Carolina Women+ in Tech® Presents

Rising & Ready: AWS AI Certification Prep Workshop

THE DETAILS

Date: Thursday, November 5th, 2026

Time: 3:00 PM – 7:00 PM

Location: Junior League of Charlotte

1332 Maryland Ave, Charlotte, NC 28209

About AWS AI CERTIFICATION PREP WORKSHOP

Step into the future of cloud and artificial intelligence with Carolina Women+ in Tech ® (CWIT) and AWS! As AI transforms industries worldwide, gaining certified expertise is one of the highest-value moves you can make for your career.

Designed for tech professionals and aspiring AI practitioners of all skill levels, this hands-on intensive covers the full scope of the AWS Certified AI Practitioner (AIF-C01) exam while giving you direct experience with cutting-edge agentic AI tools. You will also receive...

Kiro Credits – Free AI credits to use latest frontier models from Anthropic, OpenAI, etc.
Free Access to Skillbuilder Platform with over 600+ technical courses

Plus, attendees will have the opportunity to win free AWS AI Certification exam vouchers given away during the event!

BOOST YOUR PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

Master the 5 Exam Domains: Build a solid foundation across all domains tested on the AIF-C01 exam (Fundamentals of AI/ML, Generative AI, Applications of Foundation Models, Responsible AI, and Security/Governance).
AWS AI Service Map: Learn when and how to leverage services like Amazon Bedrock, SageMaker JumpStart, Amazon Q (Business & Developer), Textract, Rekognition, Comprehend, and Guardrails.
Hands-on AI Tooling (AWS Kiro): Participate in a live interactive demo using AWS Kiro—an agentic, spec-driven IDE—to build your own personalized, automated study guide and exam prep toolkit.
Exam Strategy & Trap Avoidance: Get insider tips on question mechanics, time management (83 sec/question), high-yield domain weighting, and key decision frameworks (e.g., RAG vs. Fine-tuning vs. Prompt Engineering).
Certification Voucher Giveaway: Earn a chance to receive a sponsored AWS Certification exam voucher to take your official AIF-C01 exam for free!

Junior League of Charlotte Parking & Arrival Instructions

Location:
Junior League of Charlotte Building
1332 Maryland Avenue, Charlotte, NC 28209

-Primary Onsite Parking: Complimentary parking is available in the surface lot directly in front of and surrounding the Junior League of Charlotte building.
-Overflow Parking (Freedom Park): If the main lot is full, attendees are permitted to use the adjacent public parking lot near the Freedom Park tennis courts (accessible via Maryland Ave / Princeton Ave).
-Important Note: Because the facility borders Freedom Park, parking spaces are shared with park visitors and can fill up quickly during peak hours. Please plan to arrive 10–15 minutes early to find a spot and get checked in before the workshop begins.
-Building Entrance: Follow the main walkway from the parking lot toward the front entrance doors facing Maryland Avenue. Look for Carolina Women+ in Tech signage in the lobby guiding you to our meeting room.

Event Agenda

3:00pm - 3:20pm | Check-In & Opener

Icebreaker: Quick poll - "Who has used Amazon Bedrock? SageMaker? Neither?"
Exam logistics at a glance: 65 questions, 90 minutes, 50 scored + 15 unscored
Question types: multiple choice, multiple response, ordering, matching
Passing score: 700/1000 (compensatory - no per-domain minimum)
Domain weighting visual: show the 20/24/28/14/14 breakdown
Goal of this session: Cover every domain, highlight high-yield topics, practice exam-style questions

3:20pm - 3:45pm | Fundamentals of AI & ML

AI vs. ML vs. Deep Learning vs. Generative AI - nested circles
Types of ML: supervised, unsupervised, reinforcement
Problem types: classification, regression, clustering, anomaly detection, recommendation,
ML lifecycle: problem framing → data collection → preparation → feature engineering → training → evaluation → deployment → monitoring

3:45pm - 4:15pm | Fundamentals of Generative AI

Foundation models (FMs) & Large Language Models (LLMs)
Tokens, embeddings, context windows, vector databases
Capabilities AND limitations - hallucinations, knowledge cutoffs, stochastic outputs
Multimodal models (text+image+audio)

4:15pm - 4:45pm | Applications of Foundation Models

Prompt Engineering Techniques:
- Zero-shot: Simple, well-defined task - no examples needed
- Few-shot: Model needs pattern guidance - include 2-5 examples
- Chain-of-thought: Multi-step reasoning tasks - "think step by step"
- System / instruction: Set persona, rules, or constraints
- Prompt chaining: Break complex workflows into sequential prompts

4:45pm - 5:15pm | Guidelines for Responsible AI

Core Principles: Fairness, Inclusivity, Transparency, Explainability, Safety, Privacy, Veracity

5:15pm - 5:30pm | Security, Compliance & Governance

Standard AWS security primitives apply to AI workloads: IAM, VPC, KMS, PrivateLink
Data privacy: classification, PII handling, data residency
Regulations: GDPR, HIPAA, financial regulations – awareness

5:30pm - 6:05pm | Intro to Kiro + Live Demo: Build Your Own Study Guide

Cassidy Sheehan

6:05pm - 6:20pm | Exam Strategy & Wrap-up

Cassidy Sheehan

6:20pm - 7:00pm | Happy Hour Sponsored by Artmetis

Cassidy Sheehan

FAQs

Do I need a laptop?
We recommend bringing a electronic device to build on.

Are food/drinks included?
We will have heavy apps and a happy hour after the training.

What do I wear?
The dress code for the day is business casual. Come comfortable but ready to make a great impression.

Where do I sit?
Seating is open! Feel free to network and make friends!

How can I share my experience online?
We’d love for you to share the day with your friends! Please use our event hashtag – #techyourseat or #cwit or #risingandready

What are your accessibility options?
If you have accessibility needs or concerns, please contact [email protected].

What happens if I’m running late?
No worries; it happens! Please still join us whenever you are able to arrive. We will have a welcome table at the entrance, and our volunteers will make sure you find us.