The mood at Northeastern University Vancouver on October 6 felt equal parts celebration and strategy session. The city’s AI leaders had just returned from Montreal, where Team BC—more than 60 companies strong—made its presence felt at ALL IN, Canada’s largest artificial intelligence conference. The evening, hosted by the AI Network of British Columbia (AInBC) and moderated by Playbook principal Kathleen Reid, was billed as a debrief. In practice, it became something bigger: a collective reckoning about where British Columbia stands in the national AI landscape—and what must happen next.

“Team BC staged an effective takeover of the ALL IN event,” said Rob Goehring, executive director of AInBC, recalling how the group outnumbered every other provincial delegation. “We kind of got on everyone’s radar,” he added. “Now the challenge is to turn that momentum into meaningful business meetings and long-term impact.”

Around him sat some of the most plugged-in voices in the province’s AI scene: Edoardo De Martin, CEO of Industrio AI; Ryan Monsurate, co-founder and CTO of Farpoint Technologies; and Priya Bains, chief revenue officer of Strategic Thinking Systems. Together with policymakers like Rick Glumac, Minister of State for Artificial Intelligence and New Technologies, they reflected on what ALL IN revealed about Canada’s shifting AI priorities—and the gaps BC still needs to close.