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Join us for our 2024 main annual event... FLOW: Connecting the Dots! The concept of "flow" has been near and dear to our hearts for some time... it's that place of deep thought, profound action, and intense curiosity that takes us to a place of peak performance — whatever our chosen discipline or creative endeavour.

Does the world today feel like a bit of an improv experiment? We live in some very volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous times (V.U.C.A. as the term was coined in the 1980s by leadership and strategy experts and subsequently adopted by the U.S. military), and that makes it exceptionally difficult to get traction on many of the very important but intractable issues in our midst. From the places where we live and work, to the political and social realm in the countries and territories we inhabit, the nature of a post-COVID VUCA world has made a mockery of countless well-laid plans.

Together as curators over the last decade and more, TEDxCalgary co-founder Rahim Sajan and myself have had the very special priviledge of meeting an amazing array of what I'd like to call "companion idea travellers".

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…

As current news reports are constantly reminding us, our journey with COVID-19 is far from over. Many of us are likely tired of living through a major historical event and continally unprecedented (modern) times. The urge to get back to "normal" is strong, even though we don't know what that will mean for us going forward, or when it will happen.

It's actually a bit misleading to describe this year's ENGAGE: Deeply event as our "deepest, most engaging event ever."  The truth is, we'd like to think that ALL of our events over the last decade have been part of building toward this year's culminating event for our 10th anniversary of operating as a team.

A week after the event, it's easier to gain perspective on what our ENGAGE: Intentionally salon meant as a formal kick-off to our year of engaging with ideas.