Stop Solving Problems. Start Building Potential.
Workshop Session
What if some of our biggest challenges persist not because we are poor problem-solvers, but because we are asking the wrong questions? This interactive session invites participants to shift from reacting to problems toward uncovering hidden potential in projects, partnerships, and the built environment. Through stories, discussion, and hands-on exercises, participants will explore how assumptions shape outcomes, why traditional problem-solving can create unintended consequences, and how integrated thinking can generate stronger environmental, social, and economic value at the same time. Led by Calgary-based innovators Greg Hart and Matt Grace, the workshop will offer practical approaches for identifying opportunities, strengthening collaboration, and creating the conditions for long-term success.
Greg Hart
Greg Hart is a lifetime entrepreneur who has been studying, applying and innovating in the area of behaviour-based design for thirty years. He has applied these approaches in over 200 different challenging design settings from manufacturing to software and even urban spaces. His original background is in ergonomics and he also completed formal education in Critical Thinking. Greg has presented at conferences around the world and has published papers as an independent scholar in the areas of ergonomics and human behaviour as well as the relationship between cognitive diversity and democratic choice. He is a founding partner in Thin Air Labs, an integrated investment and design company, and the co-founder of InceptionU - an unschool that connects essential design and thinking skills to in-demand technical skills like software development and machine learning. When he wants to relax, he referees lacrosse.
Matt Grace
Matt Grace will bring a new perspective on regenerative buildings from his current research as part of his Doctor of Design (DDes) at the University of Calgary. Matt has worked on dozens of green buildings in the Bow Valley area and is a Calgary based Professional Engineer and a LEED Fellow with a career of over 30 years in sustainable buildings across Europe and Canada. This broad experience has presented him with many opportunities to enable creative solutions for more sustainable buildings, helping him understand the importance of both technical and people centred solutions. Matt, with an undergraduate degree in Aeronautical Engineering and a Master of Science in Energy and the Environment has blended creativity and engineering rigor starting at the dawn of the green building rating movement in the UK in the early 90s, working on several European research projects and then for 5 years at The Building Research Establishment. A natural entrepreneur, Matt has successfully grown several green building consulting firms including starting and exiting from the firm he started in Calgary, Mission Green Buildings. Based in Calgary since 2007, he has collaborated with major architects, engineers, and developers, and has served on the boards of Alberta Ecotrust and Green Economy Calgary.