Event Archive

Anu's Take

If marine tech is your wheelhouse, register now and worry about the details later, because there are none yet. Speakers and programme are both still to come, so what you actually have to go on is the topic and the person running it. That second part is enough. Chris has been running Green Drinks Victoria for years and I do not think I have been to one of his that was not worth the evening.

Anu's Take

A full day of Microsoft 365, Copilot and AI sessions across three tracks. Last year's debut sold out and I'd expect this one to as well. The quiet reminder underneath all of it: most of the Copilot features on stage are already sitting inside licences people pay for every month and have never opened. A summit like this earns its keep if the room goes home and finally turns the thing on.

Anu's Take

Introduce yourself with your favourite colour in hex and the room learns more about you than a job title would. #FF0000 is a personality. So is having to go and look one up. It is the rare icebreaker that is actually about the work rather than around it.

Anu's Take

The demo night the week before gives you ten minutes and a room. This one gives you a long build block and no timer, which is where somebody actually sits down with your project and asks what you were stuck on. New Work is an honest name for the night after you have shown the old one.

Anu's Take

Side by side asks a lot less of you than face to face, which is the whole trick of putting a meetup on a footpath. Toast has been running these here since 2024. Clover Point is where this town flies its kites, so there will be wind and there will be the Olympics across the water.

Anu's Take

The best restaurant recommendation is the one that ends in a booking, and #food has finally made one. Korean BBQ is the right call for this crowd, because the grill is on your table and the meal becomes a group project rather than a spectator sport. If you have been reading the channel for two years and never posting, this is the low-effort way in.

Anu's Take

Jonathan's checkers program did not just take the world title and a place in the Guinness Book of World Records, it went on to solve the game outright: perfect play is a draw, and that is that. Games have been AI's proving ground ever since, from Chinook to the chatbots writing everyone's emails, with a detour through Halo, whose AI sidekick Cortana later turned up on Microsoft's payroll. A lunch hour with the rare person who actually reached the end of a game, back to explain why the field keeps starting new ones.

Anu's Take

Show Your Work is the one format where you have to answer for what you actually built, so I'm looking forward to it. What I'll be showing is still to be determined. Be there or be square.

Anu's Take

Best room in town for old development languages and terminal clients, and I do not mean that as nostalgia. The people who learned on those tools ask different questions, and this is one of the few weeknights where nobody hurries them to the point. Current projects still get the table, the tangents are just older than average.

Anu's Take

This one's going to be epic. I was at last year's, about 60 people showed, and the winner, Calum Bird, built an app that connected to his bank account and an SMS service to track his spending and text him a burn whenever he made a bad call. The poorer the spending decision, the bigger the burn. It was brilliant.

Anu's Take

"Some food and drinks" is doing a lot of quiet work in that sentence. Superteam Canada is Solana's Canadian chapter, it hands out grants and runs a pre-accelerator, and there is a Solana prize track sitting on Codechella's agenda the next morning. It is not billed as a scouting night, but Friday before a hackathon usually is one.

Anu's Take

Founder Friday Walks: three August Fridays up PKOLS for women business owners, built by Kaila Pilecki and Nicole Crone. Business talk on the trail. If this is for you, passing it on.

Anu's Take

So sad I can't attend this one, because Calum Bird and Daniel Kopaee are both rockstars. Ontology basics beside LLM security is a sharper pairing than it looks: one is about naming things precisely enough for a machine to use them, the other about what happens to what you hand it. It is also always great to spend time with Geoff Shera at Frontier.

Anu's Take

Every stakeholder alignment exercise I have been part of produced a wall of sticky notes and a promise to synthesize them later. Later is usually never. Here the synthesis happens in the room, in seconds, and the humans keep the judgement calls. That is the version of AI I can get behind.

Anu's Take

The Vancouver Microsoft 365 crowd has set aside two hours to just talk to each other before September's summit, which is a rarer format than it sounds. The tell is buried in the logistics: someone waits in the lobby to take you up to the 14th floor. Plenty of groups call themselves welcoming and then leave you guessing which elevator. If the Microsoft stack pays your bills, this is the room where you find out who else in the city is solving the same problems.

