 Well, it is to kick off the conference. It's my pleasure to introduce Natalie Foster of Pierce, who will be followed by Kevin Jones of SoCAP. Thanks. Hello. Welcome to the first ever SHARE conference. One more round of applause. My name's Natalie Foster, and co-founder and executive director of Pierce, representing a quarter of a million people worldwide who are building the sharing economy in their communities from the ground up. And so on behalf of our team at SoCAP and Pierce, we're so pleased to have you here on this very surprisingly sunny day in San Francisco. We're here for a lot of different reasons, but my reasoning goes back to a small town in Kansas and a general store in the state where I'm from. My parents lived for many years in a small farming community. It had one stoplight, one gas station, and one general store. And the general store is part of a chain of stores that recently closed down. And so that meant that the people of Stafford, Kansas, had to drive 30 miles, 40 miles to get their toothpaste or the things that they needed. And so when that store closed, the people had a choice to just drive 30 miles to get toothpaste or to turn to each other and build a new store. And that's what they did. They came together, clapping. They came together and they pooled their money. Here we would call that crowdfunding. In Kansas, it was a capital campaign. And they raised the money to open their own Stafford mercantile, community owned, community operated. And I recently went back and was so pleased to see the store was staffed in part by volunteers. There was a section of the store that was for local artists. And as I sat at the brand new ice cream fountain in the back of the store, sipping a chocolate mall, I thought about how much better this store was than that old chain store ever had been for the people of Stafford. And what's so exciting is that it's not just Kansas. It's actually happening all over the world. People are turning to one another to build the sort of economy that we want to see. We're sharing our homes, our cars, our skills, our time, and our money. We're building babysitting cooperatives, maker spaces, and new ways of carpooling. And we're rejecting the idea that stuff is what makes us happier, and that ownership is better than access, and that we should all live in isolation. And we're building more than businesses and nonprofits. We're building a movement. And now is a really interesting time in that movement. Over the last year alone, since Piers launched, hundreds of thousands of new people have entered into the sharing economy. Dozens and dozens of new organizations and businesses have launched, and some of the pioneers in this space have really grown leaps and bounds. So it's a great time to convene and be asking these big questions. What does an economy built on sharing and peer services look like? How do we ensure everyone has access? So for the next couple of days, the Marines Memorial here will be our movement home to ask those questions. And what's so exciting is it's not just here. I came just a few days ago from Paris, France, from We Share Fest, where I had the honor of representing Piers. We share. And last week, hundreds of people from around Europe came together to have this discussion, to debate, to dialogue, to party, to question. And so I sort of bring the torch from Paris here to San Francisco where we will be doing this exact thing today. So I want to welcome you. I'm excited to dig into these conversations with you. Encourage you to use this as an opportunity to learn from one another, to inspire each other, and to challenge each other. At this very first sold out conference of the sharing economy.