What happens when big ideas come to town?

In cases like the WhatWorks 2022 summit from the Social Progress Imperative that's coming to Banff in late May, it's a chance for a premier gathering of global thought leaders, innovators and social entrepreneurs to use evidence and experience to debate and advance solutions that drive social impact.

As TEDx organizers, we're big proponents of making evidence-based decisions. As Canadians, we take our quality of life seriously -- it is one of the things that helps define us as a nation, together with the principle that we need need to keep developing those standards for all Canadians.

When it comes to something so seemingly nebulous like "social progress", it can be daunting to try and nail down how to measure that in a meaningful way. It's essential that we do so, however, so that we can hold useful discussions about how to move the needle as a country, or as a region or city within our larger national structure.

Through a great friend of ours (thanks, Camille!) we recently were introduced to the amazing folks at the Social Progress Imperative. Haven't heard of it? Neither had we, but we're eternally grateful for having been introduced. Philosophically, we're very aligned. As they describe their mission:

We dream of a world in which people come first. A world where families are safe, healthy and free. Economic development is important, but strong economies alone do not guarantee strong societies. If people lack the most basic human necessities, the building blocks to improve their quality of life, a healthy environment and the opportunity to reach their full potential, a society is failing no matter what the economic numbers say.

The Social Progress Index is a new way to define the success of our societies. It is a comprehensive measure of real quality of life, independent of economic indicators.  

So, where does Canada rank? Right now, we score in the top 10 globally, coming in at a respectable 7th place internationally. As a country, that might not reflect our self-perception of how we're doing, but take a closer look at our scorecard results and let us know what you think:

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As Calgarians, we're also very fortunate to have the forward-thinking work of the Calgary Foundation to draw upon, with their annual Vital Signs survey of how we rank our city's current status on a number of dimensions that fit with the categories in the Social Progress Index. Together, we think these two frameworks make for powerful tools to frame our societal discussions on how we're doing, and where we want to make improvements.

Want to see how we're doing at the moment?

Make sure to RSVP for the upcoming Vital City event on October 13 at lunchtime with Eva Friesen, President and CEO, and Murray Laverty, Board Chair, as they present the Calgary Foundation's Report to Community, and guests Marichu Antonio and Elder Casey Eagle Speaker reflect on community change.

Above all, we encourage you to engage in discussion around the social progress frameworks both of these initiatives represent, especially as you interact with your local candidates for municipal elections. And, join us for upcoming events this Fall where we dig deeper on several of these categories with though-provoking talks and dynamic discussions with other participants. Stay tuned for more in our Events section, and on our social channels!

The Platform Innovation Centre, located in the heart of Calgary's East Village neighbourhood, is a hub dedicated to supporting startups and entrepreneurs at all stages of their journey.

The Innovation Centre provides a single point of access to resources, supports, programming and events to help startups successfully launch and grow their business. And, based on its location beside City Hall, the Central Library, and Studio Bell, home of the National Music Centre — the Platform Innovation Centre will help create connections for local innovators, driving new economic growth and job creation in Calgary.

As a programming partner, TEDxCalgary is pleased to be getting ready to help Platform generate new ideas and tell the stories of some of the emerging innovators from the space whose ideas are worth spreading.

As we plan for our 2021 events, we continue to find that we sit at the intersection of so many great ideas and too little time to pursue them all!

Of course, that's probably an enviable place to be. We'd all be in a much poorer place as a species if good ideas were highly scarce. At the same time, it also makes it more important for us to continually curate the ideas that are best suited to our current time and place in history. Especially as we start to emerge from the pent-up nature of the pandemic, we anticipate that people will be even hungrier for the types of ideas that help us make sense of the next step. We have lots to recover from, and a vast number of choices to make as we attempt to move forward as societies in a post-pandemic world.