The Complete Guide to AWS re:Invent 2024

For many folks heading to Las Vegas, it is generally casino time. But come December, it’s going to be ‘cloud and casino’ time.

Amazon Web Services (AWS) is bringing the cloud party to Las Vegas for the thirteenth edition of the AWS re:Invent. 

Arguably the biggest cloud computing conference on the planet, AWS re:Invent 2024 will be held from December 1-6, 2024 in Las Vegas, Nevada. 

Customers of the largest cloud company in the world are going to pour into Sin City to learn about all things AWS and network with the AWS community. 

If you’re also a Microsoft Azure enthusiast/user, there is obviously Microsoft Ignite 2024 happening in Chicago in November 2024. Though not as big as AWS re:Invent, it is certainly going to be an interesting conference. 

Anyways, back to AWS re:Invent 2024 again. AWS re:Invent is going to be an in-person event, obviously. But there will also be a livestream of all the happenings and is free to watch. 

So, if you’re not up for five days of conferencing or don’t want to spend a couple of thousand dollars plus travel and stay, online is a good option to keep checking out. You’ll miss the parties though. But, to each his own. 

Like MS Ignite 2024, Generative AI is going to be the overarching theme at AWS re:Invent 2024, though not officially, because AWS re:Invent doesn’t really have a larger theme. It is, sort of, developed around a few themes. 

However, the reason we say Generative AI is going to be the overarching theme is because roughly 34% of all sessions are going to focus on AI/ML while 32% sessions have Generative AI as the area of interest. Which is quite a lot. But we’ll get to that in a bit. 

Apart from Generative AI, focus topics are going to be the regular analytics, cloud operations, hybrid cloud, storage etc. 

All in all AWS re:Invent 2024 is going to be a lot of sessions, networking, new products and, re:Play, the event’s closing party at the Las Vegas Festival Grounds.

There is a lot going on here so we are going to split it up and make understanding AWS re:Invent 2024 easy for you. 

What is AWS re:Invent?

The noob question to begin with but useful for first-timers. So, AWS re:Invent is AWS’ annual flagship cloud computing conference. 

AWS re:Invent is AWS what Dreamforce is to Salesforce. 

Essentially AWS re:Invent is for anyone who wants to experience the latest happenings in the AWS and cloud computing world, network with peers from the AWS community, as well as learn what others are doing in AWS. 

In AWS’ words, AWS re:Invent is “for anyone who wants to stay ahead of the latest technology advancements on AWS and capitalize on transformative innovations like generative AI, analytics, and cloud operations.” The point of these industry conferences is to network and participate in working sessions as well as listen to keynotes. 

There are n number of ways a conference the size of AWS re:Invent can be beneficial to a cloud practitioner. For the simple reason that it is a mammoth conference. 

For reference, Microsoft Ignite 2024 (Azure’s cloud computing conference) is expecting about 10 thousand in-person attendees. 

AWS re:Invent 2024 is expecting 65 thousand attendees! Roughly, 6.5 times as big as Ignite 2024. 

AWS re:Invent 2024 is going to be huge so it’s important for first timers to really know why they are going and what they want to get out of it. 

When and where is AWS re:Invent 2024 Location?

AWS re:Invent 2024 is going to be held from December 1-6, 2024 in Las Vegas, Nevada. The conference venues are spread across the Venetian, Mandalay Bay, Wynn and MGM Grand. All four venues are among the renowned resort cum casinos in Las Vegas. 

AWS re:Invent 2024 will open on Sunday, December 1, 2024, but will only involve badge and swag pickups. Attendees can pick up badges from Terminal 1 and 3 at the Harry Reid International Airport or from the Mandalay Bay, MGM Grand and The Venetian. 

AWS re:Invent 2024 is officially going to be 6 days long but effectively, it’s just 4 days if you discount the first and last days for being low on activity.  

Swags can only be collected from The Venetian starting December 1, 2024. 

As pointed out earlier, AWS re:Invent 2024 is expecting about 65 thousand attendees at the in-person conference and more virtually. 

Here’s everything in a nutshell again:

AWS re:Invent 2024 in-person conference dates: Sunday, December 1, 2024 - Friday, December 6, 2024

Location: Las Vegas, Nevada

Venue: The Venetian, Mandalay Bay, MGM Grand, Wynn

What’s on the AWS re:Invent 2024 Agenda?

Well, the easier way is to go to the agenda section of the AWS re:Invent 2024 website and scroll through the item-by-item agenda but here is a summary of everything. 

Day 1, Sunday, December 1, 2024

‍You actually don’t need to reach Las Vegas on day 1. You could just plan to reach on day 2 and still won’t miss anything. Day 1 is just badge pickup and swag pickup, if you’re interested. The merchandise store is also going to be open from day on Level 1 of The Venetian. Badge pickup counters are going to be spread across venues so you can easily spot them. But they are also going to be open across all the days of the conference. Everything is open from 10 AM till 6 PM.

