builder session while the brain is freshest. If a keynote overlaps, I’ll watch a recap later and spend the time asking the service team pointed questions at their booth. Lightning demos at the expo are great for validating whether a headline matches a use case.

Midday: buffer + expo + short meetups. Early in the week is best for energy and quick demos; by Thursday everything calms down and the deeper conversations get easier.

Afternoon: Jam/GameDay or a second workshop as the anchor. If nothing looks strong, I’ll run “office hours”: meetup fellow community builders, whiteboard time with PMs or partner engineers about a specific client edge case. Those 30 minutes routinely outperform any breakout.

Evening: one social thing, or none. Comfortable shoes, hydration, chargers, and using the shuttle are not optional.

Keynotes (how I handle them)

I generally skip attending keynotes live. With one huge exception - Werner Vogels keynote - I want to attend that, feel the atmosphere in the room during the keynote. The others I usually start via remote viewing so I can keep the day flexible. I’m not anti‑keynote; if I’ve got the time and the venue lines up, I’ll go.

For the last two years I’ve had the Cloud Track sticker. It’s been a lifesaver for avoiding the big queues at keynotes. My reality is showing up last minute and almost missing walking straight in via the Cloud Track entrance, both times entering just as the first folks from the regular line are just pouring into the room. Not proud of the timing, would prefer just a little bit of time to spare.

Using the unofficial planner (how I actually do it)

First, allocate time for this. Really - this makes or breaks your week in Vegas.

I pick three themes for the week. Then I:

Search and favorite anchors (workshops, builder sessions, Jam/GameDay).
Add alternates for every anchor in the same venue block.
Color‑code by venue. The goal is zero sprints across town.

Then when reserved seating opens I reserve the hands‑on sessions (not recorded), keep breakouts as filler, and protect white space so the spontaneous value can happen. It’s boring advice because it works.

Tactics that reduce friction

Travel & campus: Hotels in the portal fill early; shuttles connect venues; maps show up in the event app closer to the week. “Walking or shuttle distance” is technically true, but the Strip is deceptively long between back‑to‑backs. Budget buffer. And opt for uber if you're in a better position for that rather than the shuttle bus.

Connectivity: If roaming is ugly, get a local eSIM or prepaid SIM on arrival. Put this next to “comfy shoes” and “external battery” under “things you wish you sorted on Sunday.”

Food: Yes, there’s breakfast and lunch. If you care about a proper meal, go early—popular stations run thin at peaks.

Replay: Re:Play has dedicated shuttles and monorail - use them; I personally opt to not go at all anymore - I'll rather end my week relaxing a bit, and preparing for the trip home Friday.

Expo strategy: Early week for breadth (lay of the land, swag if that’s your thing), late week for depth (quieter booths, longer technical chats). This has held true for me every year.

Footwear is strategy. The Strip + conference floors will eat your steps. Wear shoes you already trust.