VIATEC AI Meetup: Business Track

Schedule

Thu May 14 2026 at 11:30 am to 01:30 pm

UTC-07:00

Location

Fort Tectoria - Shaw Conference Room | Victoria, BC

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Join us as thought leaders & innovators gather to explore the cutting edge of artificial intelligence and its practical applications.
About this Event

Doors open at 11:30 and presentations start promptly at Noon.

Are you curious about how AI can transform your business and career? Join us at the VIATEC AI Meetup.

Everyone is welcome.

Join us for this fun and engaging session where Sarah Downey of Sarah Downey Consulting leads a session on:


Your AI Advisory Team

What's inside, how it's built, and how to start yours

What happens when you start working with generative AI as a team?

Sarah built ten named personas inside her AI - each with a defined role, a distinct voice, and deep context about how her business runs. A revenue strategist. A brand custodian. A sales partner. A systems architect. A strategic coach. Each one designed from scratch, drawing on real thought leaders in their field, and trained on everything from her financials to her values.

In this session she'll walk you through how she built it, what's actually inside each persona, and how to start thinking about what your version could look like. Then she'll run a live demo with the team working with audience questions.

You should care about persona teams because:

  • It changes what AI actually knows about you. A generic AI tool starts from zero every session. A persona team carries your business context, your voice, your constraints, and your goals. The difference in output quality is significant.
  • It's the design layer for the agentic future. Sarah built this in early 2024 knowing agents were coming. Each persona she designed - role, voice, rules, context - is essentially an agent's system prompt, already written. If you're thinking about agents, this is a useful starting place.
  • It forces the self-knowledge that makes AI useful. You can't design a good persona without knowing what you actually need, where you get stuck, and how you work best. That clarity pays off well beyond the AI setup.
  • It's transferable across platforms. Sarah has run versions of this in ChatGPT, Gemini, and Claude. The architecture moves. The thinking is what matters, not the tool.
  • It's one of a kind. Most people are prompting the same general-purpose model everyone else is using. A persona team is yours. Built for how your brain works and what your business needs.

Sarah will run a live demo during the session — bring your questions, your ideas, and your curiosity.



Feel free to grab a bite at the Fort Cafe, located on site.



About the Presenter:

Sarah Downey is the founder of Sarah Downey Consulting, an AI strategist and governance consultant known for helping nonprofit and social-impact organizations adopt AI with clarity and integrity.

With over 20 years of senior leadership experience and an Executive MBA in Strategic Leadership, she supports leaders in building practical AI policy, governance frameworks, and the organizational readiness to use these tools well.

Sarah has also spent the last two years building and refining her own AI advisory team - a cast of ten named personas spanning brand, revenue, sales, systems, and strategy - and now helps others design theirs.

She is certified in Professional Change Management and is known for making complex topics feel clear, grounded, and immediately useful. She is based in Victoria, BC.


About the Organizers:

This event is organized by Robert Cooper, Founder of PlusROI Online Marketing and Steve Harris, Founder of AI4Enterprise, along with the generous support of VIATEC.

This is your chance to connect, learn, and lead in the world of AI innovation.

Spots are limited—RSVP today and be part of Victoria’s AI-powered future!




Agenda

🕑: 11:30 AM - 12:00 PM
Coffee & Networking
🕑: 12:00 PM - 01:00 PM
Presentations
🕑: 01:00 PM - 01:30 PM
Networking & Discussion
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Where is it happening?

Fort Tectoria - Shaw Conference Room, 777 Fort Street, Victoria, Canada

Event Location & Nearby Stays:

Tickets

CAD 0.00

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