 so thank you all for being here today our mayor Benjamin could not be here today and of course I'm standing in his stead thank you for being here thank you for allowing this dream to fester and grow and metastasize thank you so very very much CEC and David Dunn's amazing and I think it I think because it is amazing we ought to do what we do in church sometimes let's give ourselves and Mr. Dunn a great big hand David we are appreciative we are overjoyed that you've moved in a direction where this city of ours continue to feel the effects of growth and expansion you've allowed us David to sense and to feel what it means to really put your words into action thank you so very very much a former member board member of CEC and I think Felicia is probably overjoyed that she has she has sort of ushered us in to a new dynamic in our city van van robotic robotics thank you so much we got some folk coming to earth is that right that's right and that's good not only for van robotics but it's good for our city so again thank you thank you for cutting the ribbon of a new paradigm the paradigms have shifted and we are thankful and grateful for what's going to happen and to take place when you get a chance if you have not spoke to David if you say anything to him just say thank you thank you so much hi everyone thanks so much for being here we are thrilled and beyond excited to be part of this we are so grateful to David Dunn for this amazing gift to the Columbia empowerment zone just a few words about our journey we started a couple of years ago here in Columbia we had just a few employees we had four employees we got started building robots we got started with a few schools here and there we're now in over 25% of the school districts in South Carolina we're in 33 states and we're in seven countries across the world so we have grown tremendously in the last couple of years and this feels like a graduation to a really important next chapter in our company so we're thrilled to be able to share that with everyone here today and especially to really honor the space that David Dunn has donated and we're really amazing things really we're born for VC3 so thanks so much we appreciate the gift and we appreciate the opportunity I'm gonna start by thanking Felicia and the CZ for this ceremony but really I want to apologize for the name on the sweets they they didn't ask me you know when I heard about it I didn't realize that was the final name so when I when I asked about it they said the sign was already printed that's all they could do so here here we are but um the sweets really aren't about me I want to talk a little bit about the company that started here and really made it possible for me me to donate these to the CZ so it was our first headquarters for VC3 and at the time we were about four or five employees on it was in 96 I believe I can't remember the exact amount now VC3 is pushing 200 employees a hundred of which are almost a hundred of which are here in Columbia South Carolina most working out of the office a new headquarters which is on 1301 Treve Street the tower so we've had a lot of growth we've got offices in Atlanta Raleigh Memphis we have clients leading a lot most most of the southeast but also as far west as Nevada as far north as Vermont as far south as Florida for a company that has to do a lot of hands-on touching that's a challenge but we we tend to centralize everything here in Columbia so in addition to VC3 about three years ago while I was while I was still CEO we spun out a company called Cognito it's located if you go up in the end your base you should see a sign for them the product called Cognito Forms everybody here should use that product it's accessible to anybody and and they're also growing I think 20 plus almost almost 30 employees and continue to grow and expand hiring you know most of the most of the tech talent one point I want to make is that roughly 75% of VC3 employees here in in in Columbia live in the Midlands I mean we're actually from the Midlands and or went to one of the universities in and around here some from Midlands Tech some from Clemson some from but mostly from USC we have a really strong partnership with USC we've had for many years roughly 40% of our technical talent that's located here in Columbia were interns from the University of South Carolina so that's been a great partnership another good partnership we had early on was with municipal Association of South Carolina and I'll see Howard DeVall here but he was executive he's on City Council now but he was executive director of that when we partnered with them that was key key to to our growth so big point I'm trying to make here is you can actually grow a big tech company or any kind of company here in South Carolina we do have the talent you can do it but but really takes good partnerships with the local organizations local government organizations local nonprofits etc to to really develop it because we need more of it so you know kind of excited about band robotics and and recently met Laura at an event so I'm glad to see them doing so well and I'm no doubt with with you know continued support and partnerships locally here that that they'll be successful and there's no reason that that you know couple years from now they shouldn't have hopefully outgrown this space and and be doing doing bigger and better things thank you I'll be brief I have the happy honor of representing our CMC board and and have the pleasure of being able to publicly thank David for for his gift David was a member of our board for a number of years he was a significant contributor to the success of of the book the CZ and the time he was with us but we miss him we've missed his being with us he's a tremendous talent and he contributed greatly with his time and talent and treasure as well to make a contribution like this is really outstanding so David on behalf of the board we appreciate it CZ is a 501 C3 nonprofit and we are self-sufficient and a gift like this allows us to continue to expand the mission that we have undertaken over the years and and with antibiotics and they are continued success we're going to work with them into the future and what they allow us to do with with their participation this building gives us the ability to further our mission so it's a sort of a circle just go around in a circle so David thank you for starting that circle and for continuing with us and we'll look forward to great things for Van Robotics so thank you all for being here again it's an honor for us to get to have this opportunity to thank David publicly I think the name is that we like the name so thank you very much it's a tremendous gift to make to see easy and and in the city Columbia by extension so thank you David good afternoon I'm Felicia Maloney executive director of the empowerment zone and I would like to acknowledge our city manager Miss Wilson's in the audience and assistant city manager Jeff Palin and the director of Office of Economic Development Ryan Coeman I don't know I think we have anyone else there and of course to see easy board members here on the front row I can't repeat what Mr. McCoy said we absolutely thank David for this gift and the opportunity to help us fill our mission of providing more job opportunities in the city of Columbia and these are well paying jobs as you heard I'm very proud of Laura I didn't even realize they had expanded to that much but if you've not seen the Abbey Robot you must see the Abbey Robot I wish we had one out here on on display but again I want to thank you I think you all for being here thank you all all for being here okay she's gonna provide an opportunity to go in for you to see the robot it's absolutely amazing so again thank you and as David said I know I called him and he said Felicia I really don't want you to do that you shouldn't have to do that don't do that and I said well my mother told me you always give people their flowers while they're alive don't put their name on the building when when they when they can't see and the sign is printed so it will be going up so we hope to see that but thank you again David we really really appreciate you and I must say as a small business owner as you've heard David talk about his growth in the business this is really really a great opportunity to pay it forward to another business to experience the same growth but also as that small business owner can you imagine how David held my feet to the fire as a board member he did and it was all for good reasons good reason so I am blessed to have had the opportunity to be mentored by my board members and to receive their advice and to have them guide me as we build this organization together thank you again for coming we appreciate you