---
name: reinvent-reserve
description: Prepare for and work the reserved-seating open — ranked session codes with same-venue backups, the favorite-vs-reserve distinction, and the 10-minute scan-in rule. Use when the user says "reservations open", "how do I book sessions", "reserve my seats", "am I ready for the open", or reserved seating is imminent.
---

# Work the reservation open

Reservations open on **one morning**, Pacific time, historically early-to-mid
October (AWS says "fall 2026" for the 2026 date — check the event site and put it
in the calendar with the timezone converted). The small-room sessions are gone in
minutes. Everything here is about being ready before the clock starts.

## Generate the plan

> **Where to run these.** Every command below needs the planner repo on the
> Python path. If there is no `reinvent/` directory in the current working
> directory, you are not in it — resolve this skill's own base directory (printed
> when the skill loaded, and usually a symlink), then go two levels up: that is
> the repo root. `cd` there first, or call `<repo>/bin/reinvent <command>` by
> absolute path, which works from anywhere. Do not tell the user to install
> anything; there are no dependencies.

```bash
python3 -m reinvent reservation-plan --profile profiles/<name>.json --out reservations.md
```

It produces, in order: the sessions that cannot be watched later, then everything
else, then the usually-recorded ones. Each scheduled item carries a **backup in
the same building**, plus a paste-ready block of codes and a list of the
laptop-required sessions.

If times are not published yet it degrades to a priority order and says so. That
is still useful — it tells you what to favorite — but the real plan comes after
times land.

## The four things to tell the user, every time

1. **Favoriting is not reserving.** A favorite is a bookmark. Only the Reserve
   button holds a seat. People find this out at the door of a full room.
2. **One session per time slot.** You cannot double-book a slot and decide later,
   which is exactly why each pick needs a backup.
3. **Be scanned in 10 minutes before start**, or the seat is released to
   walk-ups. Eight minutes early with a reservation still loses it. Treat every
   start time as ten minutes earlier than printed.
4. **Log in to the catalog before the open.** Thousands of people hit it at once.

## Before the open

- Schedule finished — not a shortlist, an actual day-by-day plan. If they do not
  have one, go to `reinvent-agenda` first.
- Ranked code list open in a text file or the generated report, so it is
  copy-paste and search, not browse-and-decide.
- One backup per slot, same venue. A backup across the Strip is not a backup.
- Alarm set, timezone converted. This is the single most common miss for anyone
  outside Pacific.

## Priority order, and why

Spend the opening minutes on what you **cannot get any other way**: chalk talks,
code talks, workshops, builders' sessions, labs. Small rooms, not recorded.

Breakout sessions are usually posted to YouTube — a missed breakout costs you a
video in January. Reserve those last, or not at all.

Keynotes cannot be reserved. They are walk-up only; line up early.

## After the open

Tell the user this explicitly, because most people stop here and lose value:

- **Cancel what you are not attending.** Free, and it frees a seat for someone
  else at an event where seats are the scarce resource.
- **Keep checking back.** Seats free up constantly as people reshuffle. A session
  that was full at the open often has room a few days later, or the night before.
  This is how people pick up the sessions they "missed".
- **Walk-up still works.** No-show seats are released to the line right before
  start. For anything that is not the hottest session of the week, arriving early
  genuinely gets you in.
- Re-run `reinvent-watch` after each catalog wave; new content can beat something
  already reserved, and cancelling costs nothing.

## What this tool cannot do

It cannot reserve anything. It produces the list; the clicking happens in the
AWS catalog while signed in to a re:Invent account. Never imply a seat is held.