Vancouver is having a moment. Web Summit, one of the world’s largest tech conferences, has chosen our city for the second year running, bringing 15,000+ founders, investors, and global tech leaders to the Vancouver Convention Centre next week.
But ask anyone who attended last year, and they’ll tell you the standout event of Web Summit week wasn’t at the Convention Centre at all.
It was Vancity Innovation House and it’s coming back bigger on May 12.
Built in Vancouver for the world
Co-presented by Frontier Collective and Vancity, Vancity Innovation House is a curated day-and-evening program designed for the kind of conversations that don’t happen on a 15,000-person convention floor. Last year’s edition drew more than 2,600 attendees, including leaders from Google, OpenAI, the United Nations, Grammarly, Clio, and lululemon.
This year’s lineup is sharper still. Confirmed speakers include Gary Marcus, the AI scientist and author of Rebooting AI; Greg Twinney, CEO of Burnaby-based fusion energy company General Fusion; Olympic gold medalist and Revvel co-founder Jennifer Heil; Taylor Black from Microsoft’s Office of the CTO; Rika Nakazawa, Chief Commercial Innovation Officer at NTT; Lu Zhang of Fusion Fund; and Alice Brooks of Khosla Ventures.
The fact that names of this calibre are coming to Vancouver, not San Francisco, not New York, says something about where this city sits on the global innovation map right now.
The Vancouver story behind the room
Frontier Collective, the platform behind the event, was instrumental in attracting Web Summit to Vancouver in the first place. Founded and led by Dan Burgar, FC has spent six years building global corridors connecting Vancouver to New York, Tokyo, London, and beyond, and has helped facilitate close to $950 million in deals, investments, and economic impact along the way.
“The most important technology in the world is still a room full of the right people,” Burgar has said of the FC model. Innovation House is that idea made physical: vetted, intentional, and built around the conversations Vancouver founders actually need to have.
What’s happening at Vancity Innovation House on May 12
The day kicks off with morning workshops, followed by panels and fireside chats covering the questions actually keeping founders and investors up at night: how to sort signal from noise in AI, whether ESG has become the new energy security, and how capital is really flowing through Canada right now.
The Vancity Pitch Competition puts 10 early-stage Canadian founders on stage competing for a $20,000 prize. Last year’s competition was a launchpad moment for the winner. This year’s finalists will be announced on May 1.
The day closes with a curated rooftop reception bringing speakers, founders, and investors together for the kind of unstructured connection that conferences rarely deliver well.
How to attend Vancity Innovation House in Vancouver
Vancity Innovation House runs May 12 in downtown Vancouver. Tickets and the full speaker lineup are available at vancityinnovationhouse.com. The evening reception requires a separate RSVP.
For Vancouverites who’ve watched this city quietly become a serious node in the global innovation map, May 12 is the day to see it in person.
Event Details
📅 Date: May 12, 2026
📍 Location: Downtown Vancouver
🎟️ Tickets & More Info: vancityinnovationhouse.com
🥂 Evening Reception RSVP: Via Luma
