For those of you attending re:Invent for the first time, as I am, navigating a conference of this scale can be overwhelming. After extensive research and valuable advice from experienced Community Builders like Pubudu Jayawardana and Niklas Westerstråhle, I’ve put together this guide to help fellow attendees make the most of their re:Invent experience.

Registration

It all starts with registering for the conference. The earlier you do it, the more options you have. Registration typically opens around June, giving you ample time to book airfare and accommodations. One tip I learned the hard way: exhibitors at the expo may scan your badge, which can lead to a flood of newsletters. To avoid this, I recommend registering with a dedicated email or tagging your re:Invent emails. For example, if you use Google, registering with something like “misi+reinvent2024@roadtoaws.com” will apply a “reinvent2024” tag to all relevant messages.

Stay

Before booking your flight and accommodation, decide how long you plan to stay. Although re:Invent spans the entire week, most major sessions happen between Tuesday and Thursday, with Friday primarily reserved for repeats. If you stay until Friday, you may have better luck getting into reserved sessions as many attendees head home. However, if your schedule is tight, a two- to three-day stay will cover the key events and announcements.

Flights

After registration, you may find discounted airfare. This year, AWS is partnering with Delta Airlines for exclusive discounts, but I’ve found using flight comparison tools like Momondo offers the best deals. Having tracked flights from Budapest to Las Vegas since June, I noticed prices stay stable through September, with a noticeable increase in October. Be mindful of time differences—Budapest is nine hours ahead of Las Vegas, so jet lag can be intense. Avoid booking any sessions immediately after landing, as adjusting to the time zone takes a while.

Accommodation

AWS partners with several hotels near the conference venues offering discounts, though note that these bookings often don’t allow free cancellations. If flexibility is important, booking through platforms like Booking.com or Expedia can provide more options, including free cancellation periods.
The Venetian serves as the conference’s hub, hosting key events and the expo, while the nearby Wynn and Encore hotels are also popular options ($269 and $279 per night, respectively). For a more affordable alternative, I recommend Treasure Island, which is only half the price ($133/night) and located conveniently close to The Venetian. Keep in mind that navigating from one hotel to another can take longer than expected due to the sheer size of the event and the Strip—be prepared for a lot of walking!

Weather

Las Vegas in December has a daily temperature range from 4°C (39°F) to 15°C (58°F). Mornings and evenings can be cold, sometimes dropping to freezing, while afternoons are relatively mild. As Las Vegas is a desert city, staying hydrated is essential. Bring plenty of water and comfortable layers.

Local Transport

Getting from the airport to your hotel or the event can be done by bus, carpool, or taxi. If you’re staying near the south end of the Strip, ridesharing services are often the cheapest and quickest option, though traffic can sometimes be a problem. Taxis from the airport have a fixed rate to the Strip, and be prepared to pay a $3 surcharge if paying by card. Lines for rideshares like Uber or Lyft can also be long, so sometimes taxis are faster. Budget-conscious attendees can opt for buses, but note that routes can change—such as the CX bus now stopping at Flamingo rather than New York New York.

Re:Invent spans multiple venues along the Strip, so travel time between sessions can add up. re:Invent shuttle buses run frequently, but they can be delayed by traffic. For faster options, consider using the Las Vegas Monorail, which connects key venues, including Harrah’s, The LINQ, MGM Grand, and the SAHARA (re:Play party). For sessions at Mandalay Bay, the free tram from Excalibur is a convenient option.

Food at re:Invent

Complimentary breakfast is served daily from Monday to Friday between 6:30 AM and 8:30 AM, with Friday’s breakfast located at Caesars Forum and The Venetian. Free lunch is available from Monday to Thursday between 11:00 AM and 1:00 PM. Based on my experience at the Stockholm Summit, I recommend grabbing lunch early, as food can run out if attendees take extra portions. If you want to dine well, heading to a restaurant or one of the partner-organized events is a better option.

Expo

The Expo Hall opens Monday afternoon and runs through Thursday, offering opportunities to network with partners and pick up some swag. If you want to avoid the crowds, try going in the early mornings. The Expo is also where you’ll find Lightning talks, which offer quick 20-minute presentations on customer stories and product demos.

