AI Community Announcements | Vancouver AI Meetup #18

Community Announcements at a Vancouver AI community meetup is the section that feels more like an open mic at a neighbourhood house or the late-night kitchen table at a friend’s place than a tech event. No PowerPoints, no elevator pitches, just the messy, brilliant web of this scene: you walk the deck, you smell the ocean, you pass the mic, you shout out your crew.

You get a 12-year-old talking about coding games from his dreams. You get a North Van distiller sweating it out on stage only to deliver the rawest take on creativity and risk in the city. You get a circle of old hands, newcomers, artists, engineers, and philosophers, each surfacing something only they could bring. Someone’s building a barbecue. Someone’s starting a subgroup in Surrey. Someone’s handing out tie-dye shirts that cost more than your headphones.

What’s special isn’t that it’s polished… it’s that it’s porous. People who say “I don’t need to talk” are up there dropping wisdom before they know it. Every shoutout, every awkward pause, every bad joke, every kid on stage is evidence that there’s no monoculture here. Just a living, breathing ecosystem. No gatekeepers, just more chairs being pulled up to the table.
—-

James Lester (Sons of Vancouver): Reluctant as hell to take the mic, but once he’s up there, he drops lines about creative risk, the urge to crush new ideas, and how persistence matters more than being a so-called genius. “Even bad ideas contain the seed of something great if you’re willing to look at them differently.”

Liam Edmonds (age 12): Making video games out of his own dreams. He logs what he sees at night, sketches the assets, then codes it up with AI’s help. The whole room cheered as he described his process. “Sometimes I dream about a friend’s house, and then I get AI to help build it in the game.”

Kemp Edmonds: The guy you call when the barbecue needs moving or the lights go out… one of the original organizers, sharing the stage with his son and reminding us how long this web of support has been growing.

Noah Brun (Arc’teryx): Opening up about what it means to lead tech change inside a big creative company. Noah isn’t just thinking about tools, but about culture, and what happens when you let fear run the show. “If you don’t lead, you get shadow AI… people using the tools, just not telling you about it.”

Tanya Slingsby (Mind, AI, and Consciousness): Bringing philosophy and accountability into the AI circle. “We’re not just building tech. We’re remembering what it means to be human especially when AI is changing the game.” Her and the MAC crew are holding it down for rigorous study and real dialogue, not just vibes.

Surrey AI crew: They took the Vancouver model out to Surrey, stripped out the parts that didn’t fit, and added their own flavor… circle talks, shared mic time, open invites. “We just took the best, left the rest, and now the room is full.”

Mark Busse: A masterclass in showing up, year after year. Fourteen years running Creative Mornings, never charged a dime, always holding space for creativity, mentorship, and messy human connection.

MAC Group and Loki: Not a lurker group. You do the reading. You show up on time. You eventually lead. Radical accountability.

Shoutouts to Michelle Diamond, Anand, Victor, Juan: Documenting the event, taking portraits, making sure everyone gets to see themselves reflected back in the community record.

00:00 – Incoming transmission: setting the scene, gratitude for the space, Lorraine Low and Space Centre’s AI vision
02:52 – Sponsors, financial update, Schwarzman family shoutout
04:55 – James Lester (Sons of Vancouver): reluctant but honest, Cosmos, distilling, risk, and persistence
07:06 – James’ riff: new ideas, the urge to squash, documentaries, why persistence beats brilliance
11:57 – KK’s aside: James’ stage fright, curation, transition
12:41 – Mark Busse (Creative Mornings): 14 years building community, global reach, mentorship, “we are not machines”
16:02 – Gustavo’s welcome: new to the scene, “go talk to Gustavo”
17:05 – Surrey AI crew (Riv & Matthew): exporting the format, circle talks, doubling attendance, community growth
21:30 – Passing the mic: Eliza, Keer Doodle Edmonds, family, torch-passing
22:45 – Liam Edmonds (age 12): Roblox, AI, dream journaling, coding video games from his dreams
23:43 – Liam’s process: writing dreams, asset lists, scripting with AI, crowd applause
24:17 – Kemp’s reflection: growth, gratitude, tie-dye shirts by Grateful Ched
26:27 – Noah Brun (Arc’teryx): unprepared, real talk on creative AI, shadow AI, responsible AI, workplace culture
31:05 – MAC Group, Tanya Slingsby: Mind, AI & Consciousness, rigorous study, philosophy, “what it means to be human”
35:05 – Subgroups: AI Film Club, sci-fi festival, accountability, diversity, how to join MAC
39:34 – Community invitations: WhatsApp, website, open invites, closing shoutouts
42:10 – Closing: “I’m canceling my keynote officially.” Thank yous, applause