Matt Garman, AWS

It’s hard to think of another event, outside of religion, where 60 000 or so people will cram into a hall at 8am to listen to a two-hour speech. But come every December, this is exactly what happens as AWS customers, partners and the press file into a very large room in Las Vegas.

Matt Garman, the newish boss of AWS, has had seven months to prepare for his two-hour speech to open 2024’s re:Invent, and it was packed with technical detail about its new or improved products. This marked a change from the former CEO Adam Selipsky, who had a more discursive, storytelling style.