Alexa Blogs
AWS re:Invent (November 26-30) is the largest global gathering of Amazon developers and, like in previous years, the Alexa team will be there in full force to educate attendees on the technology behind the Alexa Skills Kit, Alexa Voice Service, and Alexa smart home.
If you’re unable to attend AWS re:Invent in person, you can join us from your home or office to watch livestreams from the event. Each day we will be streaming session recaps, interviews, and more from our Twitch channel (twitch.tv/amazonalexa) and bringing insights and perspectives from a rotating cast of presenters and voice design experts.
Watching our livestreams on Twitch is great way to learn about the latest skill-building trends and best practices. We’ll also dive deep on some of the new tools and features available in the Alexa Skills Kit. All the livestreams will be highly interactive, so be sure to chat with us and ask plenty of questions throughout the streams.
Check out the full Twitch schedule below for Alexa at AWS re:Invent (all times in PST). Visit the Twitch event page for each day and click on the purple “remind me” button to get a reminder to join each stream before the show starts.
Monday, November 26 – Get your Twitch reminder.
| Time | Topic |
| 9:30-10:00am | Welcome and #ExperienceAlexa at AWS re:Invent! |
| 10-11:30am | Session Recap: How to Train Your Alexa Skill Language Model Using Machine Learning The Alexa team will walk you through how you can make your Alexa skill more delightful by optimizing your language model. |
| 11:30am-1pm | Session Recap: Deep Dive into Three Critical Aspects of Alexa's In-Skill Purchase API Hear from the Alexa voice UX team to learn how to design and implement in-skill purchasing to sell premium content within Alexa skill. |
| 1-2:30pm | Session Recap: Build an Interactive Alexa Voice Experience for Multiple Screens Tune in to learn from Alexa voice design experts on best practices for combining voice interactions with displays using the new Alexa Presentation Language (APL). |
| 2:30-4pm | Session Recap: Automate Your Lambda Function Deployment Workflows Using AWS CodeCommit The Alexa team will walk you through how to automate your deployment workflow, from committing a change to your repository to the deploying an AWS Lambda function. |
Tuesday, November 27 – Get your reminder.
| Time | Topic |
| 9:30-10am | Monday Recap and Highlights from Alexa Hack Day |
| 2:30-3:30pm | Alexa Office Hours Meet the Alexa team and bring your skill-building questions. |
| 4:30-6pm | Session Recap: Alexa Everywhere, a Year in Review Hear from Alexa Chief Evangelist David Isbitski and get up to speed on the voice-first movement, conversational AI trends, and the latest Alexa features and devices. |
Wednesday, November 28 – Get your reminder.
| Time | Topic |
| 9:30-10am | Tuesday Highlights and What We’re Looking Forward to on Wednesday |
| 10-11:30am | Session Recap: Use Alexa to Reach Millions of New Customers by Developing for Multiple Screens Learn how to use the new APL file format, reusable UI components, and device groupings to create rich, interactive multimodal experiences. You’ll hear from developer Steven Arkonovich and learn how he used APL to enhance his popular Big Sky skill. |
| 11:30am-1pm | Session Recap: Solve Common Voice UI Challenges with Advanced Dialog Management Techniques
|
| 1-2:30pm | Feature Demos and Live Coding Get live demos of new skill-building tools and an overview for how to implement Amazon Polly voices into your Alexa skills to deliver more engaging experiences. |
| 2:30-4pm | Session Recap: Supercharge Any Alexa Skill by Understanding What Games Do Hear from Alexa evangelists on the landscape of voice-first games. You’ll learn how you can build games for voice, the new gaming frontier. |
Thursday, November 29 – Get your reminder.
| Time | Topic |
| 9:30-10:30am | Live Coding Session: Build Your First Alexa Skill in 1 Hour Watch as an Alexa evangelist walks you through how to build an Alexa skill from start to finish. |
| 10:30-11:30am | Session Recap: Three Lessons from “Escape the Room” That Apply to Making Money with Your Alexa Skills Hear from Gal Shenar, founder of Stoked Skills, about how he’s delivering engaging premium experiences in his skills, and building his voice business as a result. |
| 11:30am-1pm | Session Recap: Game Building for Echo Buttons Hear from the Alexa Gadgets team on how to bring your IP to Alexa and engage with players on tens of millions of Alexa devices. |
| 1-4pm | Feature Demos and Live Coding Get a deep dive on the new CanFulfillIntentRequest (beta), which helps customers find the right skill faster, using the search terms they say most naturally. We will also cover the new AMAZON.FallbackIntent, which helps you handle unexpected utterances, or when a customer says something that doesn’t map to any intents in your skill. |
| 2:30-4pm | Session Recap: Supercharge Any Alexa Skill by Understanding What Games Do Hear from Alexa evangelists on the landscape of voice-first games. You’ll learn how you can build games for voice, the new gaming frontier. |
We can’t wait to connect with you next week on Twitch! Visit the Twitch event page for each day and click on the purple “remind me” button to get a reminder to join each stream before the show starts.
