Brewster Kahle
Founder & Digital Librarian
Internet Archive
What you'll walk out with
A different sense of what a library is for, and a debt you'll feel to people who haven't been born yet.
Meet Brewster
Vancouver · Oct 28-30, 2026
Understand AI. Shape what comes next.
AI is changing what we build, how we work and who gets to decide. Understanding it is now part of the job. Futureproof Festival brings researchers, founders, artists, educators and policy leaders to Vancouver for keynotes, talks and direct questions across disciplines. Three days to examine the evidence, challenge your assumptions and sharpen the decisions ahead of you.
Festival Pass · CA$950 · Opening night + two program days · 36 speakers · No single-day tickets
On stage
All 36 speakers →Learn from the people doing the work.
Why take three days for this?
Bring a real challenge. Give it your full attention.
Better judgment about AI
Examine capabilities, limits and human-centered design. Get past the demo to the questions that matter when a system enters real work.
- Amber CaseCalm Technology in the Age of Loud Machines
- Ben ShneidermanThere is No "I" in AI
A stronger basis for decisions
Explore governance, data ownership and public policy. Bring a live challenge from your organization and test your thinking against other disciplines.
- Sarah DowneyAdopting AI Without Losing Your Values
- Michael Running WolfLanguage Reclamation and Who Owns the Future
New approaches to creative work
See how artists, filmmakers and researchers work with AI, and where they insist on human authorship. Consider what those choices mean for your own practice.
- Mayumi RollingsBlood & Glitter
- Brett GaylorTwenty Years of Remix, and Who Shapes the Algorithm
The program
Ideas worth taking back to work.
Human-centered design. The future of knowledge. AI governance, creative authorship and the infrastructure beneath it all. Opening keynotes lead into two program days of focused talks and audience questions. The opening-night creative AI live set puts creative practice on stage. Start with these sessions:
Wednesday · October 28
Amber Case, Brewster Kahle, a live set, and a party
- Calm Technology in the Age of Loud Machines
Amber Case
- What a Library Owes the People Who Aren't Born Yet
Brewster Kahle
- Opening-Night Creative AI Live Set
Philippe Pasquier
Thursday · October 29
Making sense of it together
- Consciousness, Agency, and Building It Anyway
Loki Jorgenson
- Learning to live with them
Dr. Angelica Lim
- What the country decides
Taleeb Noormohamed + Kris Krüg
Friday · October 30
What we build next, then the closing party
- Working With AI Without Handing Over Your Judgment
Alexandra Samuel
- Who Owns the Infrastructure Underneath All This
Sev Geraskin
- There is No "I" in AI
Ben Shneiderman
Full program
Updated September 29, 2026 · session times may change before the festival
What it's about
The decisions will outlast this year's tools.
What should you adopt? What deserves scrutiny? What must remain a human responsibility? Six threads connect the research, the creative work and the choices facing your profession.
Community
Compare approaches across professions. Learn how other people are responding to AI in their organizations, institutions and communities.
Creativity
Examine authorship and craft through generative music, animation and film. See how creative practitioners decide where AI belongs in their work.
Ethics
Ask who owns the models and data, who benefits, and who bears the consequences. Connect AI governance to decisions you can actually make.
Resilience
Explore what AI means for institutions, knowledge and the planet. Consider which systems need to endure as the technology changes.
Education
Build the understanding to evaluate AI claims, ask better questions and help others make informed choices. Examine the assumptions beneath machine intelligence.
Empowerment
Understand where human agency belongs in AI systems. Bring that perspective to what you build, buy, commission, teach or govern.
Who it's for
For professionals making consequential choices about AI: business leaders and founders, researchers and technologists, educators and public servants, creative directors and independent artists. If you build, fund, commission, teach or govern work that AI is changing, this program is for you. You don't need to write code or arrive convinced.
The experience behind the festival
Challenging ideas. Useful connections.
Futureproof Festival grows out of Vancouver AI and BC + AI. These are reflections on earlier meetups, BC + AI courses and guest teaching, with the original context credited below each quote.
