Opening night
Make the room porous, alive, and intentional.
DEFRAG energy, artist-led AI performance, social ritual, and a clear question: what are we here to protect, practice, and build?
Oct 28–30, 2026 · Vancouver, BC
Three days for the most honest AI conversation happening this year.
Art at the threshold. Hard questions in the middle. A closing reveal that turns critique and curiosity into the next year of work instead of a group photo and a shrug.
Weekend arc
Honesty needs an arc, not a spreadsheet in a blazer.
The shape keeps the founding room inside one shared arc long enough for the conversation to gather heat instead of fragmenting into polite little islands.
Program day one
Name what AI is doing to people.
Critical voices, literacy, lived experience, creative practice, and enough friction to keep the narrative honest.
Program day two
Turn attention into commitments.
Builder demos, practical frameworks, the Squatchies, and the 2027 reveal as the answer to what happens after the room disperses.
Living poster wall
Not a schedule floating in space. A real room learning how to glow.
The weekend blends community photography, film-night energy, and approved Futureproof art layers so out-of-town guests can feel the actual Vancouver community behind the promise before they book the flight.
Art layer
The mythic layer: a threshold into the founding room, with the claims added by humans.
Futureproof approved art layer
Community proof
The community talks back. That is the point.
Photo: Michelle Diamond - Vancouver AI Meetup - 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
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 closing reveal points the first festival toward the larger world. Door, not victory lap.
Futureproof approved art layer
Find your signal
Six signals. One honest conversation. What brings you here?
Pick your doorway: culture, ethics, community, builders, literacy, resilience. Different signals, same arc, no escape into abstraction.
Culture
Art, film, performance, and the strange weather AI makes in public.
Ethics
Critical voices staying at the table until moral weight becomes practice.
Community
Actual people finding their role in the work, not just watching the show.
Builders
Demos, craft, small models, open tools, and receipts over pitch decks.
Literacy
Plain-language confidence for people who refuse to be dazzled or dismissed.
Resilience
Gathering humans while the tools pull attention apart.
Keynote slots
The arc opens and closes with intent. Names publish when they are real.
Opening keynote · Program day one
Opening keynote
Speaker announced when confirmed.
We will announce this slot when the invitation is confirmed and public assets are ready.
Closing keynote · Program day two
Closing keynote
Speaker announced when confirmed.
We will announce this slot when the invitation is confirmed and public assets are ready.
Run of show
One lineup, many ways into the honest conversation.
Filter by signal if you like a map. Ignore the filters if you like surprises. Either way, ethics, culture, literacy, builders, community, and resilience all feed the same founding conversation.
Wed Oct 28
Opening Night — The Threshold
Where the room becomes a community.
5:30pmPrivate speaker + sponsor reception
7pmDoors open · DJ · cash bar
7:30pm–8pmTalk
Welcome from Kris — why humans gather now
8pm–9:30pm★ Party
DEFRAG opening live set — creative AI as performance
Philippe Pasquier, Erica Lapadat-Janzen, Arshia Sobhan Sarbandi, and Kris Krüg anchor opening night with generative visuals, live-coded sound, and artist-led AI performance.
9:30pmOpen social · DJ · art in the room
Thu Oct 29
Program Day One — Where We Are
What AI is already doing to people, culture, and attention.
8:30amDoors · breakfast · registration
9:30am–9:45amTalk
Welcome — Kris frames the day
9:45am–11:15am★ Keynote
Opening Keynote + Q&A
Q&A facilitated by Anthonia Ogundele.
11:15amCoffee break · curated mingling
11:45am–12:45pmConversation
Conversation: "What we already feel"
Consciousness, AI, and the moral weight — in dialogue.
12:45pmLunch · sponsor demo tables in the lounge
2pm–2:45pmTalk
Talk: Anthonia Ogundele
Youth, education, and Black-led AI futures. Ethos Lab.
2:45pm–3:15pmTalk
Talk: Simon Haworth
What AI is actually doing in medicine right now.
3:15pmBreak
3:30pm–5pm★ Working Session
Working Session: Ethics in motion
90-minute participatory session. Real artifacts come out.
5pmCoffee · break
5:30pm–6:30pmConversation
Conversation: "Build what lasts"
Creative AI and culture.
6:30pmDinner break · AI-art gallery in the foyer
7:30pm–11pm★ Film Festival
2nd Annual BC + AI Film Festival
11pmAfter-hours social
Fri Oct 30
Program Day Two + DEFRAG Night
The craft, the practice, and what comes next. DEFRAG wrap party included.
9:30amDoors · late breakfast
10am–10:10amTalk
Welcome back — Kris frames Day 2
10:10am–10:55amTalk
Talk: Filmmakers on the new craft
What AI does to making things.
10:55amBreak
11:10am–12:25pm★ Talk
Hackathon Demo Day
6 finalists, 5 minutes each + jury Q&A. Live community vote. Andrew Reid hosts.
12:25pmLunch
1:40pm–2:10pmTalk
Talk: A builder's voice
The practice — what's actually shipping.
2:10pm–3:10pmConversation
Conversation: "Where the craft is going"
3:10pmCoffee · community photo
3:30pm–5pm★ Keynote
Closing Keynote + Q&A
Q&A facilitated by Kris.
5pmReset
5:15pm–5:45pmCeremony
Squatchies 2026 — short and sweet
Names, cheers, hugs. ~30 minutes.
5:45pm–6pmTalk
Closing reflection
6pm–6:15pm★ Ceremony
Futureproof 2027 reveal
6:15pm–11:59pm★ Party
Metacreation DEFRAG wrap party
The festival closes with DEFRAG as the cultural after-hours anchor. Included with Festival Pass.
2027 reveal
The close is not an ending. It is a door into the full week.
The weekend earns the right to launch the 2027 weeklong festival by giving the first cohort shared language, shared memory, and a reason to keep building after the lights come up.
