BG - Opening Remarks - Day One

thank you all for your patience as we figure things out again here like we do every year but uh I have to say it is really really good to see all of you here again it's just uh the the vibe the the energy having all these bodies back in this space is is just um it's a tonic for me uh we've been doing this a long time now and uh it feels like we're getting back to something that we' kind of you know have had missing from uh from my life at least for the last couple years so that's down to you folks thank you for being here um on that note I do want to say a

couple things uh we do have uh masks uh available out at registration and at info Booth if anybody is interested in those it's not required but again highly encouraged there are people who do depend on this you know for uh uh for their safety so up to you but uh that's there for folks if they want it now I say we've been doing this for a while one of the things that we have been doing for a while is uh I am the Cavalry right this is a a a a movement a ground swell a uh a Bottoms Up you know answering the call and the need of society that started here and has kind of grown with us it's

grown Beyond us it takes place many different places many different uh things during the year it uh takes place in you know small ways it takes place in the halls of power in Washington DC uh but it's something I'm particularly proud to have like been able to in a small way enable through our participation here um it's been 10 years since that happened and uh a lot has been accomplished uh and I think it's nice to look back and reflect on that so our keynote for this first day is going to be Josh Corman one of the founders of that movement uh talking about kind of how we got here uh what has been accomplished during that time and what

the future looks like uh and it's one of the things that we do here I I I love I love uh what Jack Daniel has always said all we're doing is changing the world right one conversation at a time one talk at a time one handshake at a time and it's the the engagement and the openness in the community here that that makes that possible uh I love to just just the welcoming vibe that you all provide so please if you can do anything while you're here for the next two days make a new friend have a conversation with somebody that you've not had a conversation with before this is our our chance to do that again after you know

years in isolation so uh just I I want to applaud you for what you've done so far and for what you're going to do this week thank [Applause] you and without further Ado uh I'm going to uh get out of the way because other people have more interesting things to say so