Community proof
A real Space Centre gathering, already full of people paying attention. Rare and useful.
Photo: Michelle Diamond - Vancouver AI Meetup - 2026
Sponsors & Partners
Back the room people will travel for.
A focused founding room for the most honest AI conversation happening this year. Sponsors reach an engaged, curated room of practitioners, researchers, educators, policymakers, artists, and citizens. Not an expo badge-scan floor. Not a branded tote-bag hallucination.
1,000+
community members, 28 months of meetups
Focused
founding room — not a wandering badge cloud
Oct 28–30
Oct 28–30, 2026 — founding year, serious signal
Sponsor proof
This is not a logo wall. It is a room with pulse.
Sponsors are backing a living community: packed Space Centre meetups, film culture, builder energy, and a coherent festival where your support can still be felt by actual humans.
Community proof
Film, performance, and AI culture are already in the mix, causing the good kind of trouble.
Photo: Michelle Diamond - BC + AI Film Club - 2026
Art layer
The festival as a civic object: culture, ethics, builders, and public imagination refusing to stay in separate tabs.
Futureproof approved art layer
Community proof
Stage energy from the community that becomes Futureproof. Not rented attention.
Photo: Michelle Diamond - Vancouver AI Meetup - 2026
Venue proof
The venue has a body: planetarium dome, civic weirdness, water nearby, and enough sky to make the conversation behave differently.
Photo: Socratic, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
2026 FestivalFlagship
Sponsor packages
One-time festival commitments for October 28–30, 2026. Annual BC + AI sponsorship tiers (Title / Program / Community) can layer on top. Email Kris and we'll build the package around the actual job, not around a PDF pretending to be destiny.
Presenting Partner
$25,000
1 available
- "Futureproof Festival 2026 presented by [X]"
- Opening keynote slot — your story opens the festival
- Top logo placement across all materials, signage, and site
- Press release co-announcement
- 2 VIP Passes + 4 Festival Passes
- Anchors the festival and the non-profit behind it
Founding Partner
$10,000
3 available
- Official Festival Partner — prominent logo across all materials
- A stage moment or short speaking slot
- On-site presence across all three days
- 1 VIP Pass + 3 Festival Passes
- Your support backs the non-profit behind the festival
Supporting Partner
$5,000
5 available
- Supporting Partner recognition across the festival
- Logo on the site and on-site signage
- Founding-year status — you were here first
- 2 Festival Passes
- Your support backs the non-profit behind the festival
All packages customizable. Email kk@bc-ai.ca to scope a bespoke arrangement.
public-safe
Presenting Partner
Available for outreach; no public sponsor commitments announced.
public-safe
Founding Partner
Available for outreach; no public sponsor commitments announced.
public-safe
Supporting Partner
Available for outreach; no public sponsor commitments announced.
Why the window matters
The founding-year window is open.
No 2026 festival sponsors have been publicly announced yet. That is the opportunity: the venue is locked, the room is focused, and the strongest packages are still ownable without elbowing anyone out of the story.
Venue home locked
H.R. MacMillan Space Centre
A known community room in Vanier Park, with planetarium, auditorium, reception, and exhibit-space possibilities. Cosmic, but still practical.
BC + AI network
Community reach
1,000+ members, 28 months of meetups, and year-round audiences across film, education, builders, and public-interest AI work. Not rented attention.
High-signal room
Focused founding room
A deliberately focused founding year: practitioners, researchers, educators, policymakers, artists, students, and civic leaders who can handle a real conversation.
Open sponsor lanes
Founding window
Presenting, day, DEFRAG, opening-night, access, hospitality, and experience packages are all still available.
Registration open
Early Bird until August 15
The public Luma page is live, with BC + AI member discounts built into the ticket model.
Networks of networks
www.dataforgood.ca →dama-vancouver.org →metacreation.net →creativemornings.com/cities/van →www.spacecentre.ca →
Community partners
Partners don't pay us — they trade value. They bring their networks; we give their communities access, visibility, and a seat in the conversation. Together, the reach compounds without pretending every relationship is a sales funnel.
Presented by
community
1,600+ member volunteer network
DAMA-Vancouver
community
200+ data governance professionals
SFU Metacreation Lab
academic
SFU research community + AI arts practitioners
community
Film + AI crossover community
community
Vancouver creative and professional community
venue
250+ regular meetup attendees
Ethos Lab
community
Youth, educators, and BC + AI education collaborators
Data for Good Vancouver
CommunityVancouver's volunteer data science community. Co-curators of Data Nerds Day programming at Futureproof.
1,600+ member volunteer network
DATAFORGOOD — 15% off Festival Pass
DAMA-Vancouver
CommunityData management and governance professionals. Brings the data stewardship lens to AI conversations.
200+ data governance professionals
DATAFORGOOD — 15% off Festival Pass
SFU Metacreation Lab
AcademicSimon Fraser University's research group on machine creativity and generative AI in art. Produces the DEFRAG night programming.
SFU research community + AI arts practitioners
BC + AI Film Club
CommunityScreens and discusses AI-themed films year-round. Curates the festival's film programming arc.
Film + AI crossover community
CreativeMornings Vancouver
CommunityMonthly breakfast talks bringing ideas and creative community together across Vancouver.
Vancouver creative and professional community
H.R. MacMillan Space Centre
VenueHome base for monthly Vancouver AI Meetups and the locked venue home for Futureproof 2026.
250+ regular meetup attendees
Ethos Lab
CommunityVancouver youth STEAM + AI lab led by Anthonia Ogundele. Education and youth program collaborators for Futureproof.
Youth, educators, and BC + AI education collaborators
Join the network
Become a community partner
If your organization represents a community that cares about AI — from any angle — we want to talk. Bring your people, your weird corner of the map, and the value you can actually move.
Media & Journalism
Science journalists, tech media outlets, journalism schools. Helps the conversation reach people who are asking the right questions from outside the industry.
e.g. Journalism schools, Science communicators, Tech media
Labour & Workers
Unions, professional associations, worker organizations whose members are navigating AI's impact on their jobs and industries.
e.g. Trade unions, Professional associations, Worker co-ops
University & Research
University AI clubs, graduate student groups, interdisciplinary research labs that want a real-world stage for their work.
e.g. University AI clubs, Research labs, Grad student orgs
Creator Communities
Music, visual art, film, and maker communities building with — or being affected by — generative AI tools.
e.g. Music communities, Maker spaces, Film collectives
Ready to back the festival?
Kris leads partnerships directly. Low-overhead conversations, customized to your goals: brand visibility, talent pipeline, policy influence, community investment, access support, or a hospitality moment people will remember after the lanyards are composted.