Sessions

Organizing your session schedule is critical, especially if you’re trying to make the most of the week. For this task, I recommend my fellow speaker, Raphael Manke’s Unofficial AWS re:Invent Session Planner 2024. Reserved seating opens on October 8, and you’ll need to act fast. Here’s a quick breakdown of the session types:

• Keynote: Major announcements happen here, but it’s challenging to secure a good seat. Many veterans leave 15 minutes early to avoid the post-event rush.
• Breakout sessions: These are 1-hour, non-interactive presentations that are recorded. While interesting, many attendees skip them to focus on live sessions.
• Builders’ sessions: Hands-on sessions in small groups. These are repeated throughout the week, so staying until Friday can increase your chances of participating.
• Chalk talks: Highly interactive 1-hour discussions that begin with a lecture and conclude with Q&A. These are not recorded, making them popular among experienced attendees.
• Code talks: Technical sessions at level 300 and above, focused on deep coding topics. Attendees are encouraged to ask questions.
• Lightning talks: Short, 20-minute presentations held in the Expo Hall.
• Workshops: Guided, hands-on labs to build solutions. Time constraints often limit how deeply you can explore the topics.

Health & Safety

With thousands of people attending re:Invent from all over the world, the chances of catching a virus increase. Bring hand sanitizer, consider wearing a mask, and wash your hands regularly to stay healthy during and after the event.

Key Takeaways

• Register with a dedicated or tagged email to manage incoming messages
• Bring hand sanitizer and a mask to reduce the risk of illness
• Avoid scheduling back-to-back sessions at different venues—travel time can be significant
• Pack comfortable shoes; you’ll be doing a lot of walking
• Carry a battery pack as outlets are hard to come by. Wi-Fi can be unreliable, so consider getting a good data plan
• Have cash on hand, as taxis prefer it, and withdrawing from casino ATMs can be expensive

Enjoy your stay at re:Invent and don’t forget to say hello!

A Navigating AWS re:Invent 2024: A First-Time Speaker’s Guide bejegyzés először Road to AWS-én jelent meg.

Amazon Bedrock is available in 13 AWS regions:

• US East (N. Virginia)
• US West (Oregon)
• Asia Pacific (Tokyo)
• Asia Pacific (Singapore – limited access)
• Asia Pacific (Sydney)
• Asia Pacific (Mumbai)
• Canada (Central)
• Europe (London)
• Europe (Frankfurt)
• Europe (Paris)
• Europe (Ireland – limited access)
• South America (São Paulo)
• AWS GovCloud (US-West)

Note: Due to limited access in Ireland, Singapore and GovCloud, these regions are excluded from my analysis, leaving us with 10 regions for comparison.

Anthropic uses "Haiku" for its smallest model, "Sonnet" for the mid-range option, and "Opus" for its top-tier model.

On June 21, 2024, Anthropic introduced Claude 3.5 Sonnet, claiming it can match or exceed OpenAI's GPT-4o or Google's Gemini across numerous tasks. This new model is exclusively available through the Anthropic API, Amazon Bedrock, and Google Cloud's Vertex AI. Since this is a new model, it is currently only available from us-east-1 at the time of this blog post.

When it comes to Amazon Bedrock, the rule of thumb you've come to know about AWS pricing and service availability no longer applies. If you are based in Europe, you have learned that the region with the most services is Ireland (eu-west-1) and that the cheapest option is usually Stockholm (eu-north-1).
With Bedrock, this all changes; the region that offer the most Anthropic FM's for Europe is Frankfurt (eu-central-1). If you're developing with Generative AI in Europe, Frankfurt is now your best choice.
In the US, your rule of thumb remains the same, with us-east-1 being the region that provides the most functionality, but there is a catch: the highest-end model, Claude 3 Opus is only available in Oregon.

Amazon Bedrock's on-demand and batch pricing is consistent across regions (e.g., you pay the same for Claude 3 Haiku in Oregon and Canada). In fact, Claude Sonnet 3 and 3.5 cost the same. This uniform pricing strategy underscores AWS's commitment to making advanced Generative AI models accessible and affordable for developers.

