How to guarantee your time is well spent at AWS re:Inforce
AWS re:Inforce 2022 is a learning conference for both technical and non-technical attendees interested in cloud security, compliance, identity, or privacy. Whether you learn best through interactive sessions with small groups, working on your own, or listening to lectures, re:Inforce has sessions (nearly 400!) that fit your needs. It’s great to have so many options, but choosing how to spend your time can be a bit overwhelming. We’re here to explain what to expect, how to prepare, and how to decide which sessions you’ll attend.
Before you go
- Make sure you’re registered for the conference (can’t hurt to double check!) and your hotel/travel accommodations are booked.
- Read the AWS Code of Conduct to understand how AWS expects attendees to behave.
- Review the AWS health measures. Masks are not required this year; however, attendees must be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 or show a negative COVID-19 PCR or antigen test to attend the event.
- Log in to the re:Inforce portal, ensure your contact info is correct, and upload your badge photo.
- Review the session types to help you understand what each session offers and which will best fit your needs.
- Choose which sessions you’ll attend ahead of time. The portal makes it easy to filter by session level, type, track, industry, etc. As you find sessions you like, you can add them to your calendar in the portal to keep track and avoid choosing conflicting ones.
What to expect
Although everyone’s exact schedule will vary, this is generally how you can expect to spend your time.
Monday
The conference kicks off. You’ll go to the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center, pick up your badge, and then head to the bootcamps. Bootcamps are training sessions with AWS experts who can answer your questions and guide you through immersive exercises.
Tuesday
The keynotes, labs, breakout content, and leadership sessions begin.
The keynote is from 9:00–10:30 AM ET. This will be helpful for anyone who wants to hear about the latest cloud security innovations and trends from AWS executives and industry leaders.
There are two types of labs—check out the self-paced labs if you want to practice on your own in a live sandbox environment or the spotlight labs if you’d rather have an AWS expert guide you through real-world scenarios.
Leadership sessions are like mini keynotes, where you’ll hear updates and unique perspectives from AWS leaders.
Breakout content is led by AWS experts. Here’s a quick overview of the types of breakout content, but if you’re looking for more details, you can always refer back to our AWS session guide.
- Breakout sessions: 1-hour lecture-style presentations with Q&A
- Workshops: 2-hour interactive learning sessions where you solve problems with small teams
- Chalk talks: 1-hour highly interactive sessions where you discuss problems and solutions on a digital whiteboard
- Builders’ sessions: 1-hour small-group sessions where you build a service or product on your own laptop
- Code talks: 1-hour engaging, code-focused sessions with a small audience
- Circuits: 2.5-hour sequential learning sessions where you will learn about a solution and do a sample implementation with your peers
Several sponsors are hosting events at nearby restaurants and bars on Tuesday. Feel free to stop by Lacework’s event from 7:00–10:00 PM at Woods Hill Pier 4 for cocktails and snacks!
Wednesday
Wednesday includes all of the same session types as Tuesday. At 4:00 PM, after the sessions wrap up, you’ll head over to the closing reception at Lawn on D, just outside the convention center.
Which sessions to attend
The sessions you attend are totally up to you. To help you choose, the AWS Heroes—a group of AWS experts who share their expertise to help the community—put together guides with their session recommendations geared toward specific interests. Here are some of these sessions that we’re most excited about from each guide.
Governance & Compliance
Mark Nunnikhoven, AWS Community Hero and Distinguished Cloud Strategist at Lacework, recommended several sessions to help attendees who want to learn more about governance and compliance, which are foundational elements that are essential to building well in the cloud:
- Building privacy compliance on AWS (DPP101) – This breakout session provides a great baseline for privacy by design thinking and will help you optimize your privacy compliance efforts.
- Security mindfulness (SEC203-L) – Learn how you can identify and invest in security talent to build out a top-notch team, which is essential to run a strong governance and compliance practice.
Executives
Damian Gitto Olguin, AWS Community Hero, put together this guide for executives and founders who want to implement strong security strategies. A few of his recommendations include:
- Building privacy compliance on AWS (DPP101) – This breakout session will help you understand the regulatory landscape around your business and prepare you to face privacy management from a design point of view.
- Executive security simulation (GRC271) – Join this workshop to experiment with the security executive point of view in a game-like simulation and make decisions on strategic investments in security, risk, and compliance management.
Builders, Architects, and DevOps Professionals
Kristi Perreault, AWS Serverless Hero, recommended sessions for builders, developers, engineers, architects, and DevOps professionals to help improve your security posture.
- A proactive approach to zero-days: Lessons learned from Log4j (TDR301) – Learn from the mistakes and successes that businesses made after Log4j, to be better prepared for the next zero-day.
- Architecting governance across a multi-account strategy (GRC332) – This chalk talk will help you develop and implement a multi-account strategy to manage your organization’s account structure as you grow.
Security Analysts and Operators
Liz Rice, AWS Container Hero, wrote this guide for professionals who want to ensure their organizations are implementing good security practices.
- Using Wickr to fight human trafficking (DPP205) – This session reminds us why security is so important. The Freedom Shield Foundation will discuss how they secure the private data of their team and the people they help.
- Data protection practices to meet resiliency objectives (DPP234) – Learn how to use AWS services to safely back up your critical data, which is a topic that everyone can benefit from.
Be sure to check out the full attendee guides to see all of the Heroes’ recommendations. We have less than a week left until the conference begins, so it’s definitely a good idea to choose your sessions if you haven’t already.
If you’re interested in meeting with a cloud security expert or learning more about Lacework, stop by our booth (#406) on Tuesday or Wednesday! We’ll also be active on Twitter during the show. We hope to see you there!