What Is AWS re:Invent

AWS re:Invent is Amazon Web Services' flagship annual conference and the most important event in the cloud computing calendar. Held every December in Las Vegas, re:Invent brings together more than 50,000 in-person attendees and hundreds of thousands of online participants for a week of product announcements, deep technical education, hands-on training, partner networking, and community celebration of cloud technology.

AWS re:Invent 2026 is confirmed for November 30 through December 4 in Las Vegas — a date range AWS released as a "save the date" for early planners. The conference will span its characteristic multi-venue footprint across the Las Vegas Strip, with primary venues at the MGM Grand, Venetian Expo, Mandalay Bay, Caesars Forum, and Wynn, connected by a dedicated conference shuttle system.

Re:Invent is structured around a program of extraordinary scale: thousands of technical sessions across hundreds of tracks, multiple keynote addresses delivering new AWS service announcements, hands-on workshops, certification exams, partner summits, and an exhibition floor populated by thousands of AWS partner organizations. The conference is deliberately designed to be physically impossible to attend in its entirety — attendees must be intentional about their priorities from day one.

What distinguishes re:Invent from all other cloud events is the volume of new product and service announcements concentrated in a single week. AWS has historically announced 50–100+ new services, features, and capabilities during re:Invent week, making it the most significant single update to the AWS service catalog in any given year. For cloud architects, developers, and enterprise IT leaders building on AWS, attending re:Invent is the most efficient way to understand the platform's direction.

Who's Coming to AWS re:Invent

Re:Invent's 50,000+ in-person attendees represent the depth and breadth of the AWS ecosystem.

Cloud engineers and architects are the core technical audience: professionals who design and build on AWS services daily — from EC2 and S3 to complex microservices architectures, serverless applications, and ML-powered systems. These attendees prioritize deep technical sessions, workshops, and access to AWS engineering and product teams.

Developers building applications on AWS platforms attend for content spanning all languages, frameworks, and developer tooling including Amazon CodeCatalyst, GitHub, and the AWS developer experience roadmap. The developer community is one of the most engaged segments at re:Invent.

Enterprise IT decision-makers — cloud strategy leads, technology directors, and CTOs at organizations with significant AWS commitments — attend to understand the roadmap implications for their multi-year cloud programs and to meet with AWS account teams and strategic partners.

Data and ML engineers are a rapidly growing segment: practitioners building data lakes, real-time analytics pipelines, and machine learning models on AWS services (SageMaker, Bedrock, Redshift, Glue, etc.) have their own dedicated track that has expanded substantially in recent years.

AWS partner organizations — the ISVs, MSPs, and system integrators certified as AWS Partners — send large delegations that combine internal enablement with customer relationship activities. The AWS Partner Summit (held the day before re:Invent officially begins) is a distinct event within the broader conference.

Geographic representation is global, with attendees from every continent. The international delegation reflects AWS's position as the world's dominant cloud provider.

Want to know which companies are exhibiting? Lensmor tracks exhibitor profiles, booth data, and product categories for AWS re:Invent and 1,000+ other trade shows. Explore AWS re:Invent exhibitors on Lensmor →

Confirmed Speakers / Key Sessions at AWS re:Invent

Re:Invent's keynote program is the primary announcement vehicle for AWS's product strategy and is among the most-watched technology livestreams of the year.

CEO Keynote (Andy Jassy / AWS CEO). Note: Andy Jassy moved to Amazon CEO in 2021; Adam Selipsky served as AWS CEO through 2024. Matt Garman has led AWS since 2024. The AWS CEO keynote is the conference's centerpiece — a multi-hour presentation that unveils the most significant new AWS services and provides the strategic context for the year's platform direction.

Werner Vogels Keynote. Amazon.com CTO Werner Vogels delivers a separate keynote that consistently takes a longer-term, more philosophical view of distributed systems, resilience, and the future of cloud architecture. His presentations are known for thought-provoking frameworks and historically have introduced important concepts that shape cloud engineering practice.

Expected Theme Areas for 2026:

• Amazon Bedrock and Generative AI — New foundation model partnerships, expanded agent capabilities, knowledge base improvements, and enterprise governance for AI workloads
• AWS Infrastructure — New regions and Availability Zones, custom silicon updates (Graviton, Trainium, Inferentia next generations), and edge infrastructure announcements
• Data and Analytics — Amazon Redshift, OpenSearch, Athena, AWS Glue, and the integrated data strategy for the "data lake house" architecture
• Security — IAM zero trust enhancements, AWS Security Hub updates, Amazon GuardDuty ML capabilities, and compliance automation
• Developer Experience — Amazon Q Developer (AI coding assistant), CodeCatalyst, and the unified developer toolchain
• Containers and Serverless — EKS and ECS enhancements, Lambda evolution, AWS App Runner, and the serverless-first architecture patterns

Chalk Talks. Small-group interactive sessions (typically 50–75 attendees) with AWS engineers — one of the most practically useful formats for getting detailed answers to technical implementation questions.

Workshops. Half-day and full-day hands-on technical workshops where attendees build real systems using AWS services under guided instruction.

Sponsors and Exhibitors at AWS re:Invent

Re:Invent's Expo and partner ecosystem is one of the most commercially significant in cloud technology. The expo floor is organized across multiple venues and features thousands of AWS Partner Network (APN) companies demonstrating their cloud-native products and services.

