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.
Prior to joining AWS, Mackenzie was the Head of Technical Operations at Betterment, the world’s largest independent robo-advisor based in NYC which manages over $8B in assets. Mackenzie was a founding engineer and Head of Technical Operations at Oscar Health, an insurance startup also based in NYC, helping to grow the company to over 400+ employees.
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.
Prior to joining AWS, Mackenzie was the Head of Technical Operations at Betterment, the world’s largest independent robo-advisor based in NYC which manages over $8B in assets. Mackenzie was a founding engineer and Head of Technical Operations at Oscar Health, an insurance startup also based in NYC, helping to grow the company to over 400+ employees.
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.
Prior to joining AWS, Mackenzie was the Head of Technical Operations at Betterment, the world’s largest independent robo-advisor based in NYC which manages over $8B in assets. Mackenzie was a founding engineer and Head of Technical Operations at Oscar Health, an insurance startup also based in NYC, helping to grow the company to over 400+ employees.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Join Amazon Web Services (AWS) in Austin, Texas from July 23-24 for a no-cost conference.
Connect with leaders across education and state and local government, learn about the latest advancements in cloud technology, and help shape the future of education and public services.
Learn how the AWS Cloud can help spark data-driven transformation, safeguard communities, propel innovation, and make services and learning equitable and accessible.
Innovation is at the core of AWS. In 2023, AWS released more than 3,400 significant new services and features. A recent AWS collaborative survey found that 86% of employers expect to use AI tools by 2028 and nearly 80% of employees anticipate using generative AI within 5 years.
Generative AI is transforming education, healthcare, research, and government services by empowering better data-driven decisions, accelerating research and discovery, enabling more personalized, convenient citizen services, and improving productivity by automating processes.
Kim Majerus, Vice President of Global Education and US State and Local Government for Worldwide Public Sector at AWS, will be joined by featured customers to delve into how generative AI can make organizations across all industries and around the world more efficient, responsive, and effective in achieving their missions.
Kim Majerus
Vice President, Global Education, U.S. State and Local Government
AWS, Worldwide Public Sector
Kim Majerus leads the global education and U.S. state and local government vertical at Amazon Web Services (AWS). Her sales organization includes EdTech and GovTech independent software vendors (ISVs), solution and vertical strategy leaders who focus on Academic Medical Centers, Health and Human Services, Justice and Public Safety, Research, and Transportation, in addition to demand generation for all of AWS worldwide public sector and global leadership for AWS Cloud Innovation Programs. Prior to joining AWS seven years ago, Kim spent 16 years at Cisco Systems, most recently as Vice President of Cisco Public Sector for the U.S. State, Local and Education Market Segment. Prior to moving to public sector, Kim held positions in engineering, service provider sales, partner channels, global channels and as General Manager for Ireland.
Kim dedicates much of her time to mentoring young women and promoting STEAM education in her local community. She has received many honors, including EdScoop's 2023 Top 50 Industry Leader award, Chicago Business Journal Women of Influence 2022, StateScoop’s Top 50 Industry Leader award in 2021 and 2022, State Top 50 Women in Technology, YWCA Silicon Valley leaders, and Top 50 Business Leaders in Ireland.
Amanda Crawford
Executive Director, Texas Department of Information Resources
Chief Information Officer, State of Texas
Amanda Crawford is the Executive Director of Texas Department of Information Resources (DIR) and serves as the Chief Information Officer for the State of Texas.
In this role, she leads the state agency responsible for, among other things, protecting Texas’ critical technology infrastructure, managing a multi-billion-dollar cooperative contracts program, and providing strategic technology solutions to Texas government.
Prior to leading the team at DIR, Mandy served in a variety of roles at the Office of the Attorney General of Texas for almost two decades, including ultimately serving for two and a half years as the Deputy Attorney General for Administration and General Counsel.
Heather Lyke is the University of Pittsburgh's Director of Athletics. As Pitt’s director of athletics, Lyke leads a department that encompasses 19 sports programs and nearly 470 student-athletes. The National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics named Lyke a 2023 Cushman & Wakefield AD of the Year Award recipient. She additionally was a Sports Business Journal Athletic Director of the Year finalist.
During the 2022-23 academic year, Pitt achieved its highest point total ever in the LEARFIELD Directors' Cup (469 points). The Panthers finished 52nd out of 298 Division I schools, placing them among the nation’s top 17%. Pitt was rated the ACC’s top athletic department and 13th nationally in the 2023 CBS Sports “Best in College Sports” rankings.
