Beyond AI: Building Human-Centered Businesses in a Digital-First World
In a week of pitches, panels, and performances, this is a room designed for something different: honest conversation between people building things that actually matter to them, and who refuse to lose the human layer in the process.
The question we're sitting with: What did you choose to keep human when you could have automated it - and what happened?
Arrive + Land: You'll walk in mid-week, probably overstimulated. We start with a reset. Tea, breathwork, a moment to actually arrive in your body before we ask anything of your mind. No name tags with company logos. Just your name and what you're building that matters to you.
Lightning Provocations: A few builders take the floor for a few minutes each. No slides. No decks. Just a real answer to a real question: what did you keep human, and why?
Intentional Connection: Structured 1-on-1 conversations. The kind of conversations you came to Tech Week hoping to have but couldn't find in a room of 500.
Who this is for: Founders, operators, investors, designers, and builders working at the intersection of technology and human connection. People building software that strengthens relationships. Physical spaces that create belonging. Hybrid models that refuse to sacrifice depth for scale. If you're pro-technology and pro-human, you'll feel at home.
Who this is not for: People looking for a pitch event, a panel, or surface-level networking. This is an intimate, curated evening — applications are reviewed and the room is capped at 60.
What to expect: Warm lighting. Intentional sound. Elevated non-alcoholic and alcoholic drinks. Conversations that surprise you. A room full of people who actually want to be in the room. The kind of evening you'll still be thinking about on Friday.
Talk - Buy Me Love: Living Capital Amidst Collapse
Our old systems are collapsing. Let them go. We now have the ecological comprehension, cultural maturity, technological tools, and scientific insight to give life to systems and metrics that are realistic about ecological and human flourishing. More than a call to expanded awareness, this talk will describe actionable tools for devouring system shocks and spitting out abundance. By mapping your living capital beyond money, melting into luxurious cocreativity, maxxing your most luscious UX, and being met by lucid coconspirators, your organization can find long-term sustenance in chewy, real-world value flows that outlast brittle and inaccurate abstractions. Your work matters more than money can measure and for more than just this moment.
Bio: Rosebridges Starchuk Code is a large-scale systems architect interested in ecological flourishing through the liberation of emergent cocreativity, working from computer science, neuroeconomics, social neuroscience and psychosocial development. She has been realizing new, complex, and award-winning projects throughout twenty-five years in executive, creative and technical roles. Her writing has appeared in The Financial Times and she’s been a member of the Aspen Institute’s Virtually Human Working Group. She’s been featured in the Globe and Mail, BBC, Guardian, and others. She is now the founder of Oooooze Corp., Lespionage Corp., and Innerorbital Psychostructures Corp.
About Pluto:
Pluto is Toronto’s fourth space for founders, creators, and conscious operators - a curated community hub where work, wellness, and culture converge. We bring together ambitious people building meaningful things, offering a home for deep work, thoughtful connection, and transformative experiences that move ideas—and the people behind them—forward.
About Tech Week:
Toronto Tech Week is a citywide celebration of the people building what’s next. From May 25–29, 2026, founders, investors, and builders come together for hundreds of community-led events across Toronto, connecting tens of thousands of people around Canadian tech. Torontotechweek.com