It was an audacious move. Even a bit rash. In the fall of 2007 I pitched to a group of corporate leaders that they should co-host a festival of ideas in partnership with 21inc, the organization I run.  Besides being influential, they are pragmatic to a fault. Would they see value in another gabfest? Would they make time for ethereal conversations?

After finishing my spiel, one response I got was, "What we need now is action. We don't need more thinking; we need to start doing." Somehow they still agreed to participate, along with more than 200 leaders, artists, authors, entrepreneurs, innovators, and young people. A year later, in St. Andrews-by-the-Sea, N.B., the 21inc Ideas Festival was born.

While we prepare for Ideas Festival 2.0 in the fall of 2010, I still hear many who should know better say that we simply need more doing. Whether in organizations or communities or policy arenas, the more urgent a situation appears to be the greater the urge to demand transformational change and reject any more discussion.

Indeed, in Atlantic Canada our challenges are many. In the essays that follow, there is discussion, and there are calls to action. For example, the region will soon be facing a chronic working-population shortage, which is a serious challenge to our overall well-being, not merely a labour-market issue. There are political implications to population change too. The question: Is this a threat or an opportunity? Our answer to that is the test for the courage of our convictions.

Which is why for this second annual Ideas Issue of Progress, we scoured the region for those who understand the need to articulate new ideas and do something about it. Importantly, contributors to these pages think and act in concert.

For provocative takes on new health care models, social innovation, business values, accounting for carbon, food security, collaborative research, mindfulness, public education, productivity, immigration, sustainability, arts, politics, and social media, please read on.

Despite the reaction I received from some in the early days, those I brainstormed with know that action and ideas can never be separated. What they really meant is perhaps better expressed in one of the most memorable quotes from the first Ideas Festival, spoken in the opening remarks by New Brunswick's former lieutenant-governor, playwright Herménégilde Chiasson. "Ideas are free and talk is cheap," he said. "The true challenge is always in the how, in the action." 

That challenge has been accepted by the people and ideas profiled in the following pages. That challenge was accepted by the many who answered our call for ideas and that we didn't have room to include. They, like me, all agree that designing and creating the prosperous, competitive, and sustainable future we want for our children means never divorcing the doing from the thinking. Progress, after all, is a continuum.

Tim Coates is cofounder and executive director of 21inc, an action tank that develops Atlantic Canada's leaders of tomorrow. For details about the next Ideas Festival, visit www.21incideasfestival.ca.