Attend these AWS re:Invent 2024 sessions to charge your cloud and AI skills

AWS re:Invent 2024 is right around the corner! It will bring together cloud professionals and AI innovators for an exciting week of learning, networking, and deep dives into the latest tech.

Whether you’re a first-time attendee or a seasoned re:Invent pro, navigating such a massive event can be challenging. With hundreds of sessions covering everything from foundational skills to cutting-edge generative AI advancements, finding the sessions that match your goals is vital. 

This year, I’ve compiled a list of advanced-level sessions that offer hands-on experience, showcase emerging trends, and provide insights into AWS’s evolving role in cloud and AI. Whether you’re seeking practical skills, new ideas, or inspiration for your next project, these sessions will have something valuable for you.

Let’s dive into the top sessions you won’t want to miss!

Modernizing a monolithic architecture to adopt cloud-native practices is a significant endeavor, and generative AI is transforming how quickly teams can make this transition. 

This builder’s session takes you through an end-to-end modernization journey, with a focus on using Backstage and Harmonix to abstract the complexity of cloud-native architectures within a secure Internal Developer Platform (IDP). It's a practical way to explore how AWS can onboard and empower your development team, maximizing efficiency and agility.

If you’re new to AWS’s IDP or Backstage, don’t worry! This session is designed to get you up to speed with actionable blueprints. Remember to establish your free AWS Builder ID and bring your laptop for the hands-on components.

Learn more about this builder session.

As one of the AI/ML sessions at re:Invent, this workshop brings AI to the automotive industry, showcasing Amazon Bedrock’s generative AI features within the Virtual Engineering Workbench.

You’ll walk through app development for Android Automotive, using virtual ECUs to rapidly test and deploy updates. Generative AI plays a pivotal role here by significantly reducing development and publishing time, which is critical for large-scale, software-defined vehicles.

Since the workshop covers virtual ECU configurations, be prepared for an immersive experience of how AI accelerates development cycles. This is one of the top AWS workshops if you're interested in automotive or real-time embedded systems.

Learn more about this workshop.

AWS’s edge computing capabilities are expanding, making this workshop essential if your workloads require low-latency responses or local data processing. You’ll learn about AWS Local Zones and AWS Outposts and deploy applications for use cases like real-time gaming and private CDNs.

This session is designed for architects and developers focused on hybrid and edge solutions, covering best practices to ensure resilience and security at the edge.

Be ready to dive into AWS’s edge services and think critically about latency, data sovereignty, and security considerations. Having a laptop will allow you to participate fully in this hands-on session.

Learn more about this edge computing session.

Foundation models require significant training resources, but Amazon SageMaker HyperPod is built to handle this challenge at scale. This re:Invent chalk talk will demonstrate HyperPod’s distributed training capabilities, including its ability to reduce training time by up to 40% and automatically manage fault tolerance for long-running tasks. It’s an essential session for ML practitioners who need scalable, fault-tolerant training environments.

If you’re working on complex ML models or foundation models, come prepared with questions on how HyperPod manages distributed training across environments and mitigates common training disruptions.

Learn more about this re:Invent chalk talk.

Sustainability is at the core of many organizations' goals, and AWS’s focus on green infrastructure supports those efforts. This lightning talk covers AWS’s innovations, from energy-efficient data centers to purpose-built chips and cooling technologies, that reduce the carbon footprint of AI workloads by up to 99%. It’s a great session if you’re passionate about sustainable tech and want to align your AI development with environmental best practices.

Since it’s a lightning talk, the content is rapid and dense. Prepare to listen actively, take notes on AWS’s latest advancements, and consider how your organization might integrate these practices.

Learn more about this AI session at re:Invent.

In this builder’s session, you’ll explore how to deploy large language models (LLMs) at the edge, leveraging AWS IoT Greengrass for data privacy and low latency. Learn to create local knowledge bases and synchronize contextual data from sources like Amazon S3 to generate customized responses. This session is invaluable if you’re deploying AI on edge devices for privacy-sensitive applications.

This is a hands-on session, so bring your laptop and consider any potential LLM use cases relevant to your work. This will help you tailor the concepts to real-world applications.

Learn more about this builder session.

Qualcomm’s session offers a broad look at edge AI’s potential across various industries, focusing on AI at the source of data generation. With insights from IoT, automotive, and mobile verticals, you’ll understand Qualcomm’s approach to edge AI and gain insights into what’s next for edge computing.

This session is valuable for developers and tech leads interested in the future of AI hardware and deployment.

This generative AI presentation is sponsored, so it’s also a great chance to network with Qualcomm’s team and learn about its developer resources for edge AI.

Learn more about this edge AI lightning talk.

Hybrid cloud is becoming essential as organizations balance workloads between the cloud and on-premises or edge locations. Cloud computing talks like this session explain how AWS Outposts, Local Zones, and IoT can handle diverse applications, from real-time multiplayer games to smart manufacturing. It’s ideal if you’re considering hybrid solutions combining cloud’s flexibility with on-premises control.

This is one of the best re:Invent breakout sessions if you’re prepared to discuss your own hybrid scenarios. AWS experts often share insights and practical advice on balancing the cloud and edge.

Learn more about this re:Invent breakout session.

This top AWS workshop focuses on Amazon Bedrock Agents, generative AI applications that bring data analysis and actionable insights to life. Learn to connect multiple data sources like Amazon RDS and Amazon S3 to create a personalized customer experience while keeping AI applications responsible. It’s handy for finance or customer service teams looking to streamline complex data handling.

Bring a laptop to maximize the hands-on learning and consider any specific data challenges you’d like to discuss with the session leaders.

Learn more about this generative AI presentation.

In this session, I’ll be sharing practical insights to deploy Amazon Q Developer across teams. Amazon Q enhances productivity and simplifies workflows by integrating single sign-on and tools like Bitbucket and Jira. This session is valuable for developers and team leads eager to streamline their processes with generative AI.

Since this session includes real-world use cases and technical strategies, think about any specific challenges in your team’s workflows to maximize the Q&A segment.

Learn more about this breakout session.

AWS re:Invent 2024 sessions offer a mix of technical depth, sustainability insights, and hands-on opportunities for attendees of all levels.

No matter where you are in your cloud journey, these advanced sessions will provide valuable insights, fresh perspectives, and practical skills to bring back to your teams. I’ll see you there! 

Catch Pluralsight at booth #876 in the Venetian Expo Hall for re:Invent networking opportunities and: 

• Awesome swag, including t-shirts, tote bags, fidget cubes, and more
• A daily raffle you can enter for a chance win special prizes like a Nintendo Switch or Keychron Q6 Max Mechanical Keyboard
• Meet & greet session with AWS Heroes (including me!)