So this one is rough in the best of ways possible. It’s currently 2 AM Las Vegas time and I’ve been up since 7 AM the previous day. Back to what I said a few days ago, re:Invent is a marathon and not a sprint. At this point in the week, it feels like mile 18. I am tired but in the best of ways. The only thing I have to do is finish this race strong and to the best of my ability. Day 3 was better than day 2 and I’m excited to share with you how it went.
Let’s dig into Day 3 of AWS re:Invent 2023.
Day 3
Just a quick recap, if you missed the previous updates.
Head on over to those links to gain some insights into my first three days. Don’t worry, this recap will still be waiting for you when you are done!
Morning Activities
I honestly missed a large part of the morning keynote as I had some other items to attend to during my 8 – 11 AM period. I did go back and review the announcements and I was unimpressed. Going into this week I wasn’t expecting the world from feature releases, I was just hoping for incremental improvements to key features I use. This morning’s announcements just didn’t land for me.
I mentioned this in my last update, I don’t need more features, I need completed features that I depend upon. I find the battery of GenAI announcements to be confusing and sort of scattershot. As a builder in the Life Sciences space, I’d like to see targeted solutions that help me iterate and ship value quicker. But that doesn’t seem where these updates were targeting.
Q and Taylor Swift
After I finished up my morning calls, I published an article about When Amazon Q meets Taylor Swift. My initial impressions of the service were quite good. I know in the paragraphs above I was dogging slightly on the incomplete services. But when using Q, it is better than what I expected. Updating the training data was simple and querying the insights was also very straightforward.
Community Time
The balance of my day was spent spending time with people in the community. I got to meet with folks in the Small Business space, Community Programs and just builders in general.
I continue to believe that the best part of this re:Invent has been the connections I’ve made. Friends that exist online are becoming solid relationships IRL. And that to me has been more valuable than any session I’ve attended.
Community Booth Volunteering
As a part of the Community Builders, there was an opportunity to volunteer at the community booth. I wasn’t sure what to expect by signing up, but I’m so glad that I did. In addition, meeting people from all over the world, I had the opportunity to share my passion for the AWS community. Something that I do regularly, but not something that I get to do in person.
I stand by the fact that if I could go back in time I’d tell younger me to join up and contribute to this Serverless group that I’m a part of. And if by some chance I’m able to influence just one person to sign up and become a member, it’s more than worth it.
In addition to meeting people and sharing my passion around the AWS community, I scored this highly coveted shirt. There were only so many made and my photo was taken dozens of times. I’m sure it had nothing to do with me and 100% to do with the fact that the shirt is awesome!
Daily Wrap Up
I’ve been to many re:Invent parties in my years attending, but nothing compared to the Momento bash thrown at the Omnia. It started at 7 PM and went well into the early morning of the next day. I’m a huge fan of what Momento is doing but what makes this company extra special is the community they are building around their products.
I just love working on and with their team and I especially liked blowing off some re:Invent steam with them late into the night. Was an excellent time!
Day 3 ++
Up next … the crescendo for this re: Invent week. I’ve got the Verner Keynote and then re:Play tomorrow night. This has been the best week of the year outside of time spent with my wife and kids. I’m so blessed to be part of the things I am and I look forward to wrapping this week up and planning the next time I can connect with my friends.
If you at re: Invent and would like to meet up, here’s my contact card. Drop me an email or text me. I’d love to chat!
Until next time and happy building!
