Over a year ago the AWS team opened a “pop-up loft” in San Francisco at 925 Market Street. The goal of opening the loft was to give developers an opportunity to get in-person support and education on AWS, to network, get some work done, or just hang out with peers. It became a great success; every time when I visit the loft there is a great buzz with people getting advice from our solution architects, getting training or attending talks and demos. It became such a hit among developers that we decided to reopen the loft last year August after its initial run of 4 weeks, making sure everyone would have continued access to this important resource.

Building on the success of the San Francisco loft the team will now also open a pop-up loft in New York City on June 24 at 350 West Broadway. It will extend the concept that was pioneered in SF to give NYC developers access to great AWS resources:

• Ask an Architect: You can schedule a 1:1, 60-minute session with a member of the AWS technical team. Bring your questions about AWS architecture, cost optimization, services and features, and anything else AWS related. And don’t be shy — walk-ins are welcome too.
• Technical Presentations: AWS solution architects, product managers, and evangelists deliver technical presentations covering some of the highest-rated and best-attended sessions from recent AWS events. Talks cover solutions and services including Amazon Echo, Amazon DynamoDB, mobile gaming, Amazon Elastic MapReduce, and more.
• AWS Technical Bootcamps: Limited to 25 participants per bootcamp, these full-day bootcamps include hands-on lab exercises that use a live environment with the AWS console. Usually these cost $600, but at the AWS Pop-up Loft we are offering them for free. Bootcamps you can register for include “Getting Started with AWS — Technical,” “Store and Manage Big Data in the Cloud,” “Architecting Highly Available Apps,” and “Taking AWS Operations to the Next Level.”
• Self-paced, Hands-on Labs: Beginners through advanced users can attend labs on topics that range from creating Amazon EC2 instances to launching and managing a web application with AWS CloudFormation. Usually $30 each, these labs are offered for free in the AWS loft.

You are all invited to join us for the grand opening party at the loft on June 24 at 7 PM. There will be food, drinks, DJ, and free swag. The event will be packed, so RSVP today if you want to come and mingle with hot startups, accelerators, incubators, VCs, and our AWS technical experts. Entrance is on a first come, first serve basis.

Both the San Francisco loft and the New York City loft have packed calendars with events. Visit their web pages for more details and to sign up.

I have signed up to do two loft events:

• Fireside Chat with AWS Community Heroes on June 16 starting at 6pm Jeremy Edberg (Reddit/Netflix) and Valentino Volonghi (Adroll) will be joining me at the San Francisco loft for a fireside chat about startups, technology, entrepreneurship and more. Jeremy and Valentino have been recognized by AWS as Community Heroes, an honor reserved for developers who’ve had a real impact within the community. Following the talk, we’ll kick off a unique networking social including specialty cocktails, beer, wine, food, and party swag!
• Fireside Chat with NYC Founders on July 7 a number of startup founders who have gone through NYC accelerators will join me for a conversation about trends in the New York startup scene.

I hope to see you there!