Provisioned Throughput pricing

When we look at the provisioned throughput pricing, we see fewer choices. We are limited to Claude Instant and Claude 2.0/2.1 models and with only 4 regions. Frankfurt is right behind the top US regions in terms of prices, with Tokyo being the most expensive.

Summary

AWS demonstrates its strong commitment to Generative AI through multiple actions. It offers competitive pricing for Anthropic's foundation models, continually expands Bedrock's availability to new regions, and promptly makes the latest foundation models accessible to its users.

These efforts highlight AWS's dedication to advancing and supporting Generative AI, providing developers with the latest tools at affordable prices.

A Amazon Bedrock – Consistent Anthropic FM pricing across regions bejegyzés először Road to AWS-én jelent meg.

I was looking for a solution that was open source and that anyone could contribute to it. While discussing this issue with María Encinar (EMEA Community Programs Manager
– AWS), it turned out that other European countries are facing similar problems and there is also a trend on these conference websites. She recommended me this GitHub repository.
As far as I could track it down it all started with Android Study Group, which created a GitHub Page for Android conferences. Spain, Portugal, Italy and even Canada soon followed. I realized right away that I am on the right track. The source code is open source, hosted on GitHub and anyone can contribute to it with a simple Pull request. This was a great foundation, but I knew I wanted more.

Hungarian translation

The main problem we face here in Hungary is that while there are a lot of events happening here, some are primarily in English. For someone who is just starting with AWS, this could be an extra challenge that they might not take. That is why my first improvement was to translate the interface into Hungarian. I didn’t want to exclude English speakers as well, so I made the interface bilingual. This way everyone can feel comfortable on the website.

The other improvement I made is that I clearly highlighted the language of the conference. This way I can help people who prefer content in their native language.

Deployment on AWS

I cannot ignore the fact that I am an AWS Community Builder, so it was a no-brainer that I would implement this on AWS. Registering a domain and setting it up on Route 53 was the first step. Then I looked at the possibilities of hosting. The site is written in Jeklly and each page is generated separately. Using GitHub Actions, I can regenerate the static pages every time there is a new commit.
Hosting a static website on AWS isn’t rocket science. S3 static file hosting is a cheap and easy way. I just needed to find a way how to publish my files to S3. Jake Jarvis created a GitHub Action that can sync your files to S3. All you have to do is to create the appropriate IAM permissions and your files will be pushed to the S3 bucket of your choice. From there, AWS will do the rest. I have created a CloudFront distribution to get HTTPS and fast access from Hungary. Currently, there is no AWS region in Hungary, but there is an edge location in Budapest, so serving the site from there gives fast access to Hungarian users.

The outcome

The result is techconf.hu, a community-curated list of tech conferences around Hungary. I sincerely hope that this project will benefit the Hungarian AWS community, and perhaps other countries facing similar issues will follow. Happy Conferencing!

A Bringing together Hungarian technology conferences bejegyzés először Road to AWS-én jelent meg.

Back at university, I could never decide between coding and system administration. I loved both. While my major was in software engineering I always went back to administrations because I was fond of systems like Linux and VMS. The latter you may have not heard of since it’s a system developed back in the 70s but the security and reliability that VMS had (has) is what AWS is now known for.

There are a lot of similarities between VMS and AWS in philosophy; for example, VMS was written in multiple programming languages and it didn’t matter that one module was written in ADA the other in C, these modules could seamlessly work with each other. The developers had the possibility to choose the right language for the right purpose. For example ADA for the security layer. Just like in AWS. You can create an API where one method is written in Node.js while the other one in Python.

AWS is now the clear leader in cloud computing and is constantly innovating. You can have access to powerful tools and resources that you could never have dreamed of before. Like AI or Machine Learning.

The mentality behind AWS and how Jeff Bezos imagined the FlyWheel is what inspired me and made me decide to learn about AWS in the first place.

We are living in a great time where you can have access to such powerful tools and resources without a small financial investment.

Come join me on my AWS cloud adventure.

A Intro bejegyzés először Road to AWS-én jelent meg.