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Enter the discussion.

The Place: Nantucket, Massachusetts

The Event: The Fast Company Advance, a celebration of Fast Company's fourth anniversary.

The Gathering: A roundtable with 45 of the best brains in the new world of work -- a two-day conversation among change agents from some of the world's biggest and best-known companies; leaders from young, fast-growing companies; business thinkers and educators from across the country and across the economy; CEOs and soloists, Web stars and manufacturers.

The Rules: No canned speeches. No slide decks. A great question beats a smooth answer. And check your ego at the door.

The Topics: Four ideas and issues that cut across the world of work and that come from the new "dotcom" environment: In a world where people matter most, how do you bring hope to inner cities -- on a scale that touches as many lives as possible? At a time when big companies seek change to become more nimble, and small companies seek change to become more potent, how can you make innovation an enduring reality?

In an economy where people work faster, at greater distances from one another, and more independently than ever before, how do you create a culture of grassroots leadership? And finally, at a time when we're witnessing the "dotcom-ing" of just about everything, what does it all mean -- and what's the best way to think about, and to participate in, this facet of the new economy?

The Record: We taped the entire two-day conversation. Here we present an edited selection of comments made by 24 of the participants -- provocative insights and useful practices drawn from the table talk on Nantucket.

The Players:

Mike Abrashoff (mabrashoff@aol.com) is deputy director for global information and network systems at the U.S. Space and Naval Warfare Systems. He was formerly the commander of the USS Benfold, a $1 billion Navy warship.

Mark Albion (msalbion@aol.com), after spending 20 years at Harvard University and the Harvard Business School, is now a founding partner of You&Company, a career-management consulting firm based in Dover, Massachusetts. He is also the author of "Making a Life, Making a Living" (Warner Books, January 2000).

Gil Bashe (gbashe@healthquest1.com) is CEO of HealthQuest, a $60 million health-care and marketing-services startup in Metuchen, New Jersey that focuses on the emotional impact of health communications. Formerly, he was the chairman and CEO of CommonHealth Group.

Laurie Coots (laurie.coots@tbwachiat.com), chief marketing officer of TBWA Chiat/Day in Los Angeles, markets the agency brand, tracks future trends, and meets with dotcom companies (more than 200 since April 1999) about their marketing needs.

Philip N. Diehl (pdiehl@usmint.treas.gov) has been director and CEO of the U.S. Mint since June 1994. He's turned the Mint into a world-class organization that now earns $2.5 billion in annual revenues, makes $1.1 billion in profits, and has 2,200 employees.

Liz Dolan (liz.dolan@satellitesisters.com) is the president of Dolan St. Clair Inc., a sports- and entertainment-marketing firm, in Portland, Oregon, that she cofounded with two partners in 1997. Previously, she was corporate VP and director of global marketing at Nike.