--- title: "Turning re:Invent Conversations Into ACE Referrals" url: https://www.suger.io/resources/blog/reinvent-conversations-to-ace-referrals/ canonical: https://www.suger.io/resources/blog/reinvent-conversations-to-ace-referrals/ type: Blog description: "How to turn AWS event conversations into ACE referrals worth working: what to capture, how to qualify before submitting, and the follow-through." --- # Turning re:Invent Conversations Into ACE Referrals > Canonical HTML version: https://www.suger.io/resources/blog/reinvent-conversations-to-ace-referrals/ 1. [Home](/) 2. / 3. [Resources](/resources/) 4. / 5. [Blog](/resources/blog/) 6. / 7. Turning re:Invent Conversations Into ACE Referrals # Turning re:Invent Conversations Into ACE Referrals Badge scans are not pipeline. The discipline that turns a hallway conversation at an AWS event into a co-sell referral an AWS seller will actually work. [![Sabrina Xie](/authors/sabrina-xie.jpg)](/resources/blog/author/sabrina-xie/) [Sabrina Xie](/resources/blog/author/sabrina-xie/) Aug 27, 2026 ![Turning re:Invent Conversations Into ACE Referrals](/images/blog/reinvent-conversations-to-ace-referrals/hero.png) Explore AI Summary [![](/logos/company/openai.svg)](https://chat.openai.com/?q=Read%20and%20summarize%20https%3A%2F%2Fwww.suger.io%2Fresources%2Fblog%2Freinvent-conversations-to-ace-referrals%2F%2C%20then%20cite%20the%20source.%20Focus%20on%20what%20it%20says%20about%20AWS%2C%20Co-Sell. "Summarize with ChatGPT")[![](/logos/company/anthropic.svg) ](https://claude.ai/new?q=Read%20and%20summarize%20https%3A%2F%2Fwww.suger.io%2Fresources%2Fblog%2Freinvent-conversations-to-ace-referrals%2F%2C%20then%20cite%20the%20source.%20Focus%20on%20what%20it%20says%20about%20AWS%2C%20Co-Sell. 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"Summarize with Perplexity") Table of Contents - [What separates a conversation worth submitting](#what-separates-a-conversation-worth-submitting) - [Capture it the same day](#capture-it-the-same-day) - [Qualify before you submit, not after](#qualify-before-you-submit-not-after) - [Submit within the week](#submit-within-the-week) - [Measure what the event actually sourced](#measure-what-the-event-actually-sourced) - [Frequently asked questions](#frequently-asked-questions) - [Takeaways](#takeaways) _Converting an event conversation into a co-sell referral means turning a hallway discussion into a record an AWS seller can act on: a named customer, a described problem, a rough size and timeline, and an agreed next step — captured while the detail is still accurate._ * * * Every ISV comes back from AWS re:Invent with a list. Very few come back with pipeline. The gap between the two is almost never enthusiasm — it is that the conversation was never written down in a form anyone else could use. A badge scan tells you a person stood near your booth. A referral tells an AWS seller there is a customer with a problem worth a meeting. Those are different artifacts, and the second one cannot be reconstructed from the first three weeks later. * * * ## **What separates a conversation worth submitting** **A referral is worth submitting when there is a named customer, a problem they described in their own words, and a next step somebody agreed to.** If any of the three is missing, you have a contact, not a referral. This sounds obvious and is routinely ignored under event conditions. The person who said “we should talk” while walking to another session has not given you a problem or a next step. Submitting that as a referral costs you more than skipping it: it teaches the AWS seller covering that account that your referrals are noise, and that reputation is expensive to repair. Be ruthless here. Ten real referrals beat two hundred scans, and they beat forty speculative submissions by a wider margin still. ## **Capture it the same day** Write it down before the day ends. Not the next morning, and certainly not on the flight home on Friday. What decays is exactly the part that makes the referral useful: the specific words the customer used about their problem, which system they said it was breaking, and what they said they had already tried. By Friday you have “they’re interested in marketplace” for six different conversations that were not the same conversation at all. A workable field discipline is three lines per conversation, typed into your phone within the hour: who and where they work, the problem in their phrasing, and what you both agreed happens next. Everything else — deal size bands, timeline, the AWS account team — can be filled in later from research. Those three cannot. ## **Qualify before you submit, not after** Do the qualification pass before anything reaches AWS. The submission is where your credibility with the