“… I was probably more impressed by the speakers who disturbed me than the ones I agreed with. This conversation is so important, and yet too limited in our everyday lives. …”
Gus SantosVancouver AI Meetup #10 · October 2024
“FWIW, the BC + AI Ecosystem, of which I'm a member, is different than any other AI group I'm aware of — full of artists and creatives, filmmakers and indigenous voices, as well as deep tech experts and entrepreneurs. It holds space for both wonder and scepticism around AI without veering too far one way or the other.”
Landon SteeleSteele Consulting Group · BC + AI member
“… The interactive format and tight-knit atmosphere fostered real connections—and I even lucked into meeting the perfect collaborator for my AI project.”
Jesse BensonVancouver AI Meetup #19 · July 2025
“I am stumped. I arrive in Vancouver and stumble upon this strange and colourful community that has done more for my BC network than any conference. …”
Read eight more perspectives from the community
“Something is happening here. The energetic dialogue at these events is hard to describe. It feels like we are witnessing the creation of something special, here in Vancouver, as the whole world figures out how to embrace AI.”
“Kris Krüg has built something important for our community.”
Carly SteimanFounder, Workbee Home Services · BC + AI community
“The opening grounding … made the rest of the night feel that before anyone says 'agentic workflow,' remember whose land, whose water, whose stories, whose labour, and whose data we are standing on. … Rock on, Mr KK!”
Suzy EastonVancouver AI Meetup #30
“I went to my first Vancouver AI community meetup event last month and it was buzzing with energy… Truly inspired.”
Pete YoungEducator · Ed + AI community
“Two things can be true at once. AI is here and I'm going to keep enabling it across our teams. And it can be done responsibly, with humans first, by people who treat that as the actual job rather than a disclaimer at the bottom of a deck.”
Kerris HougardyResponsible AI Professional · Cohort 1
“Kris helped shift how my design students see their future. In one hour, he demo'd building client prototypes in real-time, turned lectures into podcasts, and showed them how to be design orchestrators, not pixel pushers.”
Jai DjwaDesign educator · Guest teaching
“So pleased to have completed this course, the guidance was amazing, and the final capstone was a chance to explore responsible AI. If you want to round out your understanding of ethics, and responsible AI, this is well worth the time.”
David Gloyn-CoxEnterprise Architect · Responsible AI Professional, Cohort 1
“The course delivers very important insights into risks of large scale AI deployments. … Highly recommended for anyone who has a stake in the responsible use of PII data, environmental impact, and good governance of AI projects.”
Fiann O'HaganWeb analytics and performance · Responsible AI Professional, Cohort 1
Current pass
CA$950
One pass. The full exchange of ideas.
Make time for the questions your work demands. Your pass covers opening night and two program days at H.R. MacMillan Space Centre, October 28-30, 2026: research, creative practice, public policy and the chance to question what you hear.
- Opening keynotes and a creative AI live set, October 28
- Two full days of talks and audience questions, October 29–30
- Creative performances and the closing party included
Festival home
We picked a planetarium on purpose.
H.R. MacMillan Space Centre is a place built for scientific curiosity and public learning. It has also been home to Vancouver AI gatherings. For three days, the planetarium in Vanier Park becomes a place to examine another shift in how we understand the world: artificial intelligence and what we choose to do with it.
1100 Chestnut St, Vancouver, BC V6J 3J9·Festival home base: opening night + two program days
Latest from the festival
News from the festival.
Speaker announcements, program updates, and festival milestones, posted as they happen.
Presented by BC + AI
Backed by research, culture and community.
Founding Sponsor
Backs the AI Builders Fellowship alongside BC + AI.
Still open
Sponsor the 2026 festival
Sponsor positions are open for 2026. See what each one includes.
BC + AI is the presenting ecosystem, led by festival founder and director Kris Krüg. These confirmed partners contribute the festival's venue and connections across research, creative practice, data and community education.
Registration is open
Your next AI decision deserves this much thought.
Three days of ideas, evidence and questions you can bring back to work. H.R. MacMillan Space Centre, Vancouver. October 28-30.
Not the Future Proof you were looking for? There is a U.S. wealth-management conference with a similar name. This one is the Vancouver AI festival. More in the FAQ