BC + AI Ecosystem Association

Ecosystem, Not Empire

Multi-modal. Multi-cultural. Radically local. Future-facing.

BC + AI Ecosystem Association is British Columbia's member-powered nonprofit AI community: 300+ paying members, recurring rooms in Vancouver, the Fraser Valley, and the Comox Valley, hands-on programs, and a public voice for the people doing the work.

Facts

BC + AI at a glance

Organization: Canadian nonprofit association, member-supported, founded 2023 and incorporated in August 2025.
Members: 300+ paying members of the nonprofit. 3 active BC regions.
Regions: Vancouver, the Fraser Valley (FV+AI, Langley to Chilliwack), and the Comox Valley. First official FV+AI gathering: September 9, 2026 in Langley.
Programs: Three public programs: Responsible AI Professional (RAP), AI Animation Accelerator, AI Upgrade.
Rooms: Mind, AI and Consciousness (MAC) is an active special-interest room. AI Creativity + Design is a forming room on the communities index.
Festival: Futureproof Festival of AI, Vancouver, October 28-30, 2026, H.R. MacMillan Space Centre, presented by BC + AI. Festival tickets.

A room became an association. BC + AI is 300+ paying members of the nonprofit building British Columbia's AI industry from the ground up, in living rooms, studio spaces, and university labs from Vancouver to the Fraser Valley to the Comox Valley.

See what's on Join the community Start here

…
days to next meetup: 300+
members: 94+
events since 2023: 3
active BC regions

Public memory / field file 0149.28 N / 123.12 W

AI Builders Fellowship

$5,000Six weeks · open source · applications closed

Explore the fellowship

Next signal

Vancouver AI Community Meetup: Data for Good!

Wed, Aug 26 · 6:00 p.m. · H.R. MacMillan Space Centre, 1100 Chestnut St

See the lineup

Latest recapBC + AI Life Sciences Meetup #3 Fresh videoVancouver AI Highlights: The Squatchie Awards (Dec 2025)Latest postWe Need to Talk About AI: Why a Vancouver Meetup Became a National Invitation

AI Builders Fellowship survey-ledger artwork with archive contours and a fossil spiral.

Public memory field fileOpen the archive →

Applications closed · AI Builders Fellowship

$5,000. Six weeks. One enormous public archive.

Internet Archive Canada and BC + AI are looking for one builder to make something weird, useful, and open source from the Canadian public record.

~48.25 TB: archive material
Open source: required
Closed: applications

Read the fellowship brief →Read the launch story

Community Spotlights

Meet the people making the room.

Members share what they are building and why they keep showing up.

See membership stories

Community Spotlight

Loki Jorgenson

Mind, AI & Consciousness

Community Spotlight

Sev Geraskin

Founder, product builder, community regular

Community Spotlight

Matthew Schwartzman

Student organizer

Learn

Build a credential. Ship real work.

Hands-on programs where you finish with a portfolio piece, not just a certificate.

All programs

Animation Accelerator Round 2 studio graphic

Creative production · Tiny Ghost Studios × BC + AI

AI Animation Accelerator

Direct a portfolio-ready animated short with a real studio pipeline. Cohort 3 starts July 27; Cohort 4 starts September 21.

RAP Certification graphic for a responsible AI ecosystem rooted in BC

Governance & leadership · BC + AI

Responsible AI Professional

The August cohort is underway. The next online cohort starts September 18, with an in-person weekend intensive planned for Oct 31-Nov 1.

BC + AI community members in a working session at Parker Street Studios

Creative workflow · BC + AI

AI Upgrade

A six-week creative workflow rebuild for working creative professionals. The next cohort date is not set yet; join the interest list and you'll hear from us first.

Get notified →Learn more →

BC + AI presents · Flagship festival

Futureproof Festival of AI

The most honest AI conversation happening this year.

Vancouver is the host city. The conversation is international. Active members save 25% on all public ticket types.

Futureproof Festival artwork with salmon swimming through an aurora toward a bright opening, surrounded by ravens and watchful eyes — Official Futureproof Festival artworkVancouver · 2026

When: Oct 28 to 30, 2026
Where: H.R. MacMillan Space Centre
Member rate: Save 25%

Explore the festival Visit futureproof.website

Gather

Recent gatherings

Photos and recaps from our latest BC + AI meetups around the province.

All events

August 11, 2026

BC + AI Life Sciences Meetup #3

July 29, 2026

Vancouver AI Meetup #31: July 2026

July 9, 2026

AI Film Club: 07/09

News

Latest news

Updates, essays, and announcements from across the BC + AI community.

All news

August 11, 2026

We Need to Talk About AI: Why a Vancouver Meetup Became a National Invitation

August 3, 2026

What Kind of AI Province Do We Want to Build?

July 29, 2026

The Public Record Is Huge. We’re Paying One Builder to Make It Weird and Useful.

Watch

Recent talks

Recorded talks and demos from past sessions, free to watch anytime.

All videos

July 13, 2026 · 30:59

Vancouver AI Highlights: The Squatchie Awards (Dec 2025)

July 10, 2026 · 2:41:52

Vancouver AI Meetup #30 Full Show: Ethọ́s Lab, Rick Glumac + Film Club

July 9, 2026 · 52:46

Rick Glumac: BC's AI Opportunity Is Bigger Than Adoption

Interactive proposal

Wild Salmon

A BC talent-return proposal, in progress.

Simon Haworth’s proposal for bringing globally experienced BC founders and researchers home, starting with AI life sciences. Published as a work in progress you can read, argue with, and add to.

Swim the proposal

Enter the river →

Diaspora mapScenario labCoalition briefOpen questions

Working public-interest project

BC Public Compute Project

Public-interest tools and policy for data centres, AI infrastructure and sovereign compute in British Columbia.

British Columbia has started deciding which data centres get scarce clean electricity. The project builds the plain-language evidence, definitions and registry a community needs to follow those decisions.

See the project

Working prototype

The registry keeps requested, allocated, contracted and connected megawatts as four separate facts, and never turns a missing value into a zero. It now carries its first source-backed British Columbia records alongside the labelled demonstration fixtures.

Open the registry prototype

What this site is

Community archive

Everything worth keeping from the room, gathered in one place.

The events happen in person. That part is the point. But the conversations, the questions, the photographs, the reading lists, the exercises we walked through together: those belong to the community.

This is where they live. Recaps from every gathering with photos. Full dossiers for the deep-dive series. Tools you can actually try. Quotes from the room (anonymized, under Chatham House rules). This site keeps that work accessible to the community.

Start with the AI in BC guide Browse Vancouver AI events

Photos from the last gathering

BC + AI Life Sciences Meetup #3

Two attendees smiling under the backyard tent as the August 11 meetup starts.

The backyard tent filling as the August 11 Life Sciences gathering gets underway.

A wider view of conversation inside the backyard tent.

A working huddle over a tablet and papers between talks.

Photos: Kris Krüg

Multi-modal.Multi-cultural.Radically local.Future-facing.