AI Happy Hour at FriendsQuarters #5: Summer's End
AHH FQ: AI Happy Hour at FriendsQuarters, September Edition.
AHH FQ is a monthly, 3rd-Friday drop-in at FriendsQuarters for the BC + AI community.
Come through after work, grab the drink that comes with your ticket, and talk to the people making this city more interesting.
Yes, the initials are doing what you think they are doing. Then we get back to the room.
No panel. No pitch circle. Just a room for chats, hangouts, and drinks, for the 5th month in a row.
What This Is
This is not a lecture night. It is not a demo day. It is not a room full of people that came for the name tags.
It is a regular Friday happy hour: drop in, see the regulars, say hi to the new people, stand at the bar (or hang outside and greet people with Kris), compare notes, ask the question you have been wanting to ask. Stay 20 minutes or stay the whole time.
BC + AI already has talks, labs, office hours, courses, and meetups. AHH FQ is the loose space between all that. The place where the side conversation gets its own night.
Why FriendsQuarters
Dean and the FriendsQuarters crew invited this community into their space because FQ is already part co-working room, part media shop, part event floor, and part neighborhood hangout.
FQ 116 has the right bones for this: brick, hardwood, atrium light, a bar, a media setup, and enough Gastown weirdness around the edges to keep it honest. It feels like a Vancouver room, not a hotel ballroom.
Who It's For
BC + AI regulars. FQ members. Builders, artists, researchers, founders, operators, designers, policy people, funders, teachers, students, skeptics, and the friend who keeps asking what this stuff is doing to work, art, power, and daily life.
You don't need a pitch. You don't need a deck. You don't need to be working on a startup. Bring a real question, a generous ear, or someone who should meet the room.
How It Works
Arrive anytime between 4:00 and 7:00 PM.
Your $10 CAD ticket includes one drink.
Capacity is capped at 60 so the room still feels human.
No stage, no speaker list, no forced intros.
The bar will have alcoholic and non-alcoholic options.
Come Work From FQ First
Your ticket includes access to the FriendsQuarters members lounge earlier the same day. Bring your laptop, get the last thing of the week done from FQ, and stay right where you are when the bar opens at 4:00. Check in at the front desk when you arrive.
Kris will be working from the lounge that afternoon, so come find him, or just claim a couch and get your own thing done until the room fills up.
This Month
September is for the half-autumn, half-still-in-denial crowd. The founders are pretending their calendars make sense again, the creatives are plotting their Q4 masterpieces, and somebody always starts a debate about whether it's officially sweater weather yet.
Details
When: Friday, September 18th, 2026, 4:00-7:00 PM
Where: FriendsQuarters (FQ) 200-116 West Hastings St, Vancouver
Tickets: $10 CAD. Includes one drink. Registration required. Capacity: 60.
Cadence: 3rd Friday at FQ.
Hosted by Kris Krüg and the BC + AI community with Dean Lariviere and FriendsQuarters.
The Hosts
FriendsQuarters is an event and co-working space on the edge of Gastown, with exposed brick, a bar, a back patio, and a podcast studio, run by Dean and Krista on the principle that friends make work. It is BC + AI's second home in downtown Vancouver.
BC + AI, led by Kris Krüg, is a grassroots network of educators, technologists, artists, and community builders shaping a uniquely BC approach to AI, rooted in accessibility, community, and ethical design.
Questions or want to get involved? kk@bc-ai.ca
New to BC + AI? See the rest of the calendar: https://luma.com/vancouver-ai