AWS Cloud Women Manchester: Let's Crack the AI Code

Whether you’re deep in the world of cloud, just starting to dip your toes in, or simply AI-curious, this one’s for you.

We’re buzzing to announce that AWS Women in Cloud Manchester is back, and we are kicking off our brand new 2026 events series in the best way we know how: with brilliant people, big conversations, and a whole lot of community spirit.
We're opening up opportunities for members to join the organising team and to show just what's possible, this event will be hosted by Mariam and Zulia.

We’re kicking things off with a focus on Generative AI, security, and real-world use cases, and we’ve got some incredible people who are living and breathing this stuff every single day.

What’s the evening all about?
We’ve got three brilliant speakers lined up who are working with AI daily right now, across totally different industries. Here’s what to expect:

🎤 Asia Sharif | Multi Award-Winning Software Engineer & TEDx Speaker
Tech advocate, diversity champion, and all-round inspiration
Asia taught herself to code and has since become one of the most recognisable voices in the Manchester tech scene. She’s personally mentored over 100 women into engineering, reaching thousands more globally, and this September she’s got a TEDx talk dropping that explores her battle with stage 4 cancer and the myth of strength. In this talk, Asia will share her incredible career journey, from self-taught coder to leading massive projects at NatWest, and give us her honest take on using AI within the heavily regulated world of fintech. This is the kind of talk that stays with you.

🎤 Nick Tyson | Senior Solutions Architect, AWS
All-round cloud wizard and our very own AWS Cloud Women organiser Nick has built his own MCP server and he’s bringing a live demo to show us how he’s been using AI, skills tools, and MCPs to support and automate parts of his day-to-day workflows. The best bit? It’s not all big technical wizardry. Nick’s going to show us how AI can quietly save you time on the smallest everyday tasks, stuff you might not even realise you could automate. Whether you’re technical or not, this one will have you thinking differently about how you work.

🎤 Zulia Shavaeva | GenAI Security Area Lead for EMEA, AWS
If you’ve ever wondered “How safe is it?” when it comes to GenAI tools, Zulia is the person you want in the room. As the security lead for the AWS GenAI Innovation Centre across EMEA, she works with organisations across the region helping them implement AI securely and responsibly. She’ll be walking us through the security side of using LLMs and GenAI tools, no scaremongering, just smart, practical insights that you can actually take away and use.

The Plan for the Evening
17:30 – 18:00 | Food, Drinks & Networking
18:00 – 18:45 | The First Half

• Asia Sharif: A deep dive into her journey from self-taught dev to NatWest lead, and the reality of AI in fintech.
• Nick Tyson: A live demo on using AI and MCPs to automate your "boring" daily tasks and save your sanity.

18:45 – 19:00 | Break
19:00 – 19:20 | The Final Talk

• Zulia Shavaeva: Practical, no-nonsense security for LLMs. Learn how to innovate with GenAI without the "scaremongering."

19:20 – 20:30 | Community Co-Creation & Optional Networking

🍕Food & drinks are on us — just bring yourself and your curiosity!

Who’s this for?
Everyone! If you’re interested in cloud, AWS, AI, or tech in general, you belong here. Whether you’re a seasoned engineer or someone who just searched up “what is AWS” last week, pull up a chair.

Help us shape what comes next
One of the things we’re most excited about this year is building something that is community-led. We want to know what topics light you up, what challenges you’re facing, and what kinds of events would make you genuinely excited to show up. Come along, get involved, and help us co-create the rest of the series. This community is yours as much as it is ours.
It's going to be incredible to see as AWS Cloud Women moves into a new chapter of increased collaboration and diversity.