Anu's Take

The quietest line in this agenda is 'responsible, accurate corrections', which is the polite way of saying the numbers get changed after they are collected. Everybody does it. Almost nobody has a process that holds up when someone asks about it a year later, and that is the gap worth two hours.

Anu's Take

All levels, all stacks, one long table. If you've been meaning to start something and keep not starting it, this is a low-stakes place to type line one.

Anu's Take

Work In Progress is a status rather than a topic, and naming a night after it takes the pressure off. Nobody is expected to arrive with a result. Momentum counts, which is a lower bar than finished and a considerably higher one than interested.

Anu's Take

Saturday. Will there be fireworks?

Anu's Take

Fifty-seven graduates, twenty-two projects, and complimentary burgers and hot dogs on the patio. If you're hiring juniors, four hours here beats four weeks of resumes, and nobody has learned to call a group project "cross-functional delivery leadership" yet. The timelines are still refreshingly optimistic, which is honestly the part I'd hire for. I'll be there.

Anu's Take

Passing this one on. Kaila Pilecki and Nicole Crone built Founder Friday Walks for women business owners: three Friday mornings in August, hiking PKOLS, with the business talk happening on the way up.

Anu's Take

If there is a leadership decision you have been carrying around for a year, this is the room for it. July opened the floor and nearly every problem turned out to be a people problem, so August goes one level up, to the talent on the leadership team itself. The format opens with a report back on whether last month's advice worked or got quietly ignored, which is more accountability than most peer groups ask for. No recordings, no notetakers, no broadcasting, which in 2026 is the whole reason anyone says the real thing.

Anu's Take

Worth the early alarm, as long as you check the channel before you set it. I turned up for the first Friday, learned the date had moved the night before, and had a quiet coffee for my trouble. A breakfast that lives in Slack has no event page to correct you, which is the charm and the catch at once. Pancakes deferred, not cancelled.

Anu's Take

Rooftop patio, patio, patio.

Anu's Take

AI turned up in classrooms a good while before anyone wrote the rules for it, which is roughly how these things always go. This session steps back from the panic to ask what it actually means for students, parents, and the people who will eventually be hiring them. A lunch spent on a genuinely hard question, which beats another one spent pretending it isn't one.

Anu's Take

The last one sold me. Great spot, great group, and the room runs from fresh grads to post-retirement, with the talk landing anywhere between AI-assisted coding, punch cards and ham radio operators. If that sounds like fun, this is the place to be. Wednesday is burger and beer night at the pub, as well.

Anu's Take

Peak summer, and the code crowd still turns up to a billiards hall on a weeknight. Says something about this group, or about nobody's ability to leave a side project alone.

Anu's Take

Worth the Tuesday for the title alone, which is an instruction rather than a topic. Most build nights quietly want the finished thing; this one asks for the part that is still stuck. Harder to walk in with, more useful to leave with.

Anu's Take

iWIST's summer celebration for the Island's women in STEM, with three student scholarships handed out on the night. Passing it along.

Anu's Take

I look forward to the monthly CPB Victoria regional network meeting. For bookkeepers, and for the financial plumbing that keeps a business upright, I have not found a room with this much open conversation and genuine support in it. This month brings sixteen drivers of profit and cash flow, put to a room of people who, in their own practices, mostly are the machine. That gives me no reason not to go.

Anu's Take

Microsoft spent years letting somebody else's lab be its AI story. There are seven models with its own name on them now, and the launch post makes a point of saying they were trained from scratch with nothing distilled from another lab. That is a sentence you only write when people have been asking, so I would rather hear the team that built them talk through it than read it again.

Anu's Take

On paper this is a low-key Saturday in a City community room, free snacks, no experience required, which rather undersells it. It is the Island's doorway into a global contest that drew over eight hundred projects last year and pays the winner six figures. The snacks are real, but so is the leaderboard.

Anu's Take

Business networking has a default setting: a room, a projector, and a name tag by the door. Kaila Pilecki and Nicole Crone built something else, specifically for women business owners: three Friday mornings on PKOLS, with the business talk happening on the way up. If this is for you, passing it on.