Day 2, Monday, December 2, 2024

‍Day 2 of the AWS re:Invent 2024 conference is also a little sparse in the sense that there is no headline event scheduled for this day. However, bootcamps, spotlight labs, content hubs, sessions will run from 8 AM till 6.30 PM across all the venues. No major keynotes except for Monday Night Live with Peter DeSantis, the SVP of AWS Utility Computing. But there are still about 626 sessions scheduled for Day 2. 

Day 3, Tuesday, December 3, 2024

‍Finally, the action begins with a keynote by AWS CEO Matt Garman. Note that he is going to be speaking for about 2.5 hours in his keynote. Surely, Garman has a lot of stuff to unpack. But other than that, the Expo is going to be open at The Venetian from 10 AM till 6 PM. There are also going to be PeerTalk Lounges, coffee networking from 10.30 AM to 2.30 PM and the end of day networking receptions from 6 PM till 8 PM in the evening at both the MGM Grand and The Venetian. 

Day 4, Wednesday, December 4, 2024

‍If you’re runner, then you’ll love Day 4 of the AWS re:Invent 2024. There is a 5K Race scheduled from 6 AM to 8.30 AM at the Mandalay Bay Michelob Ultra Arena. It appears anyone attending the conference can participate seeing that there is no separate registration that we could find. Day 4 will also have two keynotes, one in the morning at 8 AM by Dr Swami Sivasubramanian, VP of AI and Data at AWS around building strong data foundations. If you want to attend this keynote, make sure you finish your run fast. The afternoon keynote will be delivered at 3 PM by Dr Ruba Borno, VP, Global Specialist and Partners around the partner program and how they are supporting AWS customers. Expo will be open the same as Day 3 from 10 AM to 6 PM but there is also a Expo Happy Hour from 4.30 PM to 6 PM at The Venetian. 

Day 5, Thursday, December 5, 2024

‍Headline event of Day 5 is going to be the Dr Werner Vogels Keynote delivered by Dr Vogels, VP and CTO at Amazon around his learnings and strategies. This is the last of all the Amazon keynotes so you might want to be there at 8 AM. More sessions, innovation talks and spotlight labs again on Day 5 but it is also the day of re:Play, the official after party of AWS re:Invent 2024 at the Las Vegas Festival Grounds. Expect live music and great food along with a lot of fun games and activities.  

Day 6, Friday, December 6, 2024

‍By Day 6, you’re probably tired and want to go home. Lot of folks would already have left and there is not a lot to miss anyway. A few sessions are scheduled from 8.30 AM till just after noon so if there is something you’ve bookmarked, you might want to stay. But otherwise, it’s going to be a wrap by noon. 

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How can you get AWS re:Invent 2024 tickets and how much do they cost?

The good thing is that there is only one pass option so you don’t have to figure out which pass to buy. The full conference pass for AWS re:Invent 2024 costs $2099 flat. The full conference pass gives you access to the entire conference including keynotes, expo, food, re:Play party, transport. Basically, the full package, as the name itself suggests.

The only discounts you can avail are if you buy 10 full conference passes in a group, you can get one free. This effectively brings down the cost of each full conference pass to $1908. But you need to find 10 other people to buy with you.

If you’re going to AWS re:Invent 2024 on behalf of your organization, there is also the option to bill the full conference pass to your AWS account. Cost is still the same. 

Full conference passes are still available as of the first week of October 2024. So, if you’re planning on attending AWS re:Invent 2024, grab them now. 

Getting to AWS re:Invent and where can you stay?

You can easily get a flight to Las Vegas from anywhere in the United States or even in the world, really. 

However, if you’re looking for discounts on transport, Delta Airlines is offering a 2-10% discount to AWS re:Invent 2024 attendees. How much the discount exactly is going to be will depend on some factors but something is better than nothing. 

The more important question is where do you stay? Two options

1. Stay in one of the hotels that AWS re:Invent has blocked. These would be ARIA, Bellagio, DelanoEncore, Flamingo, Harrah’s Mandalay Bay, MGM Grand, Paris, Park MGM, The Cosmopolitan, The LINQ, The Signature at MGM Grand, The Venetian, Treasure Island, Vdara and Wynn. 
2. Book your own stay. There are a lot of hotels in that area across price categories and still available. 

If you ask us, stay at one of the hotels re:Invent is blocking. You get daily shuttle buses and a host of other advantages you could miss if you stay on your own. 

The rates per night are pretty decent too. For instance, Harrah’s Las Vegas was $646 for 5 nights for a standard room. The upper ceiling for all the hotels is about $250 per night.

Meet Lucidity at AWS re:Invent 2024

So, if you’ve made up your mind to attend AWS re:Invent 2024, please also make the time to visit us at our booth#586 at the Expo. 

And we recommend you to talk to us because Lucidity is a groundbreaking autoscaler product for your AWS storage that can really revolutionize your AWS storage. Lucidity works by dynamically autoscaling up and down your EBS block storage volumes in response to workloads so you eliminate manual storage management while also saving up to 70% in costs. 

We also have a raffle at the conference and you stand the chance to win the latest Apple AirPods. Throw in your hat for our AWS re:Invent 2024 raffle and test your luck. 

See you at re:Invent 2024 in December!

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