Quick answers to the questions we get most. If yours is not here, email hello@bc-ai.ca, use the contact lanes, or bring it to a public meetup. For how BC + AI sits next to other layers of the ecosystem, start with the AI community in British Columbia guide.
Why BC + AI exists
What is BC + AI?
BC + AI Ecosystem Association is British Columbia's member-powered Canadian nonprofit association. 300+ members of the nonprofit take part in recurring rooms across Vancouver, the Fraser Valley (FV+AI, Langley to Chilliwack), and the Comox Valley. Four public programs run today: Responsible AI Professional (RAP), the AI Animation & Filmmaking Accelerator, AI Upgrade, and Local AI Fundamentals. Special-interest rooms include Mind, AI and Consciousness (MAC) and the forming AI Creativity + Design group. BC + AI presents Futureproof Festival of AI, Vancouver, October 28-30, 2026, H.R. MacMillan Space Centre, presented by BC + AI. Read the About page.
Why does B.C. need this kind of AI community?
AI lands inside every profession, not inside a tidy AI sector. The people dealing with its consequences need recurring places to meet across those boundaries. Conferences, directories, and mailing lists can connect people, but trust grows when people return to the same rooms, share real problems, challenge bad ideas, and build together.
What makes BC + AI a real community?
Cadence, contribution, and shared responsibility. People meet every month and every week. Members teach each other, create focused groups, organize regional events, document the work, and help decide what the association represents publicly. Participation matters more than being listed as part of a network.
What is BC + AI’s role?
Three layers: recurring rooms where relationships form, professional programs that turn discussion into capability, and a nonprofit public voice that can represent member interests in policy conversations. Community is the base. Collective agency is the point. Read how the model works on the About page.
What does BC + AI advocate for?
Fund community AI infrastructure. Create procurement paths for local companies. Support responsible adoption by small businesses, regional access, and clean compute. Make privacy and accountability real. Trust is built through participation and proof, not awareness campaigns.
How is BC + AI different from other ecosystem organizations?
BC + AI is member-supported, practitioner-facing, and organized around recurring participation. Members meet, teach, run groups, document the work, and build a public voice together. Directories, resources, company visibility, and occasional events can all be useful, but they are not this operating model.
Joining + membership
Do I have to be a member to come to a meetup?
No. Meetups and most regional events are open. Membership is the year-round layer: weekly Office Hours, working groups, coworking, community channels, the member directory, and a voice in what the association does next. Many recurring community gatherings are included with membership.
How do I join?
Choose a seat on the membership page and check out through native signup. Individual, Student, and Micro memberships are self-serve. Growth and Enterprise memberships are set up with us by email.
What does membership actually get me?
Weekly Office Hours, working groups, coworking, community channels, the member directory, and a voice in association priorities. Many recurring community gatherings are included with membership. Members get at least 25% off all BC + AI-produced events. The Futureproof Festival code is available from their account. Subject to capacity and approval on Luma. See membership options.
What is the difference between the newsletter and membership?
The newsletter is free public updates. Membership adds weekly Office Hours, working groups, coworking, member channels, directory access, complimentary places at many community gatherings, and member event rates. You can take the newsletter without joining, and members still get the public updates.
Is there a sliding scale?
Yes. If the standard membership price does not work for your situation, email hello@bc-ai.ca and we will sort it out. Cost should not block participation.
How do I sign in or manage my account?
Use the account dashboard with a magic link to your membership email. From there you can manage your profile, subscription, and member benefit codes.
How do I cancel?
Manage your subscription from your account dashboard or email us. No retention scripts.
Programs + events
What AI events happen in British Columbia?
Monthly series include Vancouver AI Meetup and BC + AI Film Club. Regional rooms are FV+AI in the Fraser Valley, from Langley to Chilliwack, and CV + AI in the Comox Valley. First official FV+AI gathering: September 9, 2026 in Langley. Special-interest rooms include Mind, AI and Consciousness (MAC) and the forming AI Creativity + Design group. BC + AI presents Futureproof Festival of AI, Vancouver, October 28-30, 2026, H.R. MacMillan Space Centre, presented by BC + AI. Meetups and most regional events are open, so check the events page for upcoming dates and past recaps.
What is the difference between a Meetup, Film Club, SIG, and Hackathon?
Meetups are large community gatherings with short talks, demos, food, and time to meet. Film Club screens AI-assisted film and brings creators into the conversation. Special interest groups are smaller, topic-focused rooms for sustained inquiry. Hackathons are time-boxed building events with a shared brief, teams, and deliverables. See what is next.
What AI programs exist for creative and cross-disciplinary work?
The AI Animation & Filmmaking Accelerator with Tiny Ghost Studios has you direct a portfolio-ready animated short, and the AI Upgrade for Creative Professionals rebuilds your creative workflow with AI without losing your craft. BC + AI Film Club screens new AI-assisted work monthly, and the meetups put creative practitioners and technical builders in the same room. Start with the certification pages.
