Meetup In 3 weeks
November
Wednesday
17:00–21:00 2026 · Vancouver time
You sign up with the host. foundercal only links to it.
On Wednesday, November 25, 2026, Vancouver AI is back under the dome at the H.R. MacMillan Space Centre. This month we hand the stage to a designer who has spent fifteen years deciding where people belong in a system, and where the machines do.
Where humans go, where AI goes
Most AI conversations start with the model. This one starts with judgement.
Zoë Zaslow has spent fifteen years in product design, including design problems that were literally life and death. AI and natural language processing showed up in some of that work. They helped. They were never enough on their own.
"The thing you need is judgement. Human judgement."
That's Zoë's whole argument, and it's harder to practise than it sounds. AI doesn't solve the problem. It enables solutions. The real work is figuring out where human judgement has to sit, so you know where to put people and where to put AI.
Zoë Zaslow. Photo: Michelle Diamond.
The talk, in two parts
Part one, 25 minutes. Fifteen years of design practice boiled down to four takeaways. Design process and systems thinking for people who build products but were never taught design thinking. Real cases, plain language, no jargon test at the door.
Part two, 20 minutes. One project, start to finish. Where the people went, where the machines went, and why.
Nobody gets scolded for shipping fast. Zoë's approach is gentle and Socratic: lead the room to the water and let it drink.
Bring these questions
Where does human judgement belong in the thing you're building, and where is it missing right now?
When has AI actually earned its place in your work, and when did it fall short on its own?
How do you design for a decision you can't afford to get wrong?
You'll leave with four takeaways you can use on Monday, and a clearer way to decide what a person should own and what a model can carry.
The Lineup
Zoë Zaslow: Design strategist
Fifteen years of product design, some of it on problems where a bad call could cost a life. Zoë works where design process meets systems thinking: the place a team decides what a person has to own and what a machine can carry.
Kris Krüg: Executive Director, BC + AI Ecosystem
Host and MC. Keeper of the vibe. Puller of threads. Kris opens the night with the community announcements: what's moving across BC + AI, who needs a hand, and where to plug in.
The Flow
Date: Wednesday, November 25, 2026
Time: 6:00 PM to 10:00 PM, Vancouver time
Venue: H.R. MacMillan Space Centre, 1100 Chestnut St, Vancouver, BC V6J 3J9
Getting there: the #2 and #32 buses stop a 5-minute walk away, and the False Creek Ferry drops off at Vanier Park. Pay parking is in Lot 60 (EasyPark, by app or kiosk). It's a 10-minute walk from Granville Island.
6:00 PM, doors: open networking. Find the people you came for, and a few you didn't.
7:00 PM, program: community announcements, then Zoë. Questions and the open floor after.
Until 10:00 PM: more networking and productive arguing about the future.
Photos and video: the night is photographed and recorded for the community archive. If you'd rather stay out of frame, tell a volunteer at the door.
Questions or access needs: [email protected]
More of the program will be posted as it's confirmed. Come late. Leave early. Nobody keeps score.
Other Upcoming Events in Our Community
AI Ethical Futures Lab #9CV + AI Community Meetup #7: Trust The Room, Question The MachineFV + AI November: Fraser Valley AI Community MeetupAI Film Club with Kevin Friel | Nov 12BC + AI Life Sciences: AI in the clinic, part 2ED + AI #15: What It Gave Back, What It TookAI Happy Hour at FriendsQuarters #7: Heads Down, Look UpVancouver AI Community Meetup: 12/16
Plug into the bigger organism
This meetup is part of the BC + AI Ecosystem Association, a member-driven nonprofit where meetups turn into working groups, prototypes turn into shared tools, and community values turn into governance.
Join or support BC + AI
See you Nov 25. 🖤❤️✊
Kris Krüg & the Vancouver AI Community
The Sponsors
Big thanks to the folks helping keep the lights on, the doors open, and the community infrastructure real:
Intellomx: Simon Haworth's crew is building an AI-powered drug discovery platform across transcriptomic, genomic, and proteomic data. Deep science, local roots, real support for the ecosystem.
Internet Archive Canada: Andrea Mills and the crew at The Permanent are preserving decades of the open internet while more knowledge disappears behind paywalls. They are also co-creating the Archive Builders Micro-Fellowship with us.
Community Partners
H.R. MacMillan Space Centre: Our venue partner and monthly home under the dome. They keep opening the doors and letting a strange mix of technologists, artists, and curious neighbours turn a planetarium into an emerging-tech commons.
Metacreation Lab for Creative AI: Professor Philippe Pasquier and his lab at SFU's School of Interactive Arts & Technology have been pushing computational creativity long before it became fashionable.
CreativeMornings Vancouver: More than a decade of building Vancouver's creative community and cross-pollinating the people who make this city interesting.
Ethọ́s Lab: Vancouver's Black and Indigenous youth-led studio where young people ship real products, experiment with creative technology, and build futures on their own terms.
About Vancouver AI
Vancouver AI is a neural network of curious humans mapping the terrain between technology and consciousness. We bridge art galleries and research labs, corporate towers and garage workshops because the future does not get built in one kind of room.
We run monthly gatherings where builders, researchers, artists, educators, founders, and students trade demos, tools, ethics, and hard questions. No outside agenda. Just a self-organizing community that gives a damn about where this revolution goes and who gets to steer.
About BC + AI Ecosystem Association
BC + AI is the province-wide layer: a community-driven nonprofit building public-interest infrastructure for AI in British Columbia.
Not a corporate lobby. Not a think tank. A commons where local meetups turn into working groups, prototypes, shared tools, member connections, and a stronger public voice for people doing the work.
Vancouver AI was the first node. The ecosystem now reaches across BC, with every community bringing its own culture, needs, and experiments.
Code of Care
Be kind. Be curious. This is a harassment-free, consent-first room.
Credit people. Share code, notes, photos, and ideas with attribution.
Ask before filming or recording any person, conversation, or screen.
Make space. Help new people into the conversation and leave room for perspectives that do not sound like yours.
Get Involved
The meetup gets better when the community brings the sparks. We are always looking for volunteers, speakers, sponsors, demos, photographers, and people who know how to make a room feel alive.
Bring a demo, join BC + AI, or show up with an idea and find the people who can help you move it.
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Investors in the room
Investors in the room
Investors in the room
Founders pitch