All useful disruptions solve an important problem and begin with an insightful question. The bigger the question, the bigger the potential impact. What problem are you solving? What's your big question?

Richard Branson has posed some huge questions in his career. He is coming to Calgary on May15th to headline the Energy Disruptors conference and reveal some of his most useful answers. I believe it's the first conference of its kind to happen in Calgary. With all the petty shenanigans going on, its timing couldn't be better–a great opportunity for all of us to think bigger and with a longer time horizon.

That seems to be his speciality:  thinking bigger and longer out. Mr. Branson is arguably the best poster child for disruption. The term may be getting a bit worn, but the man has been doing it long before young tech industry entrepreneurs brought it into vogue. He seems to be on a grand global adventure and is an inspiration for millions of innovators seeking to tap into that same spirit.

Less globally well known (at least for now) but just as adventurous, are the spirited millennial founders of this conference, Graeme Edge, Michelle Edge and Rachel Maxwell. In a very short time, these entrepreneurs have managed to marshal an epic collection of speakers, sponsors and attendees to embrace an uncomfortable and controversial question that is crucial to the economic and personal futures of millions of people not just in the province of Alberta but also in Canada.

Graeme and Rachel run an innovative recruitment business called McLarenDionEdge. Principally focused on the energy sector, they realized that it might be smart to diversify and manage their risk in a sector that is infamously volatile and inevitably terminal. The question emerged in a coaching session in 2016:

How do we disrupt the energy industry in Canada?

This conference is the simple product of that question asked over and over for a year, plus all the energy, money, time and heartache that went into it. They are thinking big and long. What has also resulted is a new platform for impact entrepreneurship.

Impact entrepreneurs are the business leaders shaping the future prosperity of the nation. These innovators are looking to generate wealth and a high quality of life contributing to the goodwill that exists in society and the carrying capacity of the natural environment and social system to sustain meaningful human activity.

I think that Graeme, Rachel and Michelle are the living embodiment of what impact entrepreneurship is all about. They are my inspiration for rewiring my own coaching business more fully around this concept. I hope it will be disruptive beyond the energy industry.

If you are looking to disrupt something and are touched in any way by how the energy industry evolves in the nation, please join us on May 15 and 16th. All innovation begins with a choice. This is pretty good one: find your tickets here.