October 28–30, 2026 · Vancouver
The program.
Understand AI.
Shape what comes next.
63 matching sessions across the three days.
October 28 · Opening night
Wednesday
Amber Case, Brewster Kahle, a live set, and a party
Doors at five. Two talks, a live set, then the party. Meet everybody on night one so the next two days are spent with people you know.
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Registration opens · lobby and exhibits
Registration300 minBadge pickup from noon. The building is open all afternoon, the exhibitor tables are up, and the building fills on its own before anything starts.
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Doors open · opening party · DJ · bar
Music + gathering90 minThe party starts at five. Ninety minutes to arrive, get a drink and find your people before anyone says a word from the stage.
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Welcome to the territory
Anthony Joseph
Ceremony15 minAnthony Joseph of the Squamish Nation opens the festival with a welcome to Squamish territory. The first thing said from this stage, before any of the rest of it.
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Calm Technology in the Age of Loud Machines
Amber Case
Keynote + Q&A40 minAmber wrote the book on calm technology, and the first talk of the festival is hers: what AI should feel like when it is built for people instead of markets, and what it costs us when it is not. Then ten minutes of questions from the audience.
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AI Builders Fellowship: what they made
Talk30 minTwo builders from the AI Builders Fellowship, Internet Archive Canada's program with BC + AI, each get eight minutes to show what they built after six weeks inside a hundred thousand Canadian government publications. Then the man who built the Archive takes the stage.
Speaker to announce.
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What a Library Owes the People Who Aren't Born Yet
Brewster Kahle
Keynote + Q&A40 minBrewster built the Internet Archive. Public memory, the open web, libraries, and what a civic AI owes the people who have not been born yet. Then ten minutes of questions from the audience.
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Opening-Night Creative AI Live Set
Philippe Pasquier
Live performance20 minArtists with AI as their instrument: generative visuals, live-coded sound, and a crowd that gets louder as it goes. Twenty minutes, then the set hands the night to the party.
More artists to announce.
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October 29 · Day one
Thursday
Making sense of it together
What AI is doing right now to work, health, care, government and the stories we tell, from people who do those jobs for a living. Ten-minute questions after each group of talks.
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Breakfast · registration
Meal60 minBreakfast and coffee in the building, with the registration desk open for anyone landing on day one.
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Where we are, and what today is asking
Kris Krüg
Welcome10 minKris sets the day in ten minutes. Where we are, what Thursday is asking, and how the talks talk to each other.
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Consciousness, Agency, and Building It Anyway
Loki Jorgenson
Talk20 minLoki on what might actually be going on inside these things.
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Learning to live with them
Dr. Angelica Lim
Talk20 minWhat it's actually like to live with these systems, from a researcher who ran that experiment on herself.
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Questions with the speakers
Loki Jorgenson + Dr. Angelica Lim
Audience Q&A10 min - to
Morning break · coffee · exhibits
Break20 minCoffee, and time with the exhibitor tables.
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The Art of Asking Questions: Futureproof Edition
Shane Gibson
Talk20 minShane on asking better questions than the machine.
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Keeping your judgment
Kerris Hougardy + Raj Parmar
Talk20 minKerris and Raj on the judgment AI keeps talking you out of, from inside two companies rolling it out.
Kerris HougardySenior Vice President, People · Ting Internet · TucowsRaj ParmarHR Leader and Business Partner · TucowsLink to this session - to
Questions with the speakers
Shane Gibson + Kerris Hougardy + Raj Parmar
Audience Q&A10 min - to
Who Gets to Tell the Story
Jos Duncan-Asé
Talk20 minJos on empathy as a media practice and communities that own their own stories.
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Thinking Through Models: The Future of Collaborative Intelligence
Toshi Anders Hoo
Talk20 minThinking through models: what collaborative intelligence between people and AI looks like when it works, from a decade of futures research.
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Will Wikimedia Survive the Age of AI
Lane Becker
Talk20 minLane comes at the question from Wikipedia, which everything trains on and nobody pays for.
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Questions with the speakers
Jos Duncan-Asé + Toshi Anders Hoo + Lane Becker
Audience Q&A10 minJos, Toshi and Lane on stage, taking questions about whose knowledge gets used and who gets a say.
