AI Meetup & The Squatchie Awards
Yeah, We're Calling Them The Squatchies
Because we're in British Columbia building something that doesn't fit the map. Something people talk about but can't quite pin down. Something wild, communal, and impossible to ignore once you see it.
Because "AI Excellence Awards" sounds like a keynote you'd skip.
Because if you're going to recognize homegrown intelligence—the artists, hackers, organizers, Indigenous technologists, open-source builders, and community leaders shaping BC's AI culture—you should do it with a name that makes people remember.
The Squatchies are what happens when a community stops waiting for permission and starts recognizing its own.
Seven Awards. One Night. Zero Bullshit.
Civic Impact: AI serving public benefit. Climate tools. Housing systems. Health access. Not markets. People.
Community Leadership: For the organizers, mentors, and hosts building the invisible infrastructure that holds everything together. The glue humans.
Indigenous Innovation: Indigenous-led projects advancing sovereignty, cultural knowledge, or language through technology. Leadership rooted in relationships, not extraction.
Creative AI: Work where AI becomes part of artistic practice. Music, visual art, performance, storytelling, design. Process matters as much as outcome.
Open Infrastructure: Tools, models, datasets contributed to the commons. The people who share so others can build.
Emerging Creator: Early-career or self-taught builders showing vision and velocity. No credentials required.
The Ender Memorial Award: For visionary work at the intersection of design, technology, and materials innovation. Fashion. Textiles. Aerospace. Wearable futures. The work that makes you ask: what becomes possible when design thinks ten years ahead? For Ender.
British Columbia is building something distinct and it's time the world saw it.
The AI story is being shaped by centralized power. We're showcasing local, community-driven intelligence.
Creators, educators, and organizers deserve recognition—not just startups and institutions.
Awards shape narratives. We're choosing one rooted in ethics, imagination, and impact.
The Process
Nominations Open: [DATE]
Anyone can nominate. You. Your collaborator. That person doing brilliant work who'd never nominate themselves.
Community Review: Diverse judges from across tech, arts, Indigenous leadership, academia, public service. People who build, not just comment.
Finalists Announced: Profiled across our channels and in a limited-run printed showcase. Documentation and storytelling, not just recognition.
The Ceremony: December 13, 2025 Storytelling, demos, performances, trophies. Not a gala. A gathering ritual of recognition for people shaping this moment.
Celebrating human-machine collaboration, homegrown intelligence, and the creative rebels shaping our shared future.
The BC + AI Squatchie Awards recognize radical thinkers, builders, artists, and changemakers pushing the boundaries of artificial intelligence in British Columbia.
British Columbia is a biome of intelligence... ecological, emotional, ancestral, and algorithmic. The BC+AI Awards shine a light on the minds and movements shaping the province’s distinct AI culture.
Hosted by the Kris Krüg, Vancouver AI & community-driven BC + AI industry association, the awards are not just a night of trophies. They're a ritual of recognition, a call to gather, and a statement of values for an ecosystem growing in the shadow of Big Tech—yet dreaming its own dream.
Want to Help?
We're looking for collaborators, curators, sponsors, performers, and visionaries. If this speaks to your spirit, come build it with us.
You feel that? That’s the sound of the future being locally sourced.
Let’s give it a stage. 🏆✨