Conference guide · 2026 and 2027

AI conferences in Vancouver, BC, and Canada

People look for an AI conference in Vancouver, a Vancouver AI conference, and the Canadian AI conference for 2026 and 2027. This is that list: Vancouver and British Columbia first, then the rest of Canada, then nearby rooms worth the trip.

Our own meetups stay on the events page. Futureproof, the festival we run, is on its presenter page and in the Vancouver section below. 14 of the 21 listings have dates the organisers have published. The rest recur on a known rhythm, and we have marked them unannounced instead of guessing.

Worth planning around

Polyglot Software Unconference 2026 in Vancouver, BC and Seattle AI Week 2026 in Seattle, WA open 9 days apart. If both are on your list, plan them as one trip.
Seattle AI Week 2026 in Seattle, WA and Futureproof Festival of AI 2026 in Vancouver, BC open 2 days apart. Their dates overlap, so check the schedules before choosing sessions or booking travel.
Upper Bound 2027 in Edmonton, AB and AI Summit Vancouver 2027 (vanaisummit.com) in Vancouver, BC open 2 days apart. Their dates overlap, so check the schedules before choosing sessions or booking travel.
AI Summit Vancouver 2027 (vanaisummit.com) in Vancouver, BC and Web Summit Vancouver 2027 in Vancouver, BC open 5 days apart. If both are on your list, plan them as one trip.

How we label each room

Every listing carries one of four postures, so you can tell the difference between something we run and something we think you should know exists.

We host: BC + AI runs this one.
We send people: We organise a group from BC and share what comes back.
We partner: We work with the organisers on programming or access.
We watch: On our radar for members, with no BC + AI presence planned yet.

Vancouver and British Columbia

Polyglot Software Unconference 2026
We watch
Place
UBC Robson Square, Vancouver, BC
Date
Saturday, October 17, 2026Dates confirmed
Audience
Developers, data scientists, ML engineers, designers and founders.
Focus
Open-space sessions across any stack, including AI and ML work.
Why attend
Attendees propose and lead the sessions. If you have something to show, you can put it on the board yourself.
How we show up: Closest thing on this list to how we run our own events: local, community-run, built on people showing actual work. Good ground for a member who wants to lead a session, not sit through one.
Open-space format means the agenda is set on the morning. If you have something to show, you can put it on the board yourself.
Cascadia Innovation Corridor Conference
We watch
Place
Host city rotates between Vancouver, Seattle and Portland
Date
Autumn 2026, dates to be announcedDates not announced yet
Audience
Business, academic and government leaders from Vancouver, Seattle and Portland.
Focus
Cross-border corridor issues. Recent editions have centred on housing, rail and transport.
Why attend
This is where the Vancouver-Seattle-Portland relationship gets set. AI is not the whole agenda.
How we show up: This is where the cross-border relationship gets set, and the agenda has mostly been housing, rail and transport. AI belongs in that conversation too. We're waiting on a 2026 date.
Futureproof Festival of AI 2026
We host
Place
Vancouver, BC
Date
October 28 to 30, 2026Dates confirmed
Audience
People building, commissioning, teaching or governing work that AI is changing.
Focus
Human-centered AI, public knowledge, governance, creative practice and community ownership.
Why attend
Hear Naomi Klein with Catherine Warren, Brewster Kahle, Amber Case and Ben Shneiderman. Bring a question from your work to the talks and audience discussions.
How we show up: Presented by BC + AI Ecosystem Association. The festival grows from Vancouver AI and our year-round community programs.
Indigenous Tech Conference 2027
We watch
Place
Sheraton Vancouver Airport Hotel, Vancouver, BC
Date
January 26 to 28, 2027Dates confirmed
Audience
Founders, investors and Nations working on Indigenous tech.
Focus
Data sovereignty, Indigenous innovation and critical infrastructure.
Why attend
A national gathering in Vancouver. Organisers bill it as North America's largest Indigenous tech conference.
How we show up: A national gathering on our own home turf, close to work we already care about through Indigenomics. We're watching this one closely before we decide whether a deeper relationship makes sense.
Vancouver Startup Week 2027
We watch
Place
Vancouver, BC
Date
Late April 2027, dates to be announcedDates not announced yet
Audience
Founders and anyone willing to run a session.
Focus
A week of founder-run programming across Vancouver.
Why attend
Open to people who want to host something, not only sit in the audience. The 2026 edition had more than 85 events.
How we show up: Open to anyone willing to run something, which is close to how we work. We'd sooner put members on the schedule than in the audience.
AI Summit Vancouver 2027 (vanaisummit.com)
We watch
Place
Heritage Hall, 3102 Main Street, Vancouver, BC
Date
May 20 to 21, 2027Dates confirmed
Audience
Business leaders, decision-makers, AI practitioners and builders.
Focus
Evaluating AI opportunities, choosing what to build or adopt, and measuring business value.
Why attend
Compare practical AI approaches with leaders and builders working on organizational adoption.
How we show up: We are tracking the announced dates and programme as part of the local AI calendar.
Overlaps Upper Bound in Edmonton on May 20 and 21, and ends four days before Web Summit Vancouver begins. The organizer listed CAD $149 early-bird and CAD $499 VIP tickets when checked on October 9, 2026; check its site for current prices and terms.
Web Summit Vancouver 2027
We host
Place
Vancouver Convention Centre, Vancouver, BC
Date
May 25 to 28, 2027Dates confirmed
Audience
Founders, investors and press.
Focus
The largest technology conference held in Vancouver.
Why attend
Home week at the Vancouver Convention Centre, with community side events around the main stage.
How we show up: Home turf. This is the week the world looks at Vancouver, so we run community side events and put local builders in front of the visitors.
The best value here is usually the week around the main stage. Tell us what you are running and we will help fill the room.