Prior to Pitt, Lyke served as vice president and director of athletics at Eastern Michigan (2013-17). Her additional appointments included Ohio State (associate athletic director, 1998-2013), University of Cincinnati (assistant athletic director, 1996-98) and the NCAA (enforcement intern, 1995-96).
Jamie Butler
Director of Solutions Architecture, Education and State and Local Government, AWS, Worldwide Public Sector
Jamie Butler serves as the director of solutions architecture for education as well as state and local government (EDU/SLG) at Amazon Web Services (AWS) where he leads a team of technical professionals who help EDU/SLG customers across the United States improve their citizen, researcher, and learner services on their cloud journey through technical expertise, guidance, and best practices.
Prior to AWS, Jamie spent over 15 years working in Higher Education as a C-suite executive to address opportunities and challenges facing the education community. He holds a BS in Information Science from the University of Pittsburgh and an MBA with a specialty in Technology Management from UC Davis Graduate School of Management. In addition, he is a certified Project Management Professional (PMP), holds several AWS Certifications, is on the board of directors for Jurist, and serves as an alumni board member for his undergraduate alma mater—University of Pittsburgh School of Computing and Information.
Using AI to drive constituent focused outcomes Speakers: Bill Cole, Commonwealth of Massachusetts Executive Office of Technology Services and Security (EOTSS); David Fields, Northeastern University; Faisal Hanafi, AWS MODERN DATA STRATEGY | LEVEL 100 | PANEL |
Reimagine research IT with the cloud Researchers on university campuses are pushing the boundaries of what’s possible. They are looking into the future, past what’s conceivable now – with the technology and the resources that we have – toward what could be possible, for our people and our planet. Join this session to explore the evolution of research IT and dive into the discussion on the necessity of redundancy in research IT. Explore the University of California Irvine’s (UCI) centralized backup solution for faculty research data stored across independent lab servers, leveraging AWS capabilities like versioning, lifecycles, and IAM to provide additional protection against data loss. Discover how the UC Boulder accelerated deployment with a Landing Zone Accelerator and leave with ideas ignited on next steps to take for to redefine the future of research IT. Learn how Baylor University is beginning with a well-architected approach using data classification correlated to research funder security requirements to differentiate workloads, automate, and ensure compliance. Leave with lessons learned from using cloud services for applied research to consider in your cloud journey, coupled with ideas ignited toward next steps to redefine the future of research IT in your organization. Speakers: Joshua Kissee, Baylor University; Jason Armbruster, UC Boulder; Scott Friedman, AWS MODERN DATA STRATEGY | LEVEL 100 | PANEL |
Transform data into actionable insights to improve public safety using Generative AI Speakers: Hanish Garg, AWS; Doug Gartner, AWS MODERN DATA STRATEGY | LEVEL 100 | PRESENTATION |
Texas A&M's journey to automation: Cloud adoption, organizational consolidation, and lessons learned Speakers: Andrew Marcontell, Texas A&M; William Deigaard, Texas A&M MODERN DATA STRATEGY | LEVEL 200 | FIRESIDE CHAT |
Simplify applied data best practices to accelerate responsible AI at scale Speakers: Joe Sullivan, California EMSA; Mark Schreiber, Cloudwick; Maninder Chhabra, Cloudwick; Stephen Baird, Arizona Department of Corrections (DOC) MODERN DATA STRATEGY | LEVEL 100 | PRESENTATION |
Fighting fraud together: Enabling data sharing and collaboration across borders Speakers: James Cotter, National Association of State Workforce Agencies (NASWA); Jerome Lord, National Association of State Workforce Agencies (NASWA); Raju Gadiraju, North Carolina's Division of Employment Security; Danny Lee, AWS MODERN DATA STRATEGY | LEVEL 100 | LIGHTNING TALK |
Speeding solutions in data analysis for brain health Speakers: Petek Ozgul, Emory University; Chris Riddle, AWS; Louis Leclerc, AWS MODERN DATA STRATEGY | LEVEL 100 | PRESENTATION |
Empowering researchers with cloud powered productivity Speakers: Dr. Adam Kiefer, University of North Carolina; Dr. Bob Dieterle, University of North Carolina; John Paul Laverde, AWS MODERN DATA STRATEGY | LEVEL 100 | PRESENTATION |
Unleashing the power of AI: Nurturing entry-level tech talent across borders Speakers: Bryan Daniel, TX Workforce Commission; Dorian Cockrell, JPMorgan Chase; Arjun Nagendran, Relativ.AI; Valerie Singer, AWS AI/ML | LEVEL 100 | PANEL |
