The Ops Community ⚙️

Mandi Walls
Mandi Walls

Posted on

It's almost time for re:Invent

You wanted to have a nice relaxing Thanksgiving, sit at home or go see family. Have some good food. Watch a big ol' parade and some sportsball on TV.

Looming on the horizon, though. What is that? It's not just the Sunday Scaries.

It's re:Invent. The big AWS tech show in Las Vegas, sitting on the shoulder on the holiday.

I will be there, in the PagerDuty booth. Stop by and say hi. ;)

Here's some top things that come up for folks who don't go to Vegas often or ever.

It's DRY

I don't mean "don't repeat yourself", I mean the humidity. It's desert. If you're coming in from a more temperate region, you'll feel it.

It will feel like the air is sucking the moisture out of your body. And your eyeballs.

Prepare yourself:

  • Moisturizer for your skin.
  • Chapstick or your favorite lip balm.
  • Eye drops. I'm not kidding. Sucking the moisture from your eyes.
  • Nasal spray or gel. I like AYR Saline Nasal Gel, which is available at most drug stores. Helps if you're prone to nosebleeds in dry weather.
  • Water bottle. Or you could hope to score one in the swag. :D

It's Pricey

It's a tourist trap in the desert. Of course everything is going to be expensive.

It's Packed

If you've read about any nice restaurants or experiences in Las Vegas that you'd like to check out, the time to reserve that was in the spring.

Many of the restaurants in the Venetian will be bought out by sponsors to use for meetings and shmoozing. The other popular eateries on the strip will also be booked out for meetings.

re:Invent won't even be the only show going on. This year the other big show will be Marijuana Business Daily - MJBizCon 2024 at the Convention Center, bringing another 30k people.

It's Far

Nothing is close together. The Venetian itself is gigantic.

If you're staying at one of the sleeping hotels, give yourself at least an hour to get to your sessions.

What are your survival tips?

Let me know in the comments!

Top comments (0)