I recently attended the AWS Summit at the ExCeL Centre in London. Initially, I wasn’t sure whether the event would be right for me, I'm currently between jobs and only recently graduated - but I’m so glad I went!

If you’re not familiar with AWS Summit, let me give you a quick overview:

Enjoy an action-packed day at AWS Summit London 2025, where the latest in cloud innovation comes to life. Explore how cutting-edge technologies, from generative AI to serverless computing, are revolutionising industries and empowering businesses to lead in the digital era.

Alongside a wide range of vendor stalls, there’s also a packed schedule of over 190 sessions running throughout the day. Each session is labelled by skill level - Introductory, Intermediate, Advanced, and Expert so there truly is something for everyone.

With the keynote slightly overrunning, it was soon time for my next session: "Building a WebApp in 10 Minutes with Cloudflare." These smaller sessions are held in pop-up theatres spread across both the North and South halls of ExCeL, each using wireless headphones so that attendees can clearly hear the speaker despite the background noise from other sessions and stalls. Though short, this talk gave a great overview of Cloudflare’s service offerings and demonstrated how easy it is to deploy a WebApp on their platform - including adding services like databases and S3-compatible storage.

Next, I had planned to check out the Self-Paced Labs room, but I got sidetracked by all the stalls and activities in the AWS Sports Zone. I would have loved to take a closer look at the AWS/F1 exhibit, but the queue was quite long! After exploring the stalls, it was soon time for lunch - provided by the event!

With over 23,000 attendees welcomed in 2024 (and likely even more this year), it’s hard to overstate the scale of catering such an event! The lunches were pre-packed, with meat, vegan, and gluten-free options. I had the chicken wrap, and it was delicious - everything tastes better when it’s free, right? In addition to lunch, there were plenty of water stations and free tea and coffee available throughout the venue.

I had planned to attend the talk "Launch Your First Web App: A Hands-On Guide", but unfortunately, even though I arrived 15 minutes early, all the headphones were already gone - so there was no way to hear the presenter. Instead, I used the opportunity to visit more vendor stalls, including CircleCI and GitLab (and, of course, stock up on plenty of stickers!).

Later, I attended "Develop Your Cloud Skills Using AWS Skill Builder." I’ve used AWS Skill Builder before, but it was great to learn more about their broader training offerings. Unlike other talks, this one encouraged audience participation and even featured a quiz with prizes.

Up until this point, all the talks I’d attended were at the Introductory level. For my final session of the day, I decided to step up and attend an Intermediate-level session titled "Build Without Limits with AWS Cloud Infrastructure." This session focused more on what AWS can offer, rather than *how* to implement it. While some of the content was more advanced than my current level, it was still valuable to hear real-world examples of how businesses are leveraging AWS to meet their needs.

And just like that, the day came to a close. I can safely say I thoroughly enjoyed being surrounded by people who share similar interests. The open and inclusive nature of the event made it easy to get involved with whatever sessions appealed to me. I’d highly recommend attending an AWS Summit if you’re interested in cloud services - regardless of your level of experience.

Author note: Apologies for the quality of some of the pictures, my phone was struggling in the lighting conditions!