AWS field is spent, so spend it on the conversations that will survive contact. Two questions settle most of it. Is there a real problem with a budget owner attached, or was this an interesting technical chat with someone who cannot buy? And does AWS actually help here — is the customer buying through AWS, is there committed spend to draw down, is the AWS account team already engaged? A referral that is genuinely better with AWS involved is one the AWS seller will work. One that is merely a lead you happen to have gets deprioritized, correctly. What a submission needs mechanically — the fields, the validation, the states it moves through — is covered in [the ACE guide for ISV sellers](/resources/blog/aws-ace-guide-for-isv-sellers/), and the wider motion in [how co-sell works](/resources/blog/how-co-sell-works/). This post is about what happens before that form. ## **Submit within the week** Get the qualified ones in within a week of the event. Two things are working against you: the customer’s memory of the conversation, and the AWS field’s attention, which is being competed for by every other partner who was at the same event. A referral that arrives in mid-December, when the AWS seller is closing their own quarter and the customer has left for the holidays, has missed its window even if everything in it is correct. The same referral submitted the week after the show lands while the conversation is still mutual. ## **Measure what the event actually sourced** Tag the referrals so you can answer the question next year. Whether an event is worth attending is a decision most teams make on feel, because nobody recorded which pipeline came out of it. The measurement is simple if you set it up before you go: mark referrals created in the weeks around the event, then compare their volume and progression against a normal period. Suger’s `cosell_referral` dataset carries referral records into [reporting](/platform/reporting/) alongside offers and agreements, so “what did the show source” becomes a query rather than an argument in a planning meeting. Track progression, not just count. Twenty referrals that all stall at the same stage is a different lesson from six that convert. * * * ## **Frequently asked questions** **What makes an event conversation worth submitting as a referral?** A named customer, a problem described in their own words, and an agreed next step. Missing any of the three means you have a contact rather than a referral, and submitting it costs credibility with the AWS field. **How soon should I write up an event conversation?** The same day, within the hour if possible. The specific problem language is what decays first, and it is the part that makes the referral useful to an AWS seller. **How soon should I submit after the event?** Within a week. Later than that and you are competing with the customer’s fading memory and the AWS field’s quarter-end, even when the referral itself is sound. **Is it better to submit everything or filter first?** Filter. Ten qualified referrals are worth more than forty speculative ones, because a pattern of weak submissions teaches the AWS seller covering that account to deprioritize yours. **How do I prove the event generated pipeline?** Decide the measurement before you travel. Mark referrals created around the event and compare volume and stage progression against a normal period, rather than counting badge scans. * * * ## **Takeaways** - A referral needs a named customer, a problem in their words, and an agreed next step. Anything less is a contact. - Capture those three things the same day — the specific problem language is what decays, and it is the part that matters. - Qualify before submitting. Weak referrals cost credibility with the AWS seller covering the account. - Submit within a week, before the customer’s memory and the AWS field’s quarter both move on. - Mark event-period referrals so next year’s “was it worth it” is answered with progression data, not opinion. * * * Give referrals somewhere to land: see how [co-sell](/platform/cosell/) and [reporting](/platform/reporting/) work in Suger, or [book a demo](/schedule-demo/). ## Sources Primary sources for the platform rules cited above. Last verified August 27, 2026. Cloud providers change fees, eligibility, and program terms without notice — check the source before relying on a figure. - [AWS re:Invent](https://aws.amazon.com/events/reinvent) — The 2026 event dates referenced in this post. - [Suger docs: Available datasets](https://doc.suger.io/analytics/available-datasets/) — The cosell\_referral dataset used to measure which referrals originated at an event. ### Stay Updated Get the latest Cloud GTM insights, product updates, and marketplace strategies delivered to your inbox.