Saving lives on Texas roadways using AI enabled solutions Speakers: Mike Arellano, Texas Department of Transportation; Paul Zamsky, Rekor; Scott E Carlson, Iteris; Anh Selissen, TxDOT; Ryan Reynolds, AWS AI/ML | LEVEL 200 | PANEL |
Building a learning infrastructure for the tool belt generation: How industry, education, and certification providers partner to scale today's workforce Speakers: Carie Addis, Pearson; Dr. Nolan E. Fahrer, NC Department of Public Instruction - Office of Career and Technical Education; Jennifer Wilkerson, National Center for Construction Education and Research (NCCER); Shelley Callaway Industrial Merit Shop Education Foundation (IMSEF); Julie Phifer, Pearson AI/ML | LEVEL 100 | PANEL |
Building responsible generative AI applications in higher education Speakers: Ed Wozencroft, New Jersey Institute of Technology; Dr. Graff, UC Davis Medical; Mark Hampton, AWS AI/ML | LEVEL 100 | PANEL |
Innovating for inclusion: How Illinois Tech’s digital transformation enhances access and equity Speakers: Sejal Vaishnav, Illinois Institute of Technology; Marla Workman, Illinois Institute of Technology; Mike Gosz, Illinois Institute of Technology; Jim Keller, Quantiphi; Eric Wassenaar, AWS; Brian Herndon, Quantiphi; Kristi Wellington-Baker, AWS AI/ML | LEVEL 100 | PANEL |
Building positive futures: The adoption of generative AI from student and higher ed perspectives Speakers: Matthew Brummund, ASU Cloud Scholar; Aryan Khanna, ASU Cloud Scholar; John Rome, ASU; Tom Andriola, UC Irvine; Kristi Wellington-Baker, AWS AI/ML | LEVEL 100 | PANEL |
Reinventing judicial efficiency Speakers: Jennifer Eagan, Louisiana State Court System; Brian McGrath, Tyler Technologies; De Ana Thompson, AWS AI/ML | LEVEL 100 | LIGHTNING TALK |
Fortifying futures: How Louisiana State University reduced cybersecurity risk while preparing the workforce of the future Speakers: Craig Woolley, Louisiana State University; Patrick Johnson, AWS SAFETY AND SECURITY | LEVEL 100 | PRESENTATION |
Unleashing AI/ML: Igniting a revolution in public safety enhancement Speakers: Benjamin "Eddie" Wilson, Texas Department of Public Safety; Christy Williams, North Central Texas Emergency Comms; Brett Wrenn, Carbyne; Ryan Reynolds, AWS SAFETY AND SECURITY | LEVEL 100 | PANEL |
Fostering a secure and supportive environment for student advancement Speakers: Bill Britton, Cal Poly CIC; Ken Thompson, RAK Consulting & Technology, LLC; Shelby McIntosh, Gaggle; Tara Anderson, AWS SAFETY AND SECURITY | LEVEL 100 | PRESENTATION |
Empowering digital transformation: Cloud Center of Excellence for state and local governments Speakers: Andy Rivers, AWS; Ves Sathya, AWS SAFETY AND SECURITY | LEVEL 100 | PRESENTATION |
Accelerating technological advancements in the public sector Speakers: Jonathan Behnke, City of San Diego; Brendan Daly, City of San Diego; Dylan Hendricks, AWS SAFETY AND SECURITY | LEVEL 100 | PRESENTATION |
Procurement transformation: Embracing change and safeguarding governance with AWS Marketplace Speakers: Jeff Kohrman, Region 4 Education Service Center; Leslie Garza, OMNIA; Kristina Lobosco, AWS; Mark Hampton, AWS; Kristina Lobosco, AWS; Brandi Steckel, AWS ACCELERATION AND MISSION IMPACT | LEVEL 100 | PANEL |
Data strategy for AI/ML Speakers: Bert Bullough, AWS; Anurag Jain, AWS ACCELERATION AND MISSION IMPACT | LEVEL 200 | PRESENTATION |
Get out of your own way: Guiding your public sector transformation towards success Speakers: Andrew Will-Holmberg, MNIT, partnering with Minnesota Department of Health; Jeff Kohrman, Region 4 Education Service Center; Kevin McCandless, AWS ACCELERATION AND MISSION IMPACT | LEVEL 100 | PANEL |
Assess your institution's generative AI readiness Speakers: Willie Burroughs, Council of Great City Schools (CGCS); Keith Krueger, CoSN; John O'Brien, Educause; Annmarie Lehner, AWS ACCELERATION AND MISSION IMPACT | LEVEL 100 | PANEL |
Venturing into the future: Accelerating modernization and digital evolution Speakers: Dr Hassan Abdalla, University of East London; Jerry Lashley, Texas Education Exchange; Oscar Rodriguez, Austin ISD; Derek Root, AWS ACCELERATION AND MISSION IMPACT | LEVEL 100 | PANEL |
improving student and citizen experiences |
shaping the future of education and public services |
cutting-edge practices in your institution or agency, ensuring you're ready for tomorrow's challenges |
Nestled on the south shore of Lady Bird Lake, the Hyatt Regency Austin is directly across from downtown Austin. The hotel offers easy access to 6th Street, Rainey Street, and South Congress for entertainment and dining, and is a short walk to the Congress Ave Bridge, also known as Bat Bridge –– Austin’s famous bat show, featuring more than 1.5 million Mexican free-tailed bats.
