Fancy going to a three-hour-long presentation which is in parts self-contradictory, and includes half a dozen product launches with no coherent target audience? I promise, you will find some of it boring.

No? Not tempted?

Me neither.

Last year I went to the Amazon Web Services “re:Invent” conference in Las Vegas. It's five days of a rather tightly packed mix of certification sessions, training, product launches, all sorts of “breakout” sessions (some by Amazon themselves, and some by guest speakers — i.e. customers), the vendor expo, and of course what I'll somewhat euphemistically call the “after-hours” events.

The breakout sessions cover a wide range of topics — individual AWS technologies, both at basic and advanced levels; and how customers are using AWS, in all sorts of diverse industry sectors. Each session is about 45 minutes long, and you can pick and choose which ones to go to. Great!

Keynotes

The “keynotes” though, are a very different affair. On two successive days, the keynotes (yes, plural: two different keynotes) are each 90 minutes long.

For me, a keynote should be a summary of the key themes, typically 30–45 minutes long (I'm sure I've seen a definition of the word, to this effect), so Amazon's keynotes immediately ring at least two alarm bells:

  • Why are there two keynotes? It's not just two opportunities to see the same speech: it's two different presentations. Why are there two different summaries of the key themes?
  • Why is each one so long? Each keynote seems to be two to three times longer than is typical, and if the keynotes are different then this means that in total it's effectively up to six times longer.

If your summary is three hours long, then you need to summarise your summary.

But the explanation of course is that AWS “keynotes” aren't keynotes. Yes, they include a summary of some themes; but then they also include some more in-depth look at those themes, and the launches of some new AWS products that tie in with those themes. They're really an all-in-one mega-presentation, split into two halves.

Information overload

Where Amazon get it right with the “breakout” sessions, they get it very wrong with their keynotes: they include a diverse range of subjects all in the same presentation (e.g. software deployment, and also financial accounting) so that it's highly unlikely that anyone is going to find the whole presentation interesting. And even if it was all interesting, ninety minutes is too damn long.

While they do at least break it into two halves, on successive days, that
doesn't go anything like far enough.

I'd love it if Amazon would have the keynotes and product launches follow the same model as the breakout sessions:

  • The keynote (yes, one keynote), 45 minutes long, which can be a summary of the themes, and brief “teaser” announcements of the product launches;
  • Product launch presentations, probably around three separate sessions, each around 45 minutes long, grouped by approximate theme.

Launching two separate products related to software development? That's one session. Two products related to finance? That's another. Two unrelated product launches left over? Well, lump 'em together in a third session. (Not ideal, but still way better than the current approach).

Then we'll be free to pick and choose which sessions we go to. Each session will be more focussed on one audience, who will therefore be more engaged. And the worst case is that you go to one of the “mixed” product launch sessions, and find one half interesting, and the other half not. Time wasted: 20 minutes (compared to an hour or two, currently).

Summing up

The keynote sessions are at odds with the style of the rest of AWS re:Invent. Whereas most of the week is dynamic, punchy, focussed, and fast-moving, the keynotes come across as over-long self-indulgent ramblings, which include what should be gems of interest, but hidden amongst far too much other content seemingly designed to help the attendees catch up on the sleep lost due to after-hours indulgences.

By restructuring the keynotes and product announcements into a series of separate sessions, the Amazon “big name” presenters can up their game, and reinvent themselves as the focus of something interesting — so that we might just be tempted enough to go along and listen.

Photo credit: Elliot White III