Mindstone Toronto February AI Meetup

St Paul's Bloor Church, 227 Bloor St E, Toronto, ON M4W 1C8

Welcome to the biggest Practical AI Meetup in Toronto!

Join the Ivy+ network of Ivy League schools in Toronto as we explore the world of artificial intelligence, its cutting-edge practical applications, and the astonishing projects that are shaping our future.

Why should you attend?

Get up close and personal with the AI projects that are redefining the boundaries of technology and human potential.
Learn from the brightest minds in the field and gain valuable insights into the ever-evolving AI landscape.
Unleash your curiosity, fuel your creativity, and expand your network as you connect with fellow AI aficionados and pioneers.

What you can expect?

Mindstone events consist of three talks covering different aspects:

What I Learned Building With LLMs: A technical talk breaking down the process for building a product using AI with real-life learnings and insights.
How To Be More Productive Using AI: A practical demo and step-by-step guide on how to use AI to speed up and improve tasks.
What Does The Future Look Like With AI?: A theoretical talk on the impact of AI on work, life and society.

After the workshop we'll have pizza, drinks, and time to connect with alumni from Bocconi, Columbia, University of Chicago, Duke, Cornell, Dartmouth, Harvard, HEC Paris, IE, IMD, INSEAD, John Hopkins, Kellogg, MIT, Wharton, Princeton, and Yale. Don't miss the opportunity to see what's really happening in AI - you'll be surprised at what's already possible today.

Don't miss the opportunity to see what's really happening in AI - you'll be surprised at what's already possible today.

We have limited spots available, so get your ticket ahead of time to avoid disappointment!

Agenda

Doors Open

Welcome to the event

Introduction

Welcome and event introduction

Building complex software using Cursor and Anti-gravity by Gary Saarenvirta

Sharing my experience testing out AI IDEs to build a range of software from simple webapps to complex CFD code and reinforcement learning agents… what works, what doesn’t … giving my recommendation for how these tools can be integrated into software development practices.

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From Prototype to Production: The Evaluation Gap in Gen-AI Development

Many teams can build impressive agentic AI demos, but struggle to ship reliable products. The missing piece is often a rigorous evaluation strategy. This session demonstrates a demo on evaluation workflow: building reference datasets, designing custom evaluators for running experiments to prevent regressions.

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Building Products in the Age of AI

For twenty years, the software industry operated on a simple premise: sell tools that make humans slightly faster. That era is over. As AI drives the cost of cognitive labor to zero, the traditional seat-based SaaS model is structurally doomed. The next generation of decacorns won't sell software to users; they will sell outcomes to buyers. In this session, we unpack the transition to "Service-as-Software." We will dismantle the "wrapper" trap, introduce the "Centaur" operating model—combining AI speed with human judgment—and reveal the "Wedge, Empower, Scale" playbook for modernizing legacy industries. Join us to learn why the smartest founders are no longer selling shovels—they are partnering with miners to own the mine.

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Wrap Up

Closing remarks and next steps

Pizza, Drinks & Networking

Casual networking with food and drinks