Jos Duncan-AséFounder · Love Now MediaToshi Anders HooPrincipal, Possibility Spaces · Former Senior Research Director, Institute for the FutureLane BeckerPresident, Wikimedia Enterprise · Wikimedia FoundationLink to this session - to
Lunch · demo tables in the lounge
Meal60 minLunch in the building, with demo tables open in the lounge.
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The afternoon reset
Suzy Easton
Live performance15 minLunch is over and everybody needs waking up. Suzy Easton, fifteen minutes, all sound and texture, and then the afternoon.
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Where the Hype Runs Out in Drug Discovery
Simon Haworth
Talk20 minSimon on what AI is actually doing in drug discovery, and where the hype runs out.
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Where care happens
Dean Shev
Talk20 minDean builds health AI that has to answer to real patients, HIPAA and PHIPA at the same time.
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Questions with the speakers
Simon Haworth + Dean Shev
Audience Q&A10 minThe lab and the clinic, back to back, then both of them taking questions.
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Who Owns the Infrastructure Underneath All This
Sev Geraskin
Talk20 minSev is building a real-time AI inference network: what actually survives the trip from demo to production, and what it costs.
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Safety Questions. Science Answers.
Kristen Delphos
Talk20 minKristen on how safety science gets translated for the public without being flattened.
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Questions with the speakers
Sev Geraskin + Kristen Delphos
Audience Q&A10 minSev and Kristen on the systems we build, how we assess their risks and what makes them deserve public trust.
Sev GeraskinCo-Founder & VP of Engineering · PolarGrid · Economy of Wisdom FoundationKristen DelphosVice President, Communications and Public Affairs · UL Research InstitutesLink to this session - to
Afternoon break · coffee
Break20 minCoffee before the last of the day.
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Twenty Years of Remix, and Who Shapes the Algorithm
Brett Gaylor
Talk20 minBrett on synthetic media, surveillance, and what the documentary can still do about it.
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Where Our Ideas About Machine Intelligence Came From
Stephanie Dick
Talk20 minStephanie on the long history of where our ideas about machine intelligence came from, and who got to decide what counts as knowledge.
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Questions with the speakers
Brett Gaylor + Stephanie Dick
Audience Q&A10 minA filmmaker and a historian, then both on stage for questions.
Brett GaylorVP Creative · HololabsStephanie DickAssistant Professor · School of Communication, Simon Fraser UniversityLink to this session - to
What the country decides
Taleeb Noormohamed + Kris Krüg
Conversation55 minTaleeb sits at the federal AI policy table. Kris sits where it lands. Canada's AI strategy meets the people who have to live in it: one conversation, with questions from the floor.
Taleeb NoormohamedMember of Parliament · Vancouver GranvilleKris KrügFounder & Festival Director · BC + AI Ecosystem AssociationLink to this session
October 30 · Day two
Friday
What we build next, then the closing party
Naomi Klein opens at 9:30 with Catherine Warren. The daily practice, the craft, the community and the long view. Ben Shneiderman closes the talks. The daytime program ends at 5:40; the closing party starts at 7:30.
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Breakfast
Meal60 minBreakfast and coffee in the building before day two.
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Arrival · lobby time
Break20 minArrive, have a look around and settle in. The first conversation begins at 9:30.
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Into the auditorium
Seating5 minFind your place before Naomi Klein and Catherine Warren begin at 9:30.
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Before the opening conversation
Transition5 min - to
A FanTrust Conversation with Naomi Klein
Naomi Klein + Catherine Warren
Conversation60 minJoin us for an intimate conversation with international bestselling author and climate justice advocate Naomi Klein.
FanTrust President Catherine Warren sits down with Naomi to discuss her worldview and new book, End Times Fascism: And the Fight for the Living World, co-written with Astra Taylor. Oligarchs, tech bros, and populist politicians may look like strange bedfellows, but they share an AI ethos and a common toolkit. Together, we’ll unbox it. From harrowing to hopeful, hear how Naomi’s work traces systems of power, who profits from them, and where the rest of us can still push back.
Naomi KleinAuthor & Journalist · UBC Centre for Climate JusticeCatherine WarrenFounder & President · FanTrustLink to this session - to
Morning break · coffee
Break20 minCoffee, and a walk to the windows.
