Networking¶
Edmonton's tech scene is small enough that showing up twice gets you recognized. This page covers where to show up, how to message people, and the minimum profile setup so that when someone looks you up, there's something there.
Last verified: October 2026.
Where to show up in Edmonton¶
Community meetups come and go; check the link before you go.
| Meetup | What it is | Link |
|---|---|---|
| AI Tinkerers Edmonton | Monthly-ish, demo-first evenings (live code, no vendor pitches) for people building with AI. Hosted at AltaML and Edmonton Unlimited; 11 events in the past year. | edmonton.aitinkerers.org |
| Dev Edmonton JavaScript, Python & Ruby | The old YEG JS, Python, and Ruby groups meeting together. Beginner-friendly. Edmonton Unlimited's Meetup group also runs a weekly online Dev Chat and Edmonton Tech Wednesdays. | Edmonton Unlimited Meetup |
| OWASP Edmonton | Application security talks and socials; has held events at UofA, including a secure coding tournament in October 2025. | Meetup |
| DemoCamp Edmonton | Volunteer-run since 2008: about ten minutes to demo a real, working product, no slides. Irregular schedule; the last confirmed one was DemoCamp 61 at Amii in October 2025. | Eventbrite |
| Upper Bound | Amii's annual AI conference. 2027: May 18-21, Edmonton Convention Centre. | Amii |
To find more, watch Taproot Edmonton's tech roundup and Edmonton Unlimited, the city's innovation agency (formerly Startup Edmonton / Innovate Edmonton; rebrand). TEC Edmonton, which older advice still mentions, shut down in 2021.
On campus, the career fairs and club events are where recruiters come to you. For the companies themselves, see the Edmonton tech scene.
Cold outreach¶
UofA CS alumni at companies you're interested in are the best people to message; search LinkedIn by school and company. Speakers from department and club events are a close second, since you have a shared reference point.
Subject: UofA CS student interested in [specific thing about their work]
Hi [Name],
I'm a CS student at the University of Alberta working on [specific project or area].
I came across your [project / talk / post] on [specific thing] and found [specific detail] interesting.
I'm curious about [one specific question about their work or path]. Would you be open
to a 15-minute call or coffee? Happy to work around your schedule.
Thanks,
[Your name]
[LinkedIn]
What makes it work: one specific detail that proves you looked, one specific question, a small ask. What kills it: asking for a job or referral in the first message, or sending the same text to 50 people. Follow up once after a week; after that, let it go.
Profile checklist¶
Recruiters and people you message will look you up. Do this once, then keep it current:
- GitHub: pin your 4-6 best repos, each with a README saying what it is, the stack, how to run it, and a screenshot. An unexplained repo is worse than no repo.
- LinkedIn: a headline more specific than "CS Student at UofA" (e.g. "CS @ UofA | Backend, distributed systems"), every internship, research, TA, and part-time job, and a link to your GitHub.
- Optional: a one-page site. The GitHub Student Developer Pack includes free domain offers; don't spend weeks on the site instead of projects.
For general networking and profile advice beyond this, any recent guide or a chatbot will do; nothing about it is UofA-specific.