Anu's Take

Worth knowing about, and very hard to find out about. The only public trace is a recurring entry on the YYJ Tech calendar created back in 2017, with an RSVP link pointing at a Meetup group that went quiet in 2022. The event is still going regardless. The pub, at least, is easy to find.

Anu's Take

For all my Nanaimo contacts, this event may be for you. I met Graham a year ago or so at the Victoria version of this event, and have made the trip to attend. Great spot, great people, great conversation. It's worth a look.

Anu's Take

Bring a problem, not a plan. Nobody minds if you spend the whole night stuck on one bug, which is more grace than most Tuesdays offer.

Anu's Take

There is something appealing about a night whose centrepiece is ninety minutes of nobody presenting. Just people building next to each other, with demos and feedback to close it out. "Back to the lab" is a good note to end an invitation on.

Anu's Take

Every industry says it wants community. Toast went and built one: women in tech, by women in tech, meeting in person. If this is for you, passing it on.

Anu's Take

Most companies say they are data-driven and mean they own a dashboard nobody opens. Games run the real version, because when the numbers are wrong the players simply leave, and no quarterly narrative will talk them back. The AAA versus indie split is the part worth showing up for: same questions, wildly different budgets, and the small studios cannot buy their way out of thinking.

Anu's Take

The one I look forward to every month. The range of what people bring, and the thinking behind it, is worth the evening on its own. It's a crowd pleaser, and the turnout of non-regulars says so.

Anu's Take

Tuesday, laptop, pool hall. The format hasn't changed in years, which is exactly why it still works. Intros at 6:15 if you want to know who else showed up.

Anu's Take

Somewhere along the line, going outside turned into something you book, with a start time and a parking lot. I am not sure whether that is progress or a quiet cry for help, but I do know that a week at the keyboard has a way of making a forest sound like a very reasonable idea. Mount Newton has no unread threads, no standup, and no opinion about your branch names, which is more or less the entire pitch.

Anu's Take

Two short talks at UVic: Glen Pierce on building judgement, and Nick Hepner on why the tech community is worth showing up for, which apparently still needs saying out loud. I'll be there for the community part. Technology changes. People are still the point.

Anu's Take

Quantum is probably going to be what overshadows AI in the buzzword and craze category. I can't get enough of it right now.

Anu's Take

First-time visitor, long-time watcher. I've been showing up to OpenHack Victoria for a while, and I've been meaning to make the run up to Duncan for the Cowichan edition. Weather's good, so this one's a two-wheel trip. Shiny side up.

Anu's Take

No slides, no agenda. An hour on Zoom with the person who knows how the chapter actually runs. Billed as her last office hours as President, though she's just been elected President-Elect, so read 'last' loosely.

Anu's Take

Best chicken fingers in town are here, at least so far. Let me know if you find something better.

Anu's Take

A hundred and ten editions in, and the invitation is refreshingly blunt: show up building something, or this one isn't for you. There's a quiet confidence in a Tuesday co-working night that's willing to turn browsers away. "The Next Order" is a grand name for a room of people shipping side projects after work, and that gap between the billing and the reality is most of the charm.

Anu's Take

Code is becoming the cheap part. This is where Victoria's senior engineering leaders figure out what the job even is once the agents are writing it.

Anu's Take

Get your Power Skills PDUs here.

Anu's Take

Jason's repping Vancouver Island alongside PMI chapters from Brazil, Mexico, and the U.S. Four countries swapping notes, one PMI community, and 2.5 Power Skills PDUs for joining in. Do you PMP?

Anu's Take

Feels like we optimized for connection and accidentally optimized out the humans. Curious if we can design AI that nudges us back toward each other instead of just making us more efficient at being alone.

Anu's Take

I'm working on something. Building in public is hard.

Anu's Take

Still the best place in town if you want to get deep into the weeds of coding languages and related software from days gone by.

Anu's Take

It's been too long. Can't wait to get in the room with this crew.

Anu's Take

Gotta wonder if anything looney comes up in that room.

