From Founder to Funded: Interactive Q&A with Brian Bell

Ready to become your own boss—but don’t want to build a business entirely on your own? Join fellow entrepreneurs, business builders, and opportunity seekers at the Franchise Canada Show Toronto — Fall 2026, Canada’s premier franchise exhibition. This free event brings leading franchise brands, experienced operators, and industry experts together under one roof at the Toronto Congress Centre. Whether you’re actively exploring business ownership or simply curious about franchising, this is an opportunity to discover proven business models, compare investment options, and get practical guidance directly from the people who know the industry best. ## What you’ll discover Explore franchise opportunities across 60+ sectors Meet representatives from established brands and emerging concepts in food, technology, beauty, construction, professional services, retail, and more. Explore opportunities at a wide range of investment levels and find options that match your experience, ambitions, and budget. Speak directly with industry experts Connect face-to-face with franchisors, successful franchisees, and experienced professionals. Ask candid questions, understand the realities of ownership, and gain insights that can help you make a confident, informed decision. Attend free educational seminars Learn about financing, legal considerations, marketing, operations, franchise selection, and other essential aspects of building a successful franchise business. Hear practical strategies and real-world lessons from people who have already made the journey. ## Why attend? Since 1996, the Canadian Franchise Association has helped thousands of Canadians explore business ownership through credible franchise systems. The Franchise Canada Show is the CFA’s official exhibition and one of the best places to begin—or accelerate—your search. Come prepared to learn, make valuable connections, and discover what your next chapter could look like. Get into business for yourself—but not by yourself

Set up your AI once for output that serves the goal About This Talk Most designers experimenting with AI are still using it as a glorified autocomplete — good for one-off outputs, useless for real workflow. Yuliia Galytska will share how she set up her own AI model to support the way she actually works.The session will cover the foundations — global instructions, connectors, and skills — and how to manage token usage so it stays efficient rather than expensive. The centrepiece: how she built a personal voice file — an AI-led interview that extracts how she thinks and communicates, so any output the model produces afterward sounds like her, not generic AI. The same file adapts. Different output depending on the audience, the purpose, the goal — manager update vs. mentee feedback, public writing on Medium, internal Slack and email. This is a presentation and a hands-on workshop. You'll get a shortened version of the interview to try live during the session, see Yuliia's own results and business use cases from her day-to-day design work, and leave with the tools to build your own file at home. You'll Learn How global instructions work — and how you can set them up for your projects and chats How to build a personal "voice file" so AI output actually sounds like you Real business use cases from Yuliia's work Practical tips on managing token usage Who It's For Designers ready to move past basic prompting into a real, working AI setup — whether you're brand new to this or already using AI daily. What to Bring A laptop — required, this session is hands-on A Claude Pro subscription is recommended, if you have one A water bottle — it's a full evening session 🎤 Speaker: Yuliia Galytska Yuliia had a career as a corporate lawyer before switching into product design. The legal background stayed. It shows up in how she approaches complex systems: systems thinking and edge-case awareness. She's a Senior Product Designer at Lendesk — a B2B fintech — leading AI-powered work and c

IMPORTANT: - Bring your laptop! - Doors close at 6:15PM sharp Join us for our monthly Grok Bot meetup in Toronto at 800 Bay! We'll still be giving away Cursor credits that you can use with Grok Bot as well. Join us for an exciting night of learning all the different ways you can automate your life with Grok Bot. We'll be bringing in two amazing speakers and have some time for Q&A at the end. The agenda for the night will be super chill. There will be dinner and drinks provided - come have fun! 🗓️ Event Agenda 5:30 - Mix and Mingle 6:15 - Speaker 1 6:30 - Speaker 2 6:45 - Q&A 7:00 - Networking and Building 8:30 - Event Ends Previous events: See here Want to help as a volunteer? Sign up here Hosted by Neerav, Jia and Sukh. Volunteer Team: Joe, Dhanush, Kurt, Daniel, Gio, Ruhao, Monica, Mariia, Sahil, Shreya

Thinking about starting something, or just curious what all the startup buzz is about? Come hang out with us at the Student Union Building for Intro to Startups 2.0, hosted by GDSC. We're bringing the energy, the big ideas, and the good vibes for an hour that's equal parts fun and useful. We'll cover how ideas turn into real companies, what the first few steps actually look like, and the mistakes worth dodging early on. You'll leave with a clearer picture of how startups work and maybe a few new friends to bounce ideas off. No experience needed, no pitch required. Just show up curious, bring a friend, and come ready to chat. See you there!

Open Coffee Club is a casual gathering of people involved/interested in founding, operating or funding startups. The vibe is more hangout than event and provides people with a regular time and location to talk shop, discuss news, ask questions and and meet others in the startup community they may only see occasionally at more formal events. Location: Nelson the Seagull, 315 Carrall St, Vancouver, BC V6B 2J4 Once You Arrive: You can locate us by looking for the table with the small LED display: "Vancouver Founders Open Coffee Club." Google Maps link to Nelson the Seagull Contact Steve at sdancho@hotmail.com to get a link to join our WhatsApp discussion board. Thanks to our sponsors! Voyer Startup Lawyers - voyerlaw.com See you there!

Want to become the go-to expert in your industry? Join us each week for LinkedIn Authority Builders, a collaborative community designed for professionals, entrepreneurs, and business leaders who want to leverage the power of LinkedIn and AI to build influence, strengthen relationships, and generate new opportunities. Hosted by Eileen Snover, this interactive weekly gathering will help you turn your expertise into visibility and visibility into business growth. You'll Discover How To: ✅ Optimize your LinkedIn profile to attract opportunities ✅ Use AI to create smarter, faster content ✅ Build meaningful relationships that lead to referrals ✅ Increase engagement and expand your network strategically ✅ Position yourself as a trusted authority in your field ✅ Create a consistent LinkedIn presence without overwhelm Whether you're just getting started or looking to amplify an established brand, you'll gain practical strategies, fresh ideas, and valuable connections you can apply immediately. Build your authority. Expand your influence. Grow your business. Register now and join us every Tuesday at 11 am mountain time.