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Aleksandar Yosifov
Aleksandar Yosifov

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Tips for better AWS re:Invent experience

Hello Everyone!

This blog post is based on my experience at last year's AWS re:Invent. A few tips to make your experience better.

  • Try to book your sessions as soon as the session registration opens. I did this ~2 hours later and there were no available seats for a few interesting sessions. However there could some available seats (I think that there are some reserved and there may be someone who has booked a seat but didn't show) , so if you go earlier in front of the session room you can manage to get a seat.

  • Book the hotel in which you have the majority of the sessions.

  • Arrive a few days earlier. The event started on Monday but I arrived in Vegas on Friday. This helped me to adjust to the time zone difference which was 10 hours. I also went to the Grand Canyon and booked 1 day trip to Los Angeles.

  • Get the AWS Events app on your phone. Useful to track and manage your sessions and there is also a map.

  • Use the organised by AWS shuttle bus to travel between the hotels. If you decide to walk you will lose valuable time and get tired.

  • Do not underestimate the distance between the hotels.

  • You should have at least 30 minutes between the sessions if there are in different hotels. After a session you need to have the time to go to the bus, a few minutes to get to the other hotel and then walk to your session.

  • Meet new people and talk to them. Talk with the other attendees, presenters after the sessions and company representatives in the Expo.

  • Go to at least 1 keynote and be there early. It was very nice seeing Adam Selipsky speaking.

  • There are some free events with food and drinks organised by the companies attending the conference. You can check them and reserve a spot here. Make sure that you do this earlier.

  • Go to the Expo and get some swag for your colleagues and friends. T-shirts, stickers and many more.

  • Go to the AWS party on the last day of the conference. You don't want to miss it.

  • And the most important is to have fun! :)

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