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Anu’s take

The first one landed. Week 2 is the taxi to the gate. Prompt Victoria is Thursday, so consider this your pre-party.

Anu’s take

Two full days on clean, trustworthy data, if that's your job. Their website lists two different Vancouver hotels for the venue, so check the address with them before you book. And a heads up: their logo still says sixth annual, but this is the seventh, so I took that line off the picture on this card.

Anu’s take

Can't wait to co-host this event with Gabriel. This Claude community event is for everyone who has, currently or is thinking about using Claude. Most excited about seeing what people have built with Claude.

Anu’s take

The conference site ships a customizable justification letter you can send your manager, which tells you exactly who this is built for. The advisory board says the rest: Translink, WorkSafe BC, BC Pension Corporation, BCIT, Lululemon, Intact. This is enterprise and public sector project work, where the horizon is a fiscal year and nothing gets attended without an approval chain. Not the crowd you… The rest is on its page.

Anu’s take

Couldn't make it to the sold-out Victoria Tech Week edition. Looking forward to this one.

Anu’s take

Should be a good one, and the timing's perfect, two nights before Halloween! Anyone who's worked in tech long enough has a story they'd rather forget, and hearing someone else tell theirs out loud might save you from writing your own. Learning takes a culture that makes it safe to get things wrong, and a room full of people owning up to their worst days is about as safe as it gets. If you've ever… The rest is on its page.

Anu’s take

A breath of fresh coffee! It's open to everyone, from the climate-curious to the scientists, and it all happens before work on a Thursday. I think we need more breakfastish events in town.

Anu’s take

Wednesdays have historically been a little light on the Victoria tech calendar, so it'll be nice to have a regular Wednesday option. Looking forward to seeing how this new local event from a national organization evolves. Knowing who's leading the local charge bodes well for its future.

Anu’s take

I'm stoked to see Adam Haigler take the mic again. If you haven't had the opportunity to hear Adam, now's your opportunity. I'm on the Victoria Data Society board, so I'm not exactly neutral, but I can't recommend this event enough. If you use AI at work, you should be there. AI will give you a confident answer to whatever you ask it, so the people getting the most out of it are the ones who've… The rest is on its page.

Anu’s take

Connor was a very early adopter of AI-assisted coding, and has built an AI-assisted coding product that integrates with Linear. He's not out in public that often so grab the opportunity to be in a room with a local doer in the tech industry. Bummed I can't make it.

Anu’s take

Don's the new guy in the president's chair, and how great is it that you can drop in on a virtual call with the president of your local chapter? Come say hi and give him a warm welcome!

Anu’s take

The session that earns the day is the closing one, sorting $10 tasks from $1,000 decisions. Everyone can already tell which is which, and we all still do the $10 one first because it can be finished before lunch. A Friday booked out to make a couple of the expensive calls instead, with your own numbers in front of you, is the hardest thing on any owner's calendar to justify and usually the only… The rest is on its page.

Anu’s take

David was on this stage in March explaining what going AI-native means. He is back with the part that comes after the idea: where all that agent output actually lives. He is on a roll, and I suspect he is quickly becoming a regular on the Victoria speaking circuit.

Anu’s take

If Planner came with your Microsoft 365 licence and you've never opened the AI side of it, this is a good lunch hour to change that. Most people I work with were never actually trained on these tools. They were handed a login. Jeff is covering both Planner and ClickUp, and you may come away with one or two things to try that same afternoon. Grab your lunch and join in!

Anu’s take

Almost everything on the Where's Anu calendar happens in Victoria, which is its own kind of blind spot. The Island economy does not just run through Victoria, and the clue is in the name. For three days a year the rest of it shows up wearing name badges. That is worth the drive north on its own.

Anu’s take

So looking forward to talking about all things year-end payroll related. Richard is going to fill us all in on the bookkeeping magic we need to invoke to get this done right the first time...I hope. If the responsibility of generating T4s lands on your desk every winter, come along.

Anu’s take

If you lead engineers, this one's worth your Monday evening. I treat AI as a confident first drafter that gets you most of the way there, and the rest still takes someone who knows what good looks like. You may not leave with answers, but you'll likely find others working through the same questions. If you think you fit the bill and want to be in the room, contact Rob Bennett and let him know you… The rest is on its page.

