Vancouver AI Meetup
Vancouver AI Meetup — September 2025
September's Vancouver AI Community Meetup #21 turned toward Indigenous knowledge and community alternatives to the usual Silicon Valley AI narrative. Manuel Axel Strain spoke on Indigenous data sovereignty, plant communication, mycelium networks, and consent in ecological AI, while Jonny Williams shared Squamish language and ceremony and how AI can support cultural documentation, education, and youth innovation.
Another full house — builders and researchers, artists and founders, students who came alone and left with new friends. The mix is the point: a research demo next to a shipped product next to someone still figuring out where they fit.
Photos by Michelle Diamond, who's been documenting this community since the beginning. Find the next meetup on the events page.
Photos from this meetup
Captured by Michelle Diamond. Click any photo to view full size — the lightbox lets you download and share.
Videos from this event
Selected recordings matched from YouTube titles, descriptions, and captions.
When trees talk back: Vancouver AI Community Meetup #21
Full event recording
Full September 2025 archive on Indigenous knowledge, plant communication, and community alternatives to Silicon Valley AI narratives.
Watch on YouTubeArtificial intelligence for interspecies communication
Manuel Axel Strain
Manuel Axel Strain’s September 2025 talk on Indigenous data sovereignty, plant communication, mycelium networks, consent, and ethical ecological AI.
Watch on YouTubeAI, language, and Squamish culture
Jonny Williams
Jonny Williams shares Squamish language, ceremony, cultural advisory work, and ways AI can support cultural documents, education, and youth innovation.
Watch on YouTubeIndigenous AI, plant communication, and community power
Vancouver AI
Opening segment with Johnny Williams and a lived story about Indigenous knowledge, AI, and plant communication.
Watch on YouTubeVancouver AI Community Announcements: September 2025
Community announcements
Community updates from the September 2025 meetup.
Watch on YouTubeMind, AI & Consciousness: highlights from September 2025
Vancouver AI
Highlights on mind, AI, and consciousness from the September 2025 Vancouver AI Community Meetup.
Watch on YouTube
More from this event
The September 2025 Vancouver AI Meetup brought the monthly room into one of the community's most important long-running questions: what changes when AI is discussed from Indigenous knowledge, language, ecology, and local responsibility rather than from the default Silicon Valley script?
The event archive frames the evening around Manuel Axel Strain on Indigenous data sovereignty, plant communication, and ecological AI; Jonny Williams on AI, language, and Squamish culture; and community announcements that turned the monthly meetup into a launchpad for Discord, hackathons, MAC, Education + AI, Surrey AI, and other local experiments.
That mix is why September matters in the 30-meetup arc. The stage was not only asking what AI can automate. It was asking what communities have the right to refuse, protect, translate, preserve, and build on their own terms. For a public event page, that is the defensible story: a technical community learning how to make room for knowledge systems, languages, and responsibilities that the industry often treats as peripheral.
Photos by Michelle Diamond. A curated set is below, with the event videos linked above for source context.
What this is
Vancouver AI Meetup — September 2025 is a BC + AI community event recap with photos, recordings, and details from the Vancouver AI ecosystem.
Who it is for
AI builders, researchers, policy people, creatives, educators, students, and citizens looking for practical local AI community.
When and where
Wednesday, September 24, 2025, 6:00 PM – 10:00 PM PDT at H.R. MacMillan Space Centre, 1100 Chestnut St, Vancouver, BC V6J 3J9, Canada.
How to join
Browse upcoming Vancouver AI events, RSVP on Luma, or become a BC + AI member to support the association behind the gatherings.
See upcoming eventsLatest Luma Details
- Event:
- Vancouver AI Community Meetup: 09/24
- Date:
- Wednesday, September 24, 2025
- Time:
- 6:00 PM – 10:00 PM PDT
- Location:
- H.R. MacMillan Space Centre, 1100 Chestnut St, Vancouver, BC V6J 3J9, Canada
- Organizer:
- BC + AI Ecosystem Association
- Status:
- Scheduled
- Attendance:
- In person