Elsewhere in Canada

SAAS NORTH 2026
We watch
Place
Rogers Centre Ottawa, Ottawa, ON
Date
November 4 and 5, 2026Dates confirmed
Audience
SaaS founders, operators and investors.
Focus
Product, pricing, growth and trust, themed Scaling In The Era Of AI.
Why attend
Useful if you run a software company. About 2,000 people. Organisers call it Canada's largest gathering of SaaS founders and operators.
How we show up: This one is about how AI gets sold in business software, not how it gets built. Useful for members running companies. We have no presence there yet.
AAAI-27
We watch
Place
Montreal, QC
Date
February 16 to 23, 2027Dates confirmed
Audience
Academic and research AI practitioners.
Focus
The 41st AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence.
Why attend
One of the oldest academic AI conferences, and it lands in Montreal in 2027.
How we show up: Relevant to our academic and research members. We plan to point people at the deadlines instead of organising a group.
Paper and workshop deadlines run well ahead of the event. Watch the AAAI site if you plan to submit.
Upper Bound 2027
We send people
Place
Edmonton Convention Centre, Edmonton, AB
Date
May 18 to 21, 2027Dates confirmed
Audience
Researchers and people working on business adoption of AI.
Focus
Amii's mix of AI research and applied work.
Why attend
The closest large AI conference in western Canada. The 2026 edition drew 8,000+ attendees.
How we show up: The closest sibling ecosystem to ours. We want a BC group in the room and a debrief that comes home to our members.
Passes sold out ahead of the 2026 edition. A waitlist for 2027 is open on the Upper Bound site.
Canadian AI 2027
We watch
Place
Location to be announced
Date
Late May 2027, dates to be announcedDates not announced yet
Audience
Academic AI researchers in Canada.
Focus
The annual conference of the Canadian Artificial Intelligence Association.
Why attend
The national academic AI conference. The 2026 edition ran at SFU in Burnaby; the 2027 host and dates are not announced yet.
How we show up: Having it at SFU in 2026 put a national academic conference on our doorstep. We're waiting on the 2027 host before deciding how to show up.
Toronto Machine Learning Summit 2027
We watch
Place
Toronto, ON
Date
June 2027, dates to be announcedDates not announced yet
Audience
People shipping applied machine learning systems.
Focus
Applied ML, with workshops and a virtual day around the main programme.
Why attend
Organisers call it Canada's largest applied machine learning conference.
How we show up: The build side of the field, not the publish side. We watch it for members shipping systems.
Startupfest 2027
We watch
Place
Grand Quay, Montreal's Old Port, Montreal, QC
Date
July 7 to 9, 2027Dates confirmed
Audience
Founders looking for mentors, office hours and pitch practice.
Focus
A three-day founder festival rather than a single main stage.
Why attend
Mentor office hours, braindates and pitch competitions on the Montreal waterfront.
How we show up: A national founder gathering in a month when nothing else here is running. We'd like to see more BC founders make the trip east.
ALL IN 2027
We send people
Place
Montreal, QC
Date
September 2027, dates to be announcedDates not announced yet
Audience
Policy, industry and research people in the Canadian AI ecosystem.
Focus
National AI policy and the Canadian AI agenda.
Why attend
Organised by Scale AI, Ceimia and Mila, and presented as the largest AI event in Canada. The 2026 edition ran September 16 and 17 in Montreal.
How we show up: Where national AI policy actually gets talked about. We want BC voices in it instead of hearing about the decisions afterwards.
The 2026 edition ran September 16 and 17 in Montreal. Expect a similar window once 2027 is announced.
Saskatchewan AI & Tech Summit 2027
We watch
Place
Saskatoon, SK
Date
October 2 and 3, 2027Dates confirmed
Audience
People working in agriculture, mining or public-sector AI, and anyone watching another province build an ecosystem body.
Focus
Saskatchewan's first flagship AI and tech summit.
Why attend
The province ran its first AI expo in April 2026; this is the scaled-up follow-on. Organisers bill it as a national conference.
How we show up: Another province building the same kind of ecosystem body we are. The peer relationship interests us more than the trip does, so we're watching the first edition before deciding whether to show up.
No venue published yet. Worth a look if you work in agriculture, mining or public sector AI, where Saskatchewan has depth.