How do I host a meetup in my region?
Email us. Active rooms currently gather in Vancouver, the Fraser Valley, and the Comox Valley. If your region is not represented and you are willing to organize, we can share the playbook, help with operations and promotion, and connect the new room to the wider network. Explore the current communities.
What regional AI communities exist in British Columbia outside Vancouver?
Two active regional rooms right now. FV+AI carries the people and spirit of Surrey AI across the Fraser Valley, from Langley to Chilliwack. First official FV+AI gathering: September 9, 2026 in Langley. CV + AI is the Comox Valley chapter bringing the conversation to Vancouver Island. Explore all the communities.
Can I propose a topic or a speaker?
Absolutely. Use the speaker pitch path or email hello@bc-ai.ca. Community proposals are how many of the current groups and programs began.
Are recordings posted?
Most public talks and many gatherings are recorded and added to the video archive when they are ready. Some smaller conversations stay in the room so people can think out loud without turning every sentence into a public position. Browse the videos.
What AI applications are emerging in B.C.’s life sciences and healthcare sector?
That conversation lives in the Life Sciences & AI group, where clinicians, researchers, founders, and health-data people compare what is actually changing across biotech, healthcare, drug discovery, and commercialization. It is a domain room where practical expertise matters more than generic AI hype. See the Life Sciences & AI community.
Is there a fellowship program for AI builders?
Yes. The AI Builders Fellowship is a CA$10,000 open-source fellowship from Internet Archive Canada and BC + AI across two projects, for builders, researchers, artists, and archivists. Two builders anywhere in the world get six weeks to build something open source from a large Canadian public archive. The 2026 application window closed August 21; read the brief and see where things stand.
What AI work is happening in B.C. related to open-source archives and public memory?
The AI Builders Fellowship with Internet Archive Canada funds two builders with CA$10,000 across two projects to make something open source from a huge Canadian public archive of government publications, part of the Internet Archive’s Democracy’s Library. The work is open source and publicly documented. Read the fellowship brief.
Learning + certification
What certifications and learning programs do you offer?
Four public programs today: Responsible AI Professional for decision-makers and practitioners, the AI Animation & Filmmaking Accelerator with Tiny Ghost Studios, the AI Upgrade for Creative Professionals, and Local AI Fundamentals. Cohort dates, pricing, and registration live on the certification pages.
What responsible AI governance programs exist in British Columbia?
The Responsible AI Professional (RAP) certification is the governance program: practical cohorts for leaders and practitioners who decide when AI should be used, how it should be governed, and what proof belongs in the room. You work with UNESCO, OECD, NIST, and IEEE frameworks and leave with governance artifacts you can use after the cohort. See RAP cohort dates and registration.
What AI education programs in B.C. result in a portfolio piece or credential?
All four public programs finish with something you keep. The AI Animation & Filmmaking Accelerator ends with a portfolio-ready animated short: 30 to 40 seconds in the online studio or 10 to 15 seconds in the Vancouver intensive. RAP graduates leave with four governance artifacts plus a certificate, the AI Upgrade for Creative Professionals ends with a capstone you actually make, and Local AI Fundamentals leaves you with a local AI orchestrator on your own machine plus a small model you trained with a persona. Compare the programs.
Where do program-specific FAQs live?
Each certification page keeps its own practical FAQ (background expected, tools, refunds, rights, and member pricing where it applies). Start at /certification and open the program you care about.
Organization + governance
Are you actually a nonprofit?
Yes. BC + AI Ecosystem Association is a registered British Columbia nonprofit, incorporated August 22, 2025. Community programs have been running since 2023. The nonprofit structure formalized work that was already happening in the rooms.
Who is on the board?
The founding board includes Kris Krüg, Founder and Executive Director; Lorraine Lowe, Executive Director of the H.R. MacMillan Space Centre; and Carol Anne Hilton, CEO of the Indigenomics Institute. Board contact: hello@bc-ai.ca.
How are you funded?
Through memberships, corporate sponsorships, program partnerships, and grants. Member support matters because it keeps the organization accountable to the practitioners and communities doing the work, while a mixed funding base keeps any one funder from defining the whole agenda.
How do I sponsor a program?
See the sponsorship page for current ways to support gatherings, regional chapters, public resources, and professional programs. We can also shape a partnership around a venue, theme, community, or shared public-interest goal.
How is BC + AI developing British Columbia’s AI ecosystem?
Through recurring participation. BC + AI runs monthly and weekly rooms in Vancouver, the Fraser Valley, and the Comox Valley, hands-on programs that turn conversation into capability, and a nonprofit public voice for the people doing the work. Members teach, host, document the work, and start the groups they want to exist. Read how the model works.
Where can I see your impact?
Start with the About page: 300+ members, 3,000+ event attendees, 94+ events since 2023, and 3 active BC regions. See the story and public proof.
Still stuck? Get in touch or come to a public meetup.