BC + AI Life Sciences: Taking action for the Downtown Eastside
Time for action on the Vancouver DTES
We are taking a slightly different route to normal this month and focusing the monthly meet-up on a single, critical topic: the DTES (Vancouver Downtown Eastside) work that the group is undertaking. DTES data expert Evan Reeks will give us his views and experience from the front line, supported by our very own Gordon Hamilton, Data for Good, and the BC+AI Life Sciences team members responsible for DTES projects.
How the evening moves
6:00: Doors open. Make a new connection?
6:30: Simon Haworth and Kris Krüg set the frame.
6:35: Supper is served.
6:45: Keynote: Evan Reeks. Harm reduction and substance addiction - a personal voice
7:30 PM: Update on AI Life Sciences DTES visit: Mauricio Penteado
7:35 Data collection, analysis and kit: Sara Taherzadeh
7:50 Fact Checker and the public record: Michel LeBlond
8:05 Biotech solutions: Simon Haworth
8:20 Fundraising and the Vancouver Macnab: Iain Begg8:30 The DTES panel
Facilitator: Simon Haworth
Panel: Gordon Hamilton + Evan Reeks9:00 PM: Formal close. The conversation keeps flowing as long as the wine.
WATCH OUT! We can fit in 30 people max and have had a waitlist every time so far. IF you register and can't make it then PLEASE tell us, at least 24 hours before the event, so that someone else can take your spot. At least 5 people have simply not turned each time in the past.
So ... our new policy for those who register but don't confirm in advance when they can't come? You will go to the bottom of the list for future events and only get confirmed on event day, if there is space.
Sorry (not sorry).
Simon H
The room behind the room
Approved BC + AI members receive a complimentary place at this meetup. Choose the BC + AI Members ticket and request approval.
Join or renew BC + AI membership
About the series
BC + AI Life Sciences brings together clinicians, researchers, healthcare operators, patient advocates, biotech and health-tech builders, data practitioners, policy people, and AI builders who care about what survives contact with the real world.
Simon Haworth of Intellomx helps lead the Life Sciences thread with Kris Krüg and BC + AI. Expect honest questions, useful connections, enough disagreement to make the evening worth leaving the house for, a decent supper and an outstanding action list.
About BC + AI
Part solarpunk R&D lab, part community potluck. BC + AI brings curious humans together to make things, ask hard questions, and have a say in where this technology takes us.
We’re a member-driven nonprofit building public-interest infrastructure for AI in British Columbia. A commons where meetups turn into working groups, prototypes turn into shared tools, and community values turn into governance. Vancouver AI was the first room. The work keeps growing through the people who show up and give a damn.
Multi-modal, multi-cultural, future-facing, and radically local.
Plug into the bigger organism
Bring the half-working thing. Somebody here might know what to do with it.
Membership helps keep this whole strange, useful organism alive. Bring a stuck project to Office Hours, find collaborators through the directory, or help start the working group you wish existed. Keep making things together between meetups.
Your dues help sustain the rooms, the connections, and the knowledge we put back into public.
Join BC + AI. Help build what happens next.
Other upcoming BC + AI events
See the full BC + AI calendar
More ways to take part
Find your community: Regional chapters and focused rooms across British Columbia.
Learn through a program: Responsible AI, animation, creative workflows, and local AI.
Explore what we make public: Guides, tools, reading trails, and shared knowledge.
Watch the recordings: Talks, demos, panels, and community work.
Stay in the loop
Get field notes, upcoming gatherings, program calls, and useful work from across the ecosystem.