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  • 🧬 VANCOUVER AI: WE DON’T DO PANELS. WE DO PORTALS.

🧬 VANCOUVER AI: WE DON’T DO PANELS. WE DO PORTALS.

Dispatch from the March 2025 Gathering @ Space Centre

Author

Kris KrĂźg
April 07, 2025

Hey friend,

If you missed the March Vancouver AI Community Meetup, I’ve got good news:
You didn’t miss the moment—because the moment is still unfolding.

We’re building a living, breathing BC+AI community—a DIY constellation of makers, misfits, elders, academics, and data dreamers. It’s an emergent ecosystem, stitched together by shared intention, open source spirit, ancestral intelligence, and experimental courage.

This is your after-action report… Part recap. Part invitation. Part transmission from the creative edge….

OPENING THE PORTAL: LAND, SONG, SPIRIT

We began rooted. Damien George Sr. of Tsleil-Waututh Nation blessed the space with music that cracked open our synthetic circuitry and reconnected us to the land. More than a simple land “acknowledgement”… it was a cultural download—a reminder that our tech must serve everyone, not just the suits and stockholders.

OH HI: AI MUSIC AS RITUAL CODE

Cai + Charlie + bots = Oh HI
Forget bands. These two orchestrated a glitchy, soulful transmission from a parallel timeline where machines jam alongside humans in real-time.
They didn’t “play songs.” They invoked them. Lo-fi beats, hi-vibe resonance. The soundtrack of AI becoming spirit.

MICROCOSMS EMERGING: SUB-COMMUNITIES WITH SOUL

Mind, AI, & Consciousness Working Group – 30 thinkers probing reality with AI as their microscope.

Womxn AI – Raising funds and raising voices at Pavilion Cowork.

Surrey AI Meetup – Grassroots by design, circle-driven, inclusive AF.

Community Library – Knowledge as currency. Bring a book, take a book, grow the hive mind.

This ain’t networking. It’s neural-networking.

ACADEMIC UPRISING: THE STUDENTS ARE AWAKE

UBC’s AI Video Lab is producing cinematic experiments that put Hollywood on notice.


SFU’s Metacreation Lab is building tools for artists to own their models, data, and dreams.

And heads-up: Philippe Pasquier’s “Revival” performance next month? AI musical agents channeling dead composers in real-time. You have to see it to un-believe it.

ECOSYSTEMS > EVENTS

April → https://lu.ma/VAI16

Vancouver AI: April 30

We don’t do panels. We do portals.

lu.ma/VAI16

Vancouver AI: May 28 #WebSummit

Technology isn't neutral and neither are we.

lu.ma/websummit-vancouver

June → https://lu.ma/VAI18

Vancouver AI: June 25

Human-centered AI for a better world.

lu.ma/VAI18

Want to co-create one? Speak, sponsor, volunteer, demo, or stir the pot:
kriskrug.notion.site/Get-Involved

DATA HACKATHON: WHEN NUMBERS SING

Rival Tech launched a $10K Data Storytelling Hackathon judged on: creativity, clarity, execution, community value. We’re turning spreadsheets into symphonies. Sign up → hackathon.bc-ai.net

THE CORE: YOUR PLACE IN THE SYSTEM

This isn’t a fan club. This is a mutual aid mechanism for the AI community we’re building.

Vancouver AI CORE membership =

→ All-access earlybird tickets

→ Personalized member ID

→ Private group chat

→ Infrastructure you help shape

COURSE LAUNCH: AI UPGRADE FOR CREATIVES

🗓️ Starts April 23
🎓 6 weeks. Live. Hands-on. No fluff.
👾 Prompt craft. Workflow design. Creative disruption.

Built for designers, writters, artists, storytellers, educators, and weirdos with a vision.
Co-taught with Peter Bittner.

*** Canadian pricing available. Discount codes for rebels and NGOs.

FINAL THOUGHT: THE REVOLUTION IS COMMUNITY-POWERED

We’re not in the AI boom.
We’re in the cultural compost phase.
What we plant now determines what grows next.

VanAI is a living system, not a brand.
We don’t seek scale. We seek soul.

Bring your full self.
Bring your broken theories and half-built bots.
Bring a book for the community library. Bring a friend. Bring your breath.

We’re building futures with no blueprint. No bullshit.
Just courage, code, and community.

Catch you in the next portal,

— KK | kriskrug.co | theupgrade.ai

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