The room block is now closed, however you can still book accommodations directly with the Hyatt Regency Austin.
Flights Austin-Bergstrom International Airport (AUS) |
Austin Music Scene |
Nearby attractions |
Frequently asked questions |
Where and when will the IMAGINE conference for education, state, and local leaders take place this year? |
Is there a cost to attend? |
Who should attend? |
Why should I attend? |
Will any portion of the conference be live streamed? |
Where should I stay if I plan to attend? |
Where should I park if I plan to drive? |
What accessible services will be available? |
Where can I find information about the AWS IMAGINE Expo Passport Program? |
Expo Passport Promotional Offer Terms and Conditions
PROMOTIONAL OFFER DESCRIPTION:
From 8:00 am Central Daylight Time (“CDT”) on July 23, 2024 until 12:00 pm CDT on July 24, 2024, complete the AWS IMAGINE: Education, State, and Local Leaders Expo Passport Scavenger Hunt to receive a variety of prizes including a sticker sheet, a handheld mini fan, and/or a mini hot sauce bottle. Terms and conditions apply. Offer valid while supplies last.
TERMS AND CONDITIONS:
By participating, you agree to the promotional offer’s terms and conditions.
From 8:00 am CDT on July 23, 2024 to 12:00 pm CDT on July 24, 2024 (“Promotional Offer Period”), obtain at least 3 of the 13 sponsor passport stamps within the AWS Events mobile app to receive a sticker sheet; obtain at least 6 of the 13 sponsor passport stamps within the AWS Events mobile app to receive a handheld mini fan; and/or obtain at least 9 of the 13 sponsor passport stamps within the AWS Events mobile app to receive a mini hot sauce bottle.
To receive the offer, participants must be a registered attendee and physically attend the Amazon Web Services (“AWS”) IMAGINE: Education, State, and Local Leaders Conference in Austin, TX during the Promotional Offer Period.
To receive the offer, participants must (1) download the AWS Events mobile app; (2) access the “Game” within the AWS IMAGINE: Education, State, and Local Leaders mobile app to play the “Expo Passport” challenge; (3) complete the activities required to obtain at least 3, 6, or 9 of the available 13 digital sponsor passport stamps during the Promotional Offer Period; and (4) return to the AWS IMAGINE: Education, State, and Local Leaders registration desk located in the Skywalk Lobby of the Hyatt Regency Austin, and provide proof that they have collected at least 3, 6, or 9 stamps.
Offer valid while supplies last. Approximate retail value of sticker sheet is USD $1.40. Approximate retail value of handheld mini fan is USD $2.95. Approximate retail value of mini hot sauce bottle is USD $2.39.
This offer is only valid for individuals 18 years and older. Excludes individuals living in Argentina, Brazil, and Mexico, Belarus, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Russia, Syria, and the territory of Crimea, and the so-called Republics of Donetsk and Luhansk. Amazon Web Services (“AWS”), employees of AWS and their immediate family members and members of their households are not eligible to participate. Government employees certify that you have confirmed with an appropriate ethics official that there are no federal, state, local, or institutional ethics or procurement laws, regulations, or rules that restrict or prohibit your attendance at the event, your participation in this offer, or would otherwise create a conflict of interest for AWS.
You will need to pick up the offer benefit in accordance with the instructions provided to you by AWS between July 23, 2024 and July 24, 2024 at 12:00 pm CDT. Failure to provide AWS complete or accurate information may delay or prevent offer fulfillment.
· Offer limited to a maximum of one of each prize per customer.
· Offer may not be combined with other offers.
· Amazon Web Services (“AWS”) reserves the right to modify or cancel the offer at any time.
· Offer is non-transferable and may not be resold.
· If you violate any of these terms and conditions, the offer will be invalid.
· Your information is handled in accordance with the AWS Privacy Notice.