This year has seen a complete re-imagining of tech conferences. Some were cancelled or postponed, while others have evolved and embraced the opportunity to go virtual. This meant innovating to bring the in-person event experience online.

AWS re:Invent is not only transitioning their week-long Las Vegas conference online, but they’re tripling down to create a three week online experience starting November 30 and ending December 18. Since we'll all be virtually attending the conference from our homes, AWS is spreading out the experience so folks can experience as much of it as possible. 

As a remote-first company, Gremlin is excited to connect with the AWS community to leverage what we learned hosting Failover Conf and Chaos Conf. 

Of course, re:Invent is in a class of its own, and our whole team has been heads down to find the best ways to continue evangelizing Chaos Engineering. Here’s a preview of how Gremlin will participate in re:Invent 2020 from our virtual booth:

• Unscramble AWS re:Invent! Unlock your entry to win a Sonos 5 by finding the hidden letter in the welcome video at our booth! Then visit the CircleCI, Dynatrace, and PagerDuty booths to find the rest of the hidden letters. Even if you don’t win the grand prize, the first 1,000 people that enter the password will get a set of stickers!
• Visit our booth to learn more about how Gremlin can help your systems become more reliable. 
• Check out the DevOps track in the official re:Invent Demo Theater to see some of the leading solutions in action, including Gremlin’s.
• Join over 6,000 Chaos Engineers in the #awsreinvent channel of the Chaos Engineering Community Slack to talk about sessions, solutions, and swap pictures of your conference viewing setup. 
• Stop by NS1’s INS1GHTS Days on December 2-3 to learn more about building resilient network infrastructure with a focus on testing, deployment, and monitoring. Register here with the code GREMLIN for a free pass!

Tips for getting the most out of attending virtual conferences

Here are some tips that will help you make the most out of your virtual experience. 

Learn how to use the virtual conference tool

AWS will be using Kaltura for the event. You’ll be able to watch talks, see live and recorded demos, and visit sponsoring companies to learn more about their technology and explore use cases. Familiarizing yourself with Kaltura will let you make the most of your time when the conference starts. 

Engage with other attendees

The hallway track is always one of the most valuable experiences at re:Invent. The brightest minds and innovators are gathered together to share lessons learned with each other. You can still connect with your fellow attendees using the chat function on Kaltura, on Twitter with #reinvent, and in the #awsreinvent channel of the Chaos Engineering Slack.

Seek out solutions

Since there won't be a conference floor to walk around and learn what's new in the industry, we recommend getting a head start. Make a list of problems you want to solve at your company in the next year, then cross reference that with the list of re:Invent sponsors. Then, skim through for a look at the companies who are generating a lot of buzz or have the best virtual swag giveaways and make sure you drop by their virtual booth.

Give yourself a break

Just because you’re not sprinting from the Venetian to the Aria this year doesn’t mean that re:Invent won’t be taxing. Since we'll still be in the new normal day-to-day of balancing work and home life, it’s important to view the schedule and block off time for keynotes and sessions that interest you. Make sure you have plenty of snacks and water on-hand and be sure to take breaks when you can. 

See you (virtually) at re:Invent 2020

On behalf of the entire Gremlin team, we're looking forward to sharing the latest in Chaos Engineering and reliability with you from the comfort of each of our homes. Be sure to check out our booth by clicking here. See you at re:Invent!