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Using the Arts as a thread to sew people and thoughts together, Jessica Théroux is a painter, writer, sculptor, and textiles artist. She makes a living as a teacher and runs an artist collective in her home town of Calgary, Alberta with her husband, Rich Theroux.

Over the past 10 years she has co-hosted over 500 weekly live art events that bring hundreds of artists and art consumers together. She has co-written several books, co-created a feature length film (puppets), and is a singer, entertainer, and explorer. She is also a published poet. Her first solo publication will be later this year.

Too often, our most vocal and destructive critic is our inner self-bullying voice.

Kalyani Pardeshi is a multiple award-winning author who teaches anti-bullying techniques based on the science of how our brains work, focusing on the intangible cause of bullying instead of the tangible effects.

Despite having a successful career in finance and holding two professional designations, Kalyani felt something was amiss. She tried her hand at entrepreneurship and ran a successful online fitness business for two years, yet felt a continuing void that seemingly couldn’t be filled. The answer came when she volunteered at an anti-bullying workshop at her daughter’s school. She had an entire lifetime of experiences, learning and tools she had developed and made the choice to share her experience with others through her book Unbullied - 14 Techniques to Silence the Critics, Externally and Internally.

Her book has been recognized internationally through three awards: The Skipping Stones Honour Award, The Book Excellence Finalist Award and The Maincrest Media Winners Award. She has been interviewed by many media outlets including CTV Morning Live for Pink Shirt Day, Hollywood Times, Women’s Radio and Daughters of Change. 

Recently, we had another of our more than 150 speakers pass away. That reminds us that we, as humans, have a finite amount of time on this earth. But our ideas can continue living on, influencing others.

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.

New connections. Deep conversations.

It's a volatile, complex world out there, full of ambiguity and divisiveness. How do we work together to nurture a culture of civil, foward-looking conversation?

For us, we start with "Yes," when someone shares a long-cherished idea with us. That simple word acknowledges their courage in sharing with us, and opens up the space for us to take those ideas to a new level with our contribution of "and..." as we add our own insights and perspectives.

Over 350 participants joined our group of amazing speakers in the beautifully-remodelled Ampersand building in downtown Calgary as they shared their ideas to start the conversation rolling.

Starting in Fall 2022, Aspen Properties is providing TEDxCalgary with event and office space in The Ampersand and other buildings within its Calgary-based portfolio for the coming couple of years. This provides the TEDxCalgary team with a beautiful community space within a world-class building and business hub.

Aspen Properties is a privately-held, boutique real estate company that owns and manages commercial office space in downtown Calgary and Edmonton. Aspen focuses on creating welcoming work spaces where people feel connected, get inspired, and know they belong.

​Together with their investment partners, Aspen Properties owns and manages approximately 3.8 million square feet of office space in Calgary and Edmonton (plus nearly 3,500 highly sought-after parking spaces in downtown Calgary and Edmonton). Their current assets comprise 14 buildings—eleven in Calgary, three in Edmonton and development sites in each city.

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".

Join the Social Progress Imperative team and TEDxCalgary for a livestream direct from What Works 2022, "Truth + Trust"

This is an exceptional opportunity to be part of the global conversation on what transparency in social progress looks like, informed by the voices of an amazing roster of speakers and participants coming together to explore and advance evidence-based initiatives.

Registration for the online platform is free, and includes access to all publicly-streamed event content over the three days, starting May 31st at 4:45 pm MDT and ending on June 2nd at 4:00 pm MDT. Please see the Event Program for additional times and details.

This is not to be missed!

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER

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!