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AI, creativity and cultural policy
Ana Serrano + Prem Gill
Conversation20 minAna Serrano and Prem Gill in a fireside conversation about AI and creativity, Public AI Lab, and the Canadian Creative Industries AI Working Group, co-chaired by TIFF and OCAD University and administered by OCAD's Cultural Policy Hub.
Ana SerranoPresident & Vice-Chancellor · OCAD UniversityPrem GillSenior Policy Fellow · Cultural Policy Hub, OCAD UniversityLink to this session - to
Questions with the speakers
Ana Serrano + Prem Gill
Audience Q&A10 minAna and Prem on stage, taking questions from the audience.
Ana SerranoPresident & Vice-Chancellor · OCAD UniversityPrem GillSenior Policy Fellow · Cultural Policy Hub, OCAD UniversityLink to this session - to
A short pause
Transition5 min - to
Community is Humanity’s Operating System
Zaro
Talk20 minZaro on community as an operating system, learned inside some of gaming's biggest franchises.
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Resilience at the scale of the whole planet
Andrew Zolli
Talk20 minAndrew on resilience at the scale of the whole planet, and how communities get through uncertainty.
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Questions with the speakers
Zaro + Andrew Zolli
Audience Q&A10 minSame problem, wildly different scales, then both on stage taking questions.
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A short pause
Transition5 min - to
Lunch
Meal60 minLunch in the building.
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Working With AI Without Handing Over Your Judgment
Alexandra Samuel
Talk20 minAlexandra on working with AI without handing it your judgment.
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Questions with the speakers
Alexandra Samuel
Audience Q&A10 minThen Alexandra on stage, taking questions from the audience.
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Life-Centred AI and Who Owns What We Build
Sara Blenkhorn
Talk20 minSara on life-centred design and who gets to own what we build.
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Blood & Glitter
Mayumi Rollings
Talk20 minMayumi runs an animation studio that uses AI everywhere and refuses to lose the artists.
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Stop Waiting for Permission
Kevin Friel
Talk20 minKevin co-founded the BC + AI Film Club. What happens when filmmakers stop waiting for permission, make the thing and screen it.
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Questions with the speakers
Sara Blenkhorn + Mayumi Rollings + Kevin Friel
Audience Q&A10 minSara, Mayumi and Kevin take questions on ownership, artists and human-led creative work.
Sara BlenkhornDirector of Innovation · Buckminster Fuller InstituteMayumi RollingsCEO & Co-Founder · Tiny Ghost StudiosKevin FrielFestival Director · BC + AI Film ClubLink to this session - to
Afternoon break · community photo
Break30 minCoffee, and everybody in one photograph.
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Language Reclamation and Who Owns the Future
Michael Running Wolf
Talk20 minMichael builds machine learning for Indigenous language reclamation, and asks who owns the data, the systems and the future those tools make.
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Peter-Lucas Jones
Te Hiku Media
Talk20 minPeter-Lucas Jones of Te Hiku Media joins the Friday program.
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Questions with the speakers
Michael Running Wolf + Peter-Lucas Jones
Audience Q&A10 minMichael and Peter-Lucas on stage, taking questions from the audience.
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There is No "I" in AI
Ben Shneiderman
Keynote55 minThe last talk of Futureproof Festival is Ben Shneiderman’s. He wrote the book on human-centered AI, and he closes on designs that hand people more power instead of replacing them. One voice, the full fifty-five minutes.
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A short pause before the closing ceremony
Transition10 min - to
Closing ceremony
Ceremony15 minFifteen minutes to say what we heard, what is still unresolved, and where Futureproof Festival goes from here.
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Free time before the closing party
Break110 minThe daytime program is finished. Take a break, find dinner and return for the closing party at 7:30.
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Closing Party
Philippe Pasquier + Kris Krüg + Charles Bicari
Music + gathering150 minMusic, art, and the conversations that are not ready to end. It's in your pass. Lights out at ten.
Philippe PasquierProfessor & Director · Metacreation Lab, Simon Fraser UniversityKris KrügFounder & Festival Director · BC + AI Ecosystem AssociationCharles BicariSystems Designer and Integrator, Research and Innovation Lab · Société des arts technologiques (SAT), MontréalMore artists to announce.
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Times can still move before the festival.
Plan your visit ↗Three days, one pass
Everything on this page comes with a Festival Pass.
Opening night, both program days, the performances and the parties. Arriving early or staying the weekend? The certification days around the festival are on the Visit page.