Anu’s take

If you've read The Alignment Problem, this is a chance to hear Brian Christian work through it in person. I use AI every day, and I still believe it's no substitute for professional judgment. Who decides what these systems should value is a question for all of us, so bring yours.

Anu’s take

In addition to the leaves changing colour, scratch that, we're not in Ontario anymore, the one thing I look forward to in the fall is regular Green Drinks programming. I'm especially looking forward to this one as it's the first one since the Victoria Tech Week gala. Curious to chat with people post-VTW26 hangover.

Anu’s take

This is going to be a good one. So looking forward to joining my fellow Victoria Data Society board members in bringing this event to Victoria. It's well overdue, and think of it as primer leading up to the Prompt Victoria AI conference in November.

Anu’s take

Students finishing computer science programs, and those thinking of starting, keep asking me if AI is hurting their chances. The job hunt feels harder, and some are rethinking it altogether. I understand the worry, but I'm optimistic. AI will speed up the work and make it better, but it still takes someone who knows the field to decide what's worth doing and catch it when it's wrong, so there has… The rest is on its page.

Anu’s take

BSidesVI is nineteen days before this one, so October is when the debriefs land. The listing already expects lessons learned and things that didn't quite work, which is the half of any conference nobody submits as a talk. Looking forward to that, among other things.

Anu’s take

I have way too much fun with their workshops. I can't even begin to imagine what their social is going to be like.

Anu’s take

Five kilometres and 350 metres, which is Finlayson's shape with a little taken off the top. It falls on the Sunday of the long weekend, so the real question is not the climb but whether you want it in your legs the day before Thanksgiving dinner.

Anu’s take

Should be a good one. If there's a decision you keep pushing to next week, this is the place to bring it, and you may leave with a good next move, or at least find out that you're not the only one faced with challenging decisions. If you think you fit the bill and want to be in the room, contact Rob Bennett and let him know you heard about it on Where's Anu.

Anu’s take

Data & Beer has left the brewery. Phillips in September, a bistro inside a billiards hall on Douglas this time, and a shorter walk from most desks at five o'clock. It lands the day after TEDxVictoria, so the room should arrive still chewing over somebody else's ideas, with no agenda here to compete.

Anu’s take

A skill used to mean something a person spent years acquiring. Now it is a folder of plain text that runs the same on Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini or Copilot. The last time I was on a panel in this room, the question was which platform to back. This is the first answer I have seen that holds whichever one you pick.

Anu’s take

It's fall, school is back, and STEM is front and centre. This open house is worth a look, and it's the first of back-to-back Wednesdays in October where STEM is in the conversation, followed by Future Innovators. My fellow Victoria Data Society board member Alyssa Foote is a Senior Laboratory Instructor in this program, which UVic started in 1981 as Canada's first health informatics program. Know… The rest is on its page.

Anu’s take

TEDx! Enough said. It's back for another year, and you don't have to get on a boat to be there in person.

Anu’s take

TEDxVictoria opens at nine the next morning, which makes this the last ordinary Tuesday before the week becomes an occasion. Laptops, a table in a billiards hall, nobody with a talk prepared. The lack of an occasion is the point.

Anu’s take

Show Your Work was last Tuesday, and naming the one after it No Victory Lap is a pointed piece of scheduling. "Back to the lab," says the description. Whatever last week earned you, the calendar has already moved on.

Anu’s take

Three thousand members, a claimed two hundred billion in collective impact behind them, and volunteers running the whole thing since 2015. Bohdan is in from Toronto for two hours of it. People who build something that size rarely make themselves this easy to meet.

Anu’s take

Most of the cost here is decided before you start, by which level a contract lands you on. Canada's own programme runs 13 controls at Level 1, 98 at Level 2 and 200 at Level 3, and the top two are still under development. So the useful hour is the one that tells you which of those you are looking at, rather than how to pass it.

Anu’s take

Eight kilometres with 250 metres of climbing, which on paper is the easiest week yet. The difficulty has moved rather than gone: it is in the roots and rock underfoot the whole way, and in a forty-five minute drive, the longest this schedule has asked for.

Anu’s take

Unfortunately I won't be able to attend, but am there in spirit. Please have some pancakes in my honour. Just kidding. Anything will do.

Anu’s take

I went to the Victoria edition of this one and came away genuinely impressed, which is not a given with conferences. A few of the takeaways have stuck with me all year. Amaan puts on a good day, and it is worth the drive, or the transit, out to Surrey. I will catch the next Victoria edition myself.