Register Now

AWS Summit Washington, D.C.

Women in Federal Lounge

Sep

16

,

2026

|

2:00PM

-

7:00PM

PDT

Register Now

About the event

Women in Federal is an inclusive and supportive community of women leaders and practitioners in the Federal technology industry. This community will cultivate a sense of belonging and commonality amongst the AWS female customer base, ultimately creating connective tissue between AWS, our customers, and our partners.

Women in Federal Technology events will bring forward important community discussions and create an engaging and organic networking environment. These events will also produce meaningful connections that drive opportunities, insight, strategy, and progress.

All attendees must have a valid 2026 AWS Summit badge. You will receive a separate confirmation and additional attendee information for the main conference.

1) Register for AWS Summit Washington, D.C. here
2) Register for this event on this page to attend the Women in Federal Lounge

Agenda

9:00AM - 10:00AM

Lounge Opens, Networking, and Welcome

10:00AM - 10:45AM

Keynote

10:45AM - 12:00PM

Networking and Lounge Activities

12:00PM - 1:00PM

Light Lunch

1:00PM - 1:15PM

Energizing Meditation

1:15PM - 2:00PM

Networking

2:00PM - 2:45PM

Panel 1: The Power of the Pipeline: Mentorship, Mission, and the Next Generation of Federal Tech Leaders

Moderator - Emily Sale: Senior Manager, Customer Solutions Manager - AWS

Sandi Van Valkenburg: Director, Cloud Services - U.S. Department of Transportation

Sehar Wahla: Director - Carahsoft Technology Corp.

Lt. Gen. Mary O'Brien, USAF(Ret.): Former Director, C4/Cyber & Chief Information Officer(J6), Joint Staff

2:45PM - 3:15PM

Networking

3:15PM - 4:00PM

Panel 2: Leading with I.M.P.A.C.T.: Innovation, Mission, People, Agility, Collaboration, Trust

Moderator - Rashea Jackson: Senior Business Development Manager for Technology Partners - AWS

Anna Steers-Smith: Senior Technical Principal for Chief Data and Artificial Intelligence Officer - NASA

Jessica Souder: Head of Government Strategy & Sales - TwelveLabs

Kari Sheets: Cloud Computing Strategic Lead - National Weather Service

Elizabeth Baker: Vice President, Private Pricing - AWS

4:00PM

Lounge Closes

Day 2

9:00AM - 10:00AM

Breakfast

Breakfast. registration will take place five minutes before breakfast.

10:00AM - 11:00AM

The horizon of AI

The emerging world of artificial intelligence and machine learning by Matthew Hartman and partner, Betaworks.

11:00AM - 12:00PM

Startup evangelist of the month

Welcome Mackenzie Kosut, AWS startup evangelist

Day 3

9:00AM - 10:00AM

Breakfast

Breakfast. registration will take place five minutes before breakfast.

10:00AM - 11:00AM

The horizon of AI

The emerging world of artificial intelligence and machine learning by Matthew Hartman and partner, Betaworks.

11:00AM - 12:00PM

Startup evangelist of the month

Welcome Mackenzie Kosut, AWS startup evangelist

Day 4

9:00AM - 10:00AM

Breakfast

Breakfast. registration will take place five minutes before breakfast.

10:00AM - 11:00AM

The horizon of AI

The emerging world of artificial intelligence and machine learning by Matthew Hartman and partner, Betaworks.

11:00AM - 12:00PM

Startup evangelist of the month

Welcome Mackenzie Kosut, AWS startup evangelist

Feature topics

Feature topic

Database migration

Storage

Networking

Analytics

Machine Learning

Speakers

Mackenzie Kosut

Global Startup Evangelist, Amazon Web Services

Mackenzie is the Global Startup Evangelist at AWS. His days are spent traveling the globe to meet startups, share their stories, and connect engineering teams together. Every day there are a large number of startups launching on AWS across every imaginable industry. It’s Mackenzie’s mission to find stories of startups that are helping to improve the world and share these stories with a wide audience.

Katherine Barna

Vice President Communications, Awesomeness

Katherine Barna is Vice President, Communications for Awesomeness, a leading multi-platform media company defining the future of entertainment. At Awesomeness, Barna oversees communication and PR strategy for the company and its four key divisions: the Gen Z-focused AwesomenessTV network, Awesomeness Films, DreamWorksTV, and Awestruck. In addition, she heads up the company’s social responsibility initiatives.

Adam Rothenburg

Co-Founder & Partner, BoxGroup

Adam Rothenberg is a Co-founder and Partner of BoxGroup, a New York City based early stage venture capital fund. BoxGroup invests in pre-seed and seed rounds with the goal of backing talented entrepreneurs building disruptive technology companies and with visions to create the next generation of category defining businesses.

FAQ

This section is intended to display event FAQs or detailed track information. If your event has both, duplicate this block.

When is the event?

The event is scheduled for Sep 30, - Oct 1 2025 | 7:00pm - 10:00pm. We're looking forward to seeing you there!

Where is the event?

The event will be held at The Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University.

Is there a fee to attend the event? If so, how can I pay?

No, this event is free to attend.

FAQ or Detailed Agenda

When is the event?

The event is scheduled for Sep 30, - Oct 1 2025 | 7:00pm - 10:00pm. We're looking forward to seeing you there!

Where is the event?

The event will be held at The Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University.

Is there a fee to attend the event? If so, how can I pay?

No, this event is free to attend.

Checkin

Please arrive at the venue by 9am to check in to the conference.

Resources

A guide to agile event programs that can survive anything

Explore why the most dynamic leaders are building strategies for agile event marketing with a focus on scaling in-person and virtual events that are fast, flexible, and hyper-effective at driving meaningful connections.

Crisis mode: ideas for managing events in challenging situations

Explore why the most dynamic leaders are building strategies for agile event marketing with a focus on scaling in-person and virtual events that are fast, flexible, and hyper-effective at driving meaningful connections.

How to build a rock solid agile events program

The old way of doing event marketing—a large, inflexible investment in a small number of tentpole events—doesn't fit into a business world that demands adaptability and speed.