Leveraging AWS Serverless Architecture for Event Management Solutions

By Ananta Cloud Engineering Team | September 12, 2025

Large-scale events often involve similar core processes, including attendee registration, on-site check-in, and amenity requests. When developing applications to support these activities, it’s essential to account for key architectural requirements such as high availability, low latency, strong security, and overall system reliability.

In this blog post, we’ll explore how Amazon Web Services (AWS) can be leveraged to streamline and support these event workflows. We'll walk through a recommended architecture based on AWS best practices - one that can serve as a foundation for building scalable, resilient event management solutions.

Leveraging Serverless Architecture

Serverless architecture allows you to concentrate on developing your application without the burden of managing servers or runtime environments. This approach enables rapid development, quick bug fixes, and seamless addition of new features. By adopting a microservices-based model, each component of your event management application can be independently scaled and optimized for performance.

Let’s begin by exploring some common actions an event guest might take—and how these can be represented in a mobile app:

• Event Registration: Guests can register through either a website or a mobile device (see Figure 1). Events often experience traffic spikes—either during the initial launch or closer to the event date. Therefore, it's crucial to design applications that are highly scalable to handle these fluctuations effectively.

• Check-In: The check-in process is often manual and time-consuming. As illustrated in Figure 2, some mobile solutions aim to streamline this experience. Traditionally, attendees must wait in line to register, pick up badges, receive agendas, and collect other event materials.

• Guest Requests: During the event, participants may request materials such as handouts or choose to purchase food and beverages (see Figure 3).

• Session Notifications: At high-demand events, certain sessions can fill up quickly, requiring guests to line up for entry. Figure 4 illustrates a sample notification screen used to alert attendees about session availability.

Solution Overview for Event Planning

The serverless architecture outlined here is designed for high scalability and low latency. It follows the Serverless Application Lens of the AWS Well-Architected Framework, enabling you to build secure, high-performing, resilient, and efficient applications.

Frontend: User Interface with AWS Amplify

The event website is hosted using AWS Amplify, a fully managed service for deploying and hosting web and mobile applications. Amplify includes built-in CI/CD workflows, making it ideal for native mobile apps and JavaScript-based web apps.

While alternatives like Amazon S3 or Amazon EC2 can also host the site, Amplify simplifies the development and deployment process.

User authentication and authorization are managed through Amazon Cognito, which supports integration with external identity providers—making it a suitable choice for flexible and secure identity management.

Backend: Serverless Microservices

The backend of the event management system uses Amazon API Gateway and AWS Lambda to expose and handle API operations. These services automatically scale based on incoming traffic, ensuring seamless performance—even under sudden spikes. However, service limits should be considered during application design.

Data such as guest registrations and event details are stored in Amazon DynamoDB, a fully managed NoSQL database. DynamoDB offers single-digit millisecond latency, high availability, fault tolerance, and automatic scaling—making it a strong fit for this use case.

To communicate with guests, Amazon Pinpoint is used for sending notifications via email, SMS, push, or voice, enabling multi-channel engagement.

Solution architecture – Event registration and check-in

Source: AWS Technical Blogs

Numbered Items Corresponding to Figure 5:

1. Developers upload code to AWS CodeCommit.

2. CodeCommit triggers a deployment to AWS Amplify.

3. Guests access the website via Amazon Route 53.

4. Route 53 resolves and forwards requests to Amplify.

5. Guest authentication is handled using Amazon Cognito user pools.

6. Amplify sends REST API requests to Amazon API Gateway.

7. API Gateway uses Amazon Cognito as the authorizer.

8. Authorized requests are proxied to AWS Lambda.

9. Lambda stores guest data in Amazon DynamoDB.

10. Lambda uses Amazon Pinpoint to notify the guest.

Guest Registration Process:

The registration begins when a guest loads the web application hosted on AWS Amplify. The app registers the guest in an Amazon Cognito user pool, then sends the registration request through API Gateway. Cognito supports integration with third-party identity providers like Google, Facebook, and Amazon, allowing users to register using existing social media accounts.

Guest Check-In Process:

Guests check in using web applications deployed to kiosks. When a guest registers, their data is stored in DynamoDB and a QR code is sent to them. At the event, guests scan their QR code at the kiosk, which retrieves their information from DynamoDB, allowing them to print badges and other event materials.

AWS Well-Architected Best Practices:

• Enable active tracing with AWS X-Ray to gain visibility into service interactions and troubleshoot backend APIs.

• Enforce least-privileged access for Lambda functions, granting only the permissions necessary for each task.

• Throttle API requests to align with access patterns defined by the event management service contract.

• Optimize logging by setting appropriate log levels, removing unnecessary logs, and managing them via environment variables.

Solution architecture – Guest requests

Source: AWS Technical Blogs

Numbered Items Refer to Figure 6:

1. Guests access the website through Amazon Route 53.

2. Route 53 resolves the incoming requests and routes them to AWS Amplify.

3. Guest authentication is handled by Amazon Cognito user pools.

4. Amplify sends REST API requests to Amazon API Gateway.

5. API Gateway uses Amazon Cognito as the authorizer.

6. API Gateway forwards authorized requests to AWS Lambda.

7. Lambda validates and stores guest data in Amazon DynamoDB.

8. Lambda uses Amazon Pinpoint to notify the guest.

9. DynamoDB Streams are enabled to track data changes in real time.

10. A Lambda function is triggered by the stream.

11. Lambda uses Amazon Simple Notification Service (SNS) to notify employees to fulfill the request.

Guest Request Handling (e.g., Session Handouts, Food, Beverages):

When a guest makes a request (such as for session handouts or refreshments), the data is stored in Amazon DynamoDB. DynamoDB Streams capture a time-ordered sequence of item-level changes and retain them for up to 24 hours. These changes trigger a Lambda function, which then sends an SNS notification (via SMS or email) to event staff. This ensures timely response and fulfillment of guest requests.

Conclusion

This solution offers a robust and cost-effective approach for deploying highly scalable, low-latency applications. If you're just getting started, the Build a Serverless Web Application guide is a great place to begin.

Managing large events requires extensive planning and coordination, and we hope the guidance provided here helps you design and deploy a scalable, resilient event management application.

Ready to build scalable, cost-effective cloud applications with ease?

Partner with Ananta Cloud to accelerate your serverless journey. Our expert team can help you design, deploy, and optimize event management solutions tailored to your needs.

Get started today — Contact Ananta Cloud for a free consultation!

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