On September 4th I attended the Amazon Web Services (AWS) Summit in Toronto. Over the years, this summit has grown in scale and now takes place downtown in the Metro Convention Centre.
It is always fun to travel downtown, as the city is booming with activity—especially in the areas of IT and AI.
Speaking of AI, this year the main topic of the AWS summit was overwhelmingly centered around AI. The sheer number of sessions related to AI would have only shocked someone who had happened to be asleep for the last two or three years.
As always, trying to organize your agenda and choosing between sessions can be a challenge. For most fellow IT professionals, we end up multitasking at these events, hence the search for secluded spaces where one can pull out the laptop and get some urgent business done via the conference’s WIFI.
The Expo Hall is always a highlight. Beyond the great swag, it’s a chance to discover new products and get updates on your old favorites.
Whether we love or loathe training and certifications, staying relevant in IT means embracing lifelong learning. So it was great to see an open session dedicated to this very topic.
Also new to me this year were the funky theater headsets. Why has no one thought of that before? At busy conferences, it’s often hard to hear the speakers or stay focused amid the fairground-like atmosphere. These headphones made it easy to tune in and follow the sessions without distraction.
As in previous years, AWS had an entire area dedicated to certifications.
I’ll admit—I haven’t worked extensively with AWS. But some of the presentations made me want to dive deeper, like the jam-packed session on AWS Systems Manager.
As I mentioned earlier, the AI theme was everywhere. There was even an AWS AI Hub.
A bit of free promotion while making my rounds never hurts.
The Ootbi (Out-of-the-Box Immutability) mascot accompanied me on my journey and demanded a selfie on the “W” of the AWS sign, since Ootbi is a winner.
As for the agenda, AI was front and center. Here are just a few examples:
The AWS Summit is always worth attending—even if you’re not yet deeply immersed in their ecosystem. Beyond the tech experience, it offers a glimpse into the future. And that future, for better or worse, is undeniably AI-driven.