Nearby and further afield

Seattle AI Week 2026
We watch
Place
Seattle, WA
Date
October 26 to 30, 2026Dates confirmed
Audience
Builders and organisers who can travel down the I-5 from Vancouver.
Focus
A week of AI programming: reception, flagship summit, and community events across Seattle.
Why attend
The nearest large US AI week to Vancouver. Organisers expect 5,000 or more people across the week.
How we show up: The nearest city running the same play we do, three hours down the I-5. We want to see how a week that size holds together, and who from BC makes the drive.
Web Summit Lisbon 2026
We watch
Place
MEO Arena / FIL Exhibition Centre, Lisbon, Portugal
Date
November 9 to 12, 2026Dates confirmed
Audience
Founders, investors and press on the global tech calendar.
Focus
Web Summit's flagship technology conference in Lisbon.
Why attend
The parent of Web Summit Vancouver. Organisers expect more than 70,000 attendees from over 160 countries.
How we show up: Web Summit's biggest event, and the parent of the one we host in Vancouver. We go looking for founders and speakers worth bringing home.
NeurIPS 2026
We watch
Place
International Convention Centre Sydney, Sydney, Australia
Date
December 6 to 12, 2026Dates confirmed
Audience
Machine learning researchers and people submitting papers or workshops.
Focus
Core ML research, with official satellite programmes in Atlanta and Paris.
Why attend
The largest machine learning research conference. It used to land in Vancouver; the 2026 edition is in Sydney.
How we show up: Mostly a research calendar item for us now that it's left Vancouver. We track the submission deadlines for members who publish.
TED2027
We watch
Place
San Diego, CA
Date
March 1 to 4, 2027Dates confirmed
Audience
TED's usual mix of speakers, members and press.
Focus
The flagship TED conference.
Why attend
After twelve years in Vancouver it moves to San Diego. Track it if you used to plan around the Vancouver edition.
How we show up: TED leaving town takes a large annual moment out of Vancouver. We are tracking what that means for the visitors and side events that used to come with it.
CascadiaJS 2027
We watch
Place
Seattle, WA
Date
Around June 2027, dates to be announcedDates not announced yet
Audience
Web and AI developers in the Pacific Northwest.
Focus
A community-run web and AI conference.
Why attend
About 500 developers and 20 or more speakers. Small enough that a member can get on the schedule.
How we show up: Seattle's answer to Polyglot. Community-run, developer-first, and small enough that a member can get on the schedule instead of just buying a ticket.
NeurIPS 2027
We watch
Place
Europe, city to be announced
Date
December 2027, dates to be announcedDates not announced yet
Audience
Machine learning researchers timing paper and workshop deadlines a year out.
Focus
The same NeurIPS research programme, moving to Europe.
Why attend
After Sydney in 2026, the 2027 edition heads to Europe. Dates and city are not announced yet.
How we show up: Same posture as the 2026 edition. We keep both years listed for members timing paper and workshop deadlines a year out.

How this guide stays current

Finished conferences leave the page the day after they close. Unannounced editions leave at the end of the month we expect them. When organisers publish a new year, we add a catalog entry with a link to their dates. The title and heading stay about Vancouver, BC, and Canada; the year line above updates from the listings that are still current.

If a listing is missing, the dates moved, or you have a community rate you are allowed to share, use the form below.

This guide is the imported and national calendar. The rooms we host in British Columbia live on these pages.

Tell us what we are missing

Know something that should be on this list?

Send it over. Conferences, festivals, summits, hackathons, policy convenings, anywhere our community should have a seat. If you have a discount code, an early-bird window, or a community rate you are allowed to share, send that too. We check the terms and pass the good ones to members.