HITEC 2025 Seattle, WA Regional Event hosted by AWS|Amazon

Join us for an intimate session and fireside chat with JC Gutierrez and Jaime Valles, an almost 10-year Amazon veteran, as he shares his transformative journey of building and scaling innovative teams across Amazon. Drawing from their extensive experience leading breakthrough initiatives from AWS to Consumer, Jaime and JC will share candid insights on: Fostering a culture of invention and bias for action • Unpacking the Day1 thinking • Real stories of failure, learning, and reimagining what's possible • Leadership lessons on scaling innovation across large organizations. This interactive session promises rich dialogue and practical takeaways for leaders at all levels. Come prepared with your questions as we explore what it truly means to be customer-obsessed and think big in today's rapidly evolving landscape.

Join us for an inspiring and interactive session exploring the transformative potential of Generative AI across different business domains. In this session, we'll dive deep into real-world applications of GenAI that go beyond the obvious, showcasing how this technology is revolutionizing customer experiences, optimizing operations, and enabling new business models. Through practical demonstrations and success stories, you'll discover how Amazon and our customers are leveraging GenAI to solve complex challenges and unlock new opportunities. Whether you're new to GenAI or already experimenting with it, you'll leave this session with fresh perspectives on what's possible and actionable insights to drive innovation in your organization.

In this session, Alfonso Palacios explores the core elements of Amazon's innovation culture through the Press Release/Frequently Asked Questions (PRFAQ) methodology - a key driver of customer-obsessed development. Drawing from direct leadership experience at Amazon, he will demonstrate how structured processes enable clear thinking and creative problem-solving. The session provides practical examples from successful Amazon initiatives. Attendees leave with actionable frameworks to drive technological advancement in their organizations through Amazon's proven methods of structured innovation.

As leaders create and navigate a future powered by AI, they need more than just IQ and “hard” skills to succeed. They need to integrate their cognitive intelligence with their emotional intelligence to build adaptable, resilient, and innovative organizations. These leaders have deep empathy for their customers and foster a culture of creativity and psychological safety among their employees. They need to be data-driven but also authentically human. This session will help executives understand the EPIC attributes that empower future-ready leaders—empathy, purpose, inspiration, and connection—so they can drive successful outcomes for their people and their customers in the new human+AI era.