Anu's Take

Time to get out and play. A ballgame with the whole tech community is about as easy as networking gets, and exactly my kind of low-effort night out.

Anu's Take

Always a great chance to come hang out with the Data and AI folks, from the curious right through to senior practitioners.

Anu's Take

Video is where it's at this year. Well, that's what TikTok told me.

Anu's Take

Always a good midweek reason to bring the laptop out. There's usually a conversation or two worth having.

Anu's Take

Finally! I can make it. Said no one for 07:30 breakfast meeting!

Anu's Take

I might actually have something to show off this week. Be there or be square.

Anu's Take

This is the post mini-con afterparty. VDS seems to be having lots of these, conferences I mean.

Anu's Take

Data and AI oh my!

Anu's Take

GPT-2. What is that?

Anu's Take

Data Visualization is so key these days.

Anu's Take

This is the room to be in if you want to know what's coming down the pipe and how the dev shops of the future will build software. Be there or be square.

Anu's Take

Data, beer, and games. Can't wait to check out Glitch.

Anu's Take

Jamie is a Gem. Nuff said!

Anu's Take

$100 discount code for VDS members. DM me to get it. This is going to be epic. Plus I'm there as well. It's not often that an Anthropic Claude Certified Architect rolls into town. Let alone one putting on a workshop for the general public.

Anu's Take

As if a day of data talk wasn't enough. Be there or be square.

Anu's Take

Whoa! Microsoft's in the house!

Anu's Take

Avatars? This is going to be interesting.

Anu's Take

Payroll. I could be wrong, but paying your staff on the regular is probably the best way to keep them.

Anu's Take

Jeremy Moseley in the house. Fresh off of Microsoft Build. What else might we hear about?

Anu's Take

Post Microsoft Build Day 1, there might be a conversation or two.

Anu's Take

I can guarantee there will be a number of game changing announcements. Peter Steinberger, creator of the OpenClaw AI agent system, as a featured speaker. Enough said.

Anu's Take

Beer, craft beer, beer, and a view.

Anu's Take

Veilstream has found a way to make data masking easy and fun!

Anu's Take

TEDx Salon like for the HR crowd? What could go wrong?

Anu's Take

AI generated code is increasing at an exponential rate, but the token cost may be increasing at an even faster rate.

Anu's Take

I'm up and will be showcasing my framework for reducing the chaos of data sprawl in your Microsoft 365 environment.

Anu's Take

It's IMM not Eminem, and it stands for Impact Measurement and Management.

Anu's Take

Continuing the long weekend relaxation with a little more chill and code. Just not at home and not at the office.

Anu's Take

Curious about AI personas?

Anu's Take

Number 100! Wow. Sold-out during Web Summit? Wow, Wow!

Anu's Take

They are encouraging questions. Most know better than to allow me in a room where I can ask questions. See you there. I hear my friend Gerry Lalonde will be in attendance. This meeting might go down a rabbit hole of exit planning with the two of us in the room.

Anu's Take

Ah, if you don't know about this conference. Do you exist?

Anu's Take

Karaoke. Did you hear me Karaoke. Be there or be square.

Anu's Take

Funding source: At least 50% of project funding must come from non-government sources, AKA = You!

Anu's Take

1 more to a 100. Will they make it?

Anu's Take

AI hmmm. I might know a thing or two about this. Maybe three or four.

Anu's Take

In partnership with Redbrick.

Anu's Take

Good old OG fun. And they meet Wednesday's in the Cowichan Valley. Come and talk to myself or Shane about the VIATEC Software Leadership Roundtable. You may just be able to your eyeballs on a Framework laptop at this event.

Anu's Take

To be or not to be. What is AI?

Anu's Take

Come hear from a true communications O.G. New to Victoria, but not to comms. This one is not to miss. Might need a bigger room.

Anu's Take

Cursor. One of the top new agentic coding tools to help you get more done in less. Cursor is probably the best all around agentic enabled coding tool. Based on VS Code.

Anu's Take

Privacy and security. Hmmm! Let's see what's new.

