CV + AI Community Meetup #2
Comox Valley AI Community Meetup
A local gathering for people trying to understand AI without the hype, the panic, or the sales pitch.
AI is already here. It is showing up in schools, studios, small businesses, local government, health care, creative work, and everyday conversations across the Valley.
Some people are building with it. Some are worried about it. Most of us are somewhere in between.
Comox Valley AI is a place to bring all of that into the same room.
We gather people from Courtenay, Comox, Cumberland, Campbell River and the wider Island to talk honestly about what these tools are doing to our work, our communities, our kids, our creativity, and our sense of what it means to be human.
This is not a tech bro meetup. It is not a pitch night. It is not a doom panel.
It is a room for local examples, practical questions, shared experiments, and real conversation.
Speakers
Craig Whitton, North Island College / Authentic Consulting
Craig works at the front edge of AI’s impact on education. His background spans student affairs, academic integrity, behavioural risk, accessibility, counselling, and big institutional change at North Island College. At the first Comox Valley AI meetup, he helped move the room past the usual “is AI cheating?” debate toward the better question: how does AI change teaching, learning, and the development of human beings?
Melisa “Mel” DiPietro, FlocknFir
Mel is an HR leader, coach, and founder of FlocknFir, a BC-based people consultancy focused on adaptability, wellbeing, critical thinking, and navigating change. She brings the human side of AI into the conversation: how people and teams make decisions under uncertainty, stay grounded through change, and build healthier ways of working while the tools keep shifting.
Colin Fitzgerald, Tree AI
Colin Fitzgerald joins us from Tree AI. More details coming soon, but the thread is exactly right for this room: practical AI meeting real-world systems, local knowledge, and the decisions people make outside the usual tech bubble. Placeholder for now: expect a grounded look at what AI can do when it leaves the demo screen and has to be useful in the world.
What To Expect
We’ll hear from people in the community who are already working with AI, affected by it, questioning it, or trying to make sense of it.
There will be time to meet people, ask questions, share what you’re seeing, and help shape what this local chapter becomes.
The first Comox Valley gathering brought out 75 people. Educators, artists, parents, founders, public servants, builders, skeptics, and curious neighbours all showed up.
That told us something simple: the Valley is ready for this conversation.
Who Should Come
Come if you are using AI every day.
Come if you are worried about jobs, privacy, kids, energy use, creativity, or who gets to shape these tools.
Come if you are an artist, educator, entrepreneur, student, parent, technologist, community organizer, public servant, or someone who has been quietly wondering where to start.
You do not need to be technical. You do not need to have a polished opinion.
Bring a question, a project, a concern, or a friend who does not usually come to this kind of thing.
About Comox Valley AI
Comox Valley AI is a regional chapter of BC + AI, a registered nonprofit building community-driven AI spaces across British Columbia.
The Vancouver chapter began with the same basic instinct: get thoughtful people in a room, keep the conversation open, and let useful things emerge.
The Island has its own shape. Slower, practical, creative, community-first.
That is the spirit here. Curious and critical. Both hands full. Real people figuring it out together.
The BC + AI Ecosystem Association is Canada's first community-powered AI association. We help businesses, institutions, and citizens navigate artificial intelligence through education, advocacy, and collaboration.
Guided by principles of ethics, inclusivity, transparency, and sustainability, we champion AI that serves public good from climate resilience and healthcare equity to Indigenous language revitalization and creative expression.
Comox Valley AI is a regional chapter of the BC + AI Ecosystem Association... a registered Canadian nonprofit building community-driven AI spaces across British Columbia.
What makes BC + AI different:
37% women members (not your typical tech crowd)
Diverse voices beyond Silicon Valley hype
Human-centered focus... education, fulfillment, better society
Space for both enthusiasm AND critique
Real conversations, not sales pitches
Learn more: bc-ai.ca
Get Involved
Want to help organize? Have ideas for topics? Know a great venue in the valley?
Contact: Kris Krüg, Executive Director
Email: [email protected]
BC + AI Ecosystem Association | Multi-modal, multi-cultural, radically local, and future-facing.