As we recently wrote in a previous AWS re:Invent 2015 post, the 2015 edition of AWS’s re:Invent event is going to be huge. There will be far too much going on to expect that you’ll actually see anything more than a representative sampling of everything on offer. So if you’re lucky enough to have a ticket and you want to get as much as you can from those busy few days, you’ll have to plan very carefully.

Looking for a bit of help focusing your attention? At Cloud Academy, we’ve come up with a short list of five superstar sessions that can make the whole thing worthwhile all on their own. And we’ve got just the prep content you’ll need so you’ll be ready to take full advantage of each of these advanced sessions.

1. AWS re:Invent ARC201

Time: Wednesday, Oct 7, 2:45 PM – 3:45 PM

Presenter: Eugene Istrati – CTO, Mitoc Group Inc.

Using his own company’s Digital Asset Management system as an example, Mitoc’s CTO will demonstrate how AWS’s service abstraction platforms (like Lambda and CloudFront) can be used to create low maintenance and highly scalable high-performance serverless environments at very low cost. His point seems to be that if Mitoc can do it, anyone can.

Just make sure you don’t walk into the session empty-handed: brush up on your understanding of DynamoDB (1h lab) and CloudFront (1h lab).

2. AWS re:Invent CMP301

Time: Thursday, Oct 8, 4:15 PM – 5:15 PM

Presenter: Tim Wagner – General Manager, Amazon Web Services

Just how disruptive can Lambda become? Think about entire IoT and mobile ecosystems efficiently delivering granular capacity and scalability without servers. Not just “without traditional rack servers”, but without even virtual servers. Tim Wagner will show you what Lambda brings to the table to make that possible.

Need a quick backgrounder to Lambda? Try Cloud Academy’s Lambda course (41 minutes of video) or Introduction to AWS Lambda hands-on Lab. We’ve also just published an excellent blog post offering a solid introduction to Lambda.

3. AWS re:Invent ARC301

Time: Thursday, Oct 8, 5:30 PM – 6:30 PM

Presenter: Joel Williams – Solutions Architect, Amazon Web Services

AWS solutions architect Joel Williams will provide an advanced (300 level) explanation of real-world big league scaling. Viral app growth doesn’t have to be frightening, and it can definitely be managed.

Cloud Academy’s SysOps administration certification course provides an outstanding introduction to scaling under pressure. At just over an hour of video, perhaps it’s worth a quick look.

4. AWS re:Invent ARC302

Time: Friday, Oct 9, 9:00 AM – 10:00 AM

Presenters: Markus Ostertag – Head of Development, Team Internet AG

Constantin Gonzalez – Principal Solutions Architect, AWS

Of course, you know that AWS was built for cost efficiency, and you’ve got a pretty good idea of the tools they provide to make it work for you. But you will probably never see all the parts brought together in a single humming whole the way you will in this 300 level session. Learn how to work much smarter and save money.

These two Cloud Academy write-ups: AWS Costs: the 5 most common mistakes and AWS Budgets and Forecast might give you a head start on this.

5. AWS re:Invent CMP302

Time: Thursday, Oct 8, 2:45 PM – 3:45 PM

Presenter: Deepak Singh – GM, Amazon EC2 Container Service, Amazon Web Services

Perhaps you’ve already been introduced to Docker and Amazon’s ECS (and if you haven’t, it’s definitely not too late), but Deepak Singh will demonstrate the patterns and architectures that allow deployments to fully integrate microservice platforms to solve – and prevent – real-world problems.

Be sure to read this Cloud Academy blog post on the EC2 Container Service. Or perhaps now is a good time to dive into Docker with Cloud Academy’s Docker in Depth Learning Path.