Civic Tech WR

03/28/2026

👇 We've got something extra on the agenda with our friends at Gender Equity Tech WR on April 8!

This month, we're welcoming guest speaker Kristy Guthrie, co-founder of municiPal AI, an AI-powered search tool built to reimagine how people interact with municipal websites. municiPal AI is helping cities unlock buried digital content, reduce operational inefficiencies, and create better digital experiences for constituents.

🎤 Hear from Kristy about what it takes to build AI-powered civic tech
🛠️ Then stick around to help build this season’s CivicTech projects

See what's possible. Then build it with us.

📅 April 8 | 5:30–8:00 pm
📍 Builder’s Club (165 King Street W, Kitchener)
🍽️ Register for dinner or bring your own
🎟️ RSVP with GET: https://www.zeffy.com/en-CA/ticketing/get-together-with-civictechwr-featuring-kristy-guthrie-of-municipal-ai
👶 Childminding is available!

03/18/2026

📅 Heads up: we have new dates for our guest speaker lineup!

Mark your calendars:

📣 Kristy Guthrie | April 8
Co-founder of municiPal AI, Kristy is building AI-powered tools that reimagine how people find information on municipal websites.

📣 Eric Lombardi | May 6
Founder of More Neighbours Toronto and chair of Build Toronto, Eric is one of Ontario's leading voices on housing reform and civic renewal.

Join us to learn something new and build something with impact in your local community!

See you there: https://luma.com/civictechwr

03/17/2026

Who's coming to Hacknight? 👀

We're excited to welcome two community leaders and builders.

📣 Eric Lombardi | March 25
Founder of More Neighbours Toronto and chair of Build Toronto, Eric is one of Ontario's leading voices on housing reform and civic renewal.

📣 Kristy Guthrie | April 8
Co-founder of municiPal AI, Kristy is building AI-powered tools that reimagine how people find information on municipal websites.

Hear from our speakers, see what we're building, and jump in if you're inspired to build something for good.

Join us:
📅 Wednesdays, 5:30 – 8:00 p.m.
📍 The Builders Club (165 King Street W)
👉 Register for one of our events: https://luma.com/civictechwr

03/11/2026

We’re mid-season at CivicTech WR – and it’s the perfect time to jump in and help us push three community projects toward the finish line.

👇 Here's what we're working on and where to find us.

Whether you code, design, analyze, organize, or just care about the community, there’s a seat for you at the table:

📅 Wednesday, March 11 | 5:30 – 8:00 p.m.
📍 The Builders Club (165 King Street W)
✅ Get involved: https://luma.com/m9qpiym3

01/30/2026

🙌 Huge thanks to everyone who joined this week’s conversation with Rory White about Civic Searchlight!

Rory built Civic Searchlight to track a climate misinformation campaign that weaponized AI chatbots against municipal councils across Canada. That work helped municipalities make better decisions—and revealed that he hadn’t just built an investigative tool, but civic infrastructure.

Three takeaways for CivicTech builders:

🌍 Start with the real world. Begin with a concrete, urgent problem—not a generic platform idea.

🧩 Don’t reinvent the wheel. You can create great by stitching together existing data and off‑the‑shelf tools.

🔍 Follow the demand. Journalists, researchers, and municipal staff now use Civic Searchlight to surface patterns, compare councils, and inform decisions.

If you’re working in this space, your next “small” idea might be bigger than you think. 🚀

We’ll be back next Wednesday to build more projects!
👉 Follow along and join in: https://luma.com/civictechwr

01/26/2026

📅 This week at CivicTechWR: Join Rory White, Technology and Democracy Reporter for Canada’s National Observer, and creator of Civic Searchlight 🔦

Civic Searchlight is a first-of-its-kind tool that helps journalists and researchers search local council meeting transcripts across 550 Canadian municipalities.

We'll talk...
🔹 Why we need tools that open access to public meetings
🔹 What’s involved in building a free resource for journalists and researchers
🔹 How journalism can drive new technology for democratic accountability

Come for Rory’s experience. Bring your questions. Then, stay for our weekly breakout sessions where we use tech to tackle real-world challenges in Waterloo Region.

🕠 Jan. 28, 2026 at 5:30 – 8:00 p.m.
📍 Builders Club, 165 King Street West
💻 Link below

👉 RSVP here:

This week at CivicTechWR we welcome guest speaker Rory White, creator of Civic Searchlight. Rory White is a journalist working as a Technology and Democracy…

12/20/2025

Happy holidays from all of us in CivicTechWR! If you missed this year, be sure to join us in the new calendar year on Jan 7

Meanwhile, have yourself a warm holidays with lots of warm snacks 🎄

11/14/2025

Thanks everyone for coming out tonight! We're well into our season, with projects moving to their last stages - but we also took the time for musical movies trivia night at team came out strong! 💪 🎤 our best categories:
1) Matching the song to its movie!!🎥
2) Recognizing John Travolta's singing voice from the 70s
3) and all of us unanimously realizing at the same time that the Trolls and Smurfs movies are basically the same thing (the only difference being one with visible hair, and one without!)

-
📸: Aleena

09/24/2025

New Season, same Civic Tech! Starting Season 6 tonight with 4 projects! 🎉 🎉 🎉 🎉

09/05/2025

Wow, another season has come and gone! We’d love for you to join us at our Season 5 Finale Project Showcase next Wednesday on September 10th. Come see how we’re using technology to make a real difference in our community with live demos, hands-on sessions, and plenty of chances to connect.

📅 When: Wednesday, Sep 10 @ 6:00 PM
📍 Where: Builders Club, B1

You’ll discover cool projects focused on data automation, public access tools, community mapping, and more. Plus, we’ll have breakout Q&A sessions where you can dive deeper, and stick around for the afterparty to celebrate together!

This event is part of the inaugural Waterloo Tech Week - a great opportunity to meet others passionate about tech and civic innovation right here in Waterloo Region.

Everyone’s welcome, no matter your skill level! It’s pay-what-you-can at the door, and we’ll have light food and drinks to keep you fueled. Please register ahead of time so we can get a good idea of how much food and refreshments to prepare: https://luma.com/p54vj0uo

Can’t wait to see you there!

Experience how CivicTechWR is driving local impact through technology at our Season Finale Project Showcase on Sep 10! Mark your calendars for some networking,…

07/16/2025

Starting our hack night with a legendary talk from Yumi and Kelsi-Leigh

06/13/2025

🚨Season 5 kickoff!🚨

We kicked off s5 this week with a mini hackathon where volunteers got hands-on with the challenges pitched at last week’s demo day and roughed up some MVPs and targeted scope of work for this season. Everyone jumped right in that we forgot to grab some BTS shots. These will have to do 🤓

Interested in working on one of the projects? Join us next Wednesday for our second week of ideation - we’re open to any and all skillsets. No contribution is too little!

📅 Every Wednesday
🕓 Doors open 5:45pm
🍴 BYO Dinner/Snacks
📍 Builders Club ()

See you next Wednesday! 🤗