From May 27- May 29, 2024 the Institute for Community Prosperity hosted the Banff Systems Summit, welcoming practitioner-changemakers from multiple sectors, post-secondary students across Canada, and international participants.
These three days created an immersive, engaging experience, combining keynotes and plenaries, panel discussions, skills- focused workshops, walkabouts, and networking activities. New connections were formed, and new insights and ideas germinated with a focus on building a more regenerative, resilient tomorrow for Canada.
The Banff Systems Summit aims to address the pressing need for a systems-driven approach to tackling global challenges. We face increasing and overlapping challenges in various areas such as housing, health care, food security, political polarization, transitioning to a lower carbon economy, creating shared prosperity, decolonization, racial justice, new patterns of global conflict, along with adaptations to virtually every career and area of life with advanced technologies.
Some have described this new era as one of “polycrisis” or “permacrisis.” In the face of this cascade of challenges, emerging leaders are asking tough questions and seeking innovative solutions, which requires a systems-led way of thinking and mode of practice.
Systems leaders bring together different perspectives and approaches to devise sustainable, workable, effective solutions in various fields including health, energy, conservation, design, education, and engineering. This encompasses initiatives such as social enterprises addressing equity education, large corporations integrating sustainability and circularity into their supply chains, and healthcare professionals exploring strategies to improve vaccine uptake and trust among marginalized groups.
Unpacking and addressing complex adaptive systems requires a leading-edge mindset. The Banff Systems Summit aims to bridge the gap between classroom-based learning and real-world applications.
Curious to learn more about the event? Check out the Event Program [pdf] and stay tuned for a series of blog posts featuring highlights and learnings from the Summit.