Anu's Take

Good old OG fun. And they meet Wednesday's in the Cowichan Valley. Come and talk to myself or Shane about the VIATEC Software Leadership Roundtable.

Anu's Take

Excel, Google Sheets, Xlookup and other advanced spreadsheet stuff we can all learn a little bit more about.

Anu's Take

Not to be missed. Get out and support!

Anu's Take

And for something different. This is our first time at Peacock Billiards. On the fence? It's time to dive-in and hang with this fantastic group.

Anu's Take

This one is for software product managers and anyone leading teams of developers. Come be a part of the future of anything that needs code to work.

Anu's Take

I'm looking forward to this engineering and then a movie.

Anu's Take

Note the Western Neon cowboy vibe. Get it!

Anu's Take

The OG Victoria tech community is at it again. Happy to collaborate with the via VDS on the most recent mentorship program.

Anu's Take

AI-native eh! What does that mean?

Anu's Take

Samantha knows a thing or two. She's in the data governance department at BC Ferries and CDMP educator.

Anu's Take

Ready for a deepdive on the SRED program. I am. Anyone performing scientific work and or developing functionally new products needs to attend this. Plus it's Kwench. How often do I attend events here?

Anu's Take

Celebration of innovation, collaboration, and all things Power Platform. Eh! Should be a good one. Great lineup!

Anu's Take

I also get to accept the Malahat Skywalk tickets I won earlier this month. Yeeha!

Anu's Take

Always moving and at Frontier this week. Been a couple weeks since I chilled with this group. Looking forward to catching up.

Anu's Take

Looking forward to seeing a bunch of new faces. This will be a great opportunity to provide feedback on VTN26 and what people think VTN27 should look like.

Anu's Take

The perfect time and place to see local Microsoft advocate Anu (Me) go head to head with three other multi-disciplinary genAI experts. Guaranteed to see Steve and I butt heads.

Anu's Take

The last session was very diverse and amazing collection of individuals. I can't wait to get back into it this week.

Anu's Take

Been going to Victoria equivalent. Looking forward to attending this Nanaimo iteration of this event.

Anu's Take

Trying something new has resulted in the first quarterly lunch event.

Anu's Take

Pitch and mingle. What could go wrong?

Anu's Take

Wow! This is....wait for it...going to be epic!

Anu's Take

I got the scoop. VTN26 is officially kicked-off. Tech, Sports, Hackathon. What more could one ask for.

Anu's Take

This is going to be a blast. Especially with ELdjLOCO MC'ing. Like Vegas without the hangover.

Anu's Take

Data and dating? Is dataing a word. What does it mean if I live by a bagel shop.

Anu's Take

Legacy, IBM mainframe. Geez, IBM and legacy in the same sentence is an understatement. Leave it to a Canadian firm to sort out IBM. If only Fresche had been around when the Phoenix pay system was being scoped.

Anu's Take

Always a good one, eh!

Anu's Take

Early bird gets the worm as my dad used to say! For those who are driven enough to get up early. Fantastic group with some overlap from the Sidney Breakfast Club. Only closer to home.

Anu's Take

Data is everywhere. If you are a knowledge worker, this is the Victoria crew you want to hang with. You might just get insight into how to turn that .csv export into a something useful.

Anu's Take

I'm a little biased on this one, as wait for it. I'm the one presenting.

Anu's Take

Having personally designed, deployed, and supported remote work technologies since the 99. Spoiler I'm a proponent of remote and hybrid work environments, as long as the appropriate controls and reporting structure are in place

Anu's Take

Hear directly from Jesse about why the RUH AI platform should be the platform to run your digital workforce on.

Anu's Take

Where local builders go to build, and I'm not talking about construction. Although that industry is definitely mentioned.

Anu's Take

If you're providing outputs that the Canadian Government or Military use, you might as well figure out how to put your hat in the ring. Be there or be square.

Anu's Take

Output of the Green Drinks Victoria crew.

Anu's Take

- Sold Out -

Anu's Take

Sponsored by Trelent

Anu's Take

This is the Victoria OG hang and code group. I'm looking to dive into Claude Code or Clawdbot