GenAI Montreal X AI Collective Montreal - Where AI theory meets Montreal maker
Montreal builders, AI explorers, product people — we're back!
After an energizing event last month, GenAI Montreal is keeping the momentum going with something special. This time again, we’re teaming up with The AI Collective to bring you a fresh dose of real talk, real tools, and real results in the world of GenAI.
Let’s be honest — the AI space is crowded. Tools are everywhere. Claims are loud. But what actually works?
🎤 This September 10th, join us to hear from two experts who are using AI to create real impact:
Philippe Habra – AI Builder & MBA
Self-taught with 50+ certificates, I founded a medical data analytics company that grew to 9 people and won entrepreneurship competitions before ultimately failing. Later, as founding data scientist at a startup, I helped take the company from idea to successful product sale until COVID disrupted everything. After a corporate stint at Ubisoft doing data analytics, the birth of my daughter inspired me to pursue my entrepreneurial dreams again—leading me to start my AI agency.
Topic: Let’s talk about building AI agents. Does anyone really know how? The tech changes every five minutes and half the field seems brand new… or does it?
In this talk, I’ll share a very biased take from someone with 10+ years in data: what actually matters when building agents, what doesn’t, and the mistakes I made so you don’t have to make them (again).
Since I’m a fan of LangGraph and Claude Code, I’ll walk through how I use them—plus a few tricks that might be clever… or cautionary. You decide. See you there.Topic: The AI Tool Overload: How to Evaluate and Choose Wisely
New AI-powered coding tools and assistants are released every week — each claiming to revolutionize productivity. But with so many options and constant updates, just classifying these tools is hard enough, let alone keeping up with the features, and choosing the wrong tools can be very costly, both in terms of money and time.
In this talk, Jeremy will break down the key challenges of using generative AI for code generation. He’ll highlight the issues and traps inherent in using an LLM to generate code and the features that matter when selecting a tool that fits your team, your goals, and your workflow. This will help equip you to better navigate the rapidly changing landscape and take a practical approach to choosing your tool.
Cedric L'homme - Lead Software Developer at Osedea
With over 25 years of experience in software architecture and development. He specializes in helping clients in starting and develop their projects with an extensive experience in technical leadership and guiding teams through complex software implementations.
As co-organizer of Software Crafters Montreal, Cedric actively contributes to the local tech community, leading discussions on software craftsmanship. He spreads the good practice also internally as lead of the Software Design and Quality Team.
Topic: Insights on Context & Memory for a Supportive Assistant," offers a practical look into building a functional AI assistant. The primary focus is on a core challenge:
managing growing conversational context without overwhelming the system with data.
We'll explore a three-part journey:
Warm-up: How to begin a conversation with the right initial context to set a good foundation.
Good pace: Techniques for managing context as the conversation grows, including using summarizers to condense information and different types of memory (short-term, long-term, and persistent) to retain what's important.
Marathon: Strategies for accessing and using long-term memory, such as Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) for permanent knowledge and graph structures for information that changes over time.
We'll also touch on practical implementation details like adding audio capabilities and the importance of observability for evaluating an assistant's performance. This talk is for anyone interested in moving from theoretical concepts to building a practical, stateful AI application.
✨ Run of Show
5:30 PM – Doors open + mingle
6:00 PM – Talks + Q&A
7:00 PM – Networking, snacks, and vibes
Please arrive before 7pm because the building's doors will be closed.
As always, food and drink, engaging conversation, and incredible company will all be provided!
Please be advised: Unfortunately, space is very limited at these community events and we can not always accept everyone we would like to. If you are not accepted to this event, please keep applying! We appreciate your application tremendously and we are looking forward to seeing you at a future event very soon!
The AI Collective is a global non-profit community uniting 40,000+ pioneers – founders, researchers, operators, and investors – exploring the frontier of AI in major tech hubs worldwide. Through events, workshops, and community-led research, we empower the AI ecosystem to collaboratively steer AI’s future toward trust, openness, and human flourishing.
All attendees and organizers at AI Collective-affiliated events are subject to the AI Collective's Code of Conduct.