Exhibitor categories span the full cloud technology stack: data and analytics platforms, security tooling, DevOps and CI/CD tools, cloud cost management and FinOps tools, multi-cloud and hybrid cloud management platforms, industry-specific cloud solutions, and managed service providers. Many exhibitors are AWS Marketplace vendors with cataloged offerings deployable directly from the AWS console.

The Startup Showcase features early-stage companies building natively on AWS, often with direct investment from the Amazon Alexa Fund or AWS's ecosystem investment programs. Fortune 500 enterprise software vendors also exhibit in force, reflecting their deep AWS integrations and joint GTM strategies.

Lensmor provides real-time exhibitor intelligence for AWS re:Invent, including company profiles, product categories, and booth locations. Access the full exhibitor list →

Why You Should Attend AWS re:Invent

50–100+ new AWS announcements in one week. No other conference delivers this volume of new capability to cloud practitioners. Building your technical roadmap around the re:Invent announcement cycle — and attending in person to get depth on the most relevant services — is a standard practice among cloud-forward engineering organizations.

The deepest AWS technical content anywhere. Re:Invent's 300- and 400-level sessions deliver implementation depth that is not available in AWS documentation, online courses, or regional events. The combination of expert speakers, hands-on labs, and direct access to AWS engineering teams creates a learning density that compresses months of self-directed study.

Certification at scale. AWS offers certification exams on-site throughout re:Invent at discounted rates. Re:Invent is a popular venue for engineers to add AWS certifications, with the study context of the conference itself providing useful immediate reinforcement.

Partner and vendor ecosystem in one place. The partner community at re:Invent is the most concentrated collection of AWS-specialized vendors anywhere. For cloud platform teams evaluating security tools, data platforms, DevOps tooling, or managed services, the expo is an efficient research environment.

Career signal and community. re:Invent attendance is a recognized marker in the cloud engineering career ecosystem. The community — including AWS Community Heroes, AWS User Group leaders, and the broader technical community — is active and accessible throughout the week in ways that are distinctive to re:Invent.

Travel & Logistics

Venue. AWS re:Invent is distributed across multiple Las Vegas venues: MGM Grand, The Venetian Expo, Mandalay Bay Convention Center, Caesars Forum, and Wynn Las Vegas. A dedicated conference shuttle system runs continuously between venues. The shuttle system is essential — plan venue transitions using the conference app and build travel time into your schedule.

Getting There. Harry Reid International Airport (LAS) is centrally located relative to the Strip venues. Most conference venues are within 3–7 miles of the airport. Rideshare, taxis, and the free conference shuttles from official hotels cover most transit needs.

Where to Stay. AWS negotiates hotel blocks at conference venues and nearby properties. Staying at a conference host hotel eliminates commute time and places you inside the social ecosystem. The MGM Grand and Venetian are the most central host hotels. Book within the official room block as early as possible — re:Invent hotel inventory sells out completely months before the event.

Registration. Full conference passes include all sessions, workshops (subject to capacity), keynotes, and the Expo. Pass prices typically range from $1,800–$2,200+ for standard registration, with lower early-bird rates and higher on-site rates. The AWS Partner Summit (the day before re:Invent) requires a separate registration. Certification exam slots are booked through the conference portal with limited availability per exam.

Practical Notes. The re:Invent session reservation system (opened several weeks before the event) is intensely competitive for popular workshops — set an alarm for when reservations open. The conference app is essential navigation; download it as soon as available. Las Vegas in late November/early December is pleasant (highs around 55°F / 13°C) but evenings are cold.

FAQ

Q: How do I navigate the session reservation system?

A: AWS opens session reservations online several weeks before the conference, with popular workshops selling out within minutes. Set calendar reminders for the exact reservation opening time, prioritize your top 5–10 sessions in advance, and move quickly. Walk-up reservations are available on-site for unfilled slots — check the conference app morning-of for additions to your schedule.

Q: What is the difference between a session, a workshop, a chalk talk, and a builder session?

A: Sessions (lectures) are one-hour presentations by AWS staff or customers — attendee capacity is large and no registration is required. Workshops are multi-hour hands-on labs with AWS environments provided — require pre-registration. Chalk talks are small-group interactive discussions with an AWS expert — require pre-registration. Builder sessions are small groups (8–10 people) working one-on-one with AWS engineers on specific challenges — highest intimacy and hardest to reserve.

Q: Is re:Invent worth attending if I primarily use GCP or Azure?

A: If your organization is multi-cloud or considering AWS, re:Invent provides useful competitive intelligence and partner ecosystem exposure. For organizations fully committed to other clouds, the value proposition is weaker — AWS's own innovations dominate the content and the partner focus is AWS-native.

Q: How do I find the new services announced at re:Invent after the conference?

A: AWS publishes a comprehensive "What's New" blog and maintains a re:Invent launch recap page with links to all announcements. The AWS blog, AWS YouTube channel, and community recap articles (from AWS Community Heroes and publications like The New Stack) provide structured access to all announcements with contextual analysis.

Q: Is there a virtual attendance option?

A: AWS livestreams all keynotes and publishes session recordings on the AWS YouTube channel and AWS Events website. Virtual attendance is free. The full in-person experience — workshops, chalk talks, partner networking, and hallway conversations — is not replicable virtually, but the core announcement content is accessible globally.

Q: How do I build a meaningful exhibitor target list before the Expo?

A: Define your evaluation criteria by category (security, data, DevOps, cost management, etc.) and identify your top priorities. Tools like Lensmor help you research exhibitors before arriving — you can filter by industry, company size, and product category to build a target list.