Women of Novus launches for female builders

Sitting on a grass field at Kitsilano Beach on a Saturday, Ardelis Yeung confessed to a group of Novus members why she had yet to join their weekly meetups, where builders co-work, demo, and make new connections. These take place in private spaces — empty offices, condo amenity rooms, and even apartments offered by their network — which the group turns into innovation hubs on weekends. That day was their first social, open to anyone in Vancouver's tech and innovation scene. When the community advocate and content and design strategist explained that she didn’t attend their other events because she wasn’t developing anything, they encouraged her to come anyway, insisting that “community building is still building.”

“I love that everyone is so supportive and so respectful, even though they know who I am and what I don't do,” Yeung tells the Vancouver Tech Journal about attending Novus as a creator who doesn’t have a technical background. “They're so welcoming. It is so beautiful that I can be in this space and flourish. If I need help with anything, people don't hesitate to offer. I could literally just lean over [and ask].”