 Greetings from downtown Toronto where I reside on the traditional territory of the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation as an uninvited guest. Welcome to OE Global 2021. My name is Lena Patterson and I am the proud president of the OE Global Board of Directors. And on behalf of the board I am thrilled to welcome you here today. Open Education Global is the beating heart of the open education community worldwide. So if you care about open education in our world let me assure you that you are in the right place. This year we have teamed up with the University of Nantes and I want to take a moment to send a warm congratulations to our colleagues across France for their incredible contributions to date and I'm sure their contributions to come. I want to take a moment as well to reflect a little bit on our journey as open education advocates over these past couple of years. They have not been easy years for us and we all saw how the social emotional financial and economic impacts of the pandemic disproportionately affected our most vulnerable in our communities and in our schools. For me the global pandemic as for many people is the warning signal that cannot be ignored and in all of that confusion and in all of that suffering and tragedy the simple truth of open education as a foundational set of values as a way forward for us as a globe has never been so clear to me. So carry that forward with you as you go through this conference. Constantly ask yourself who you're serving with your efforts and keep challenging each other and reorienting ourselves towards a future where open education is ubiquitous across the world. We know we can get there and we know we deserve it and this conference serves as an important part of that conversation along our journey. So thanks again to the University of Nantes to Executive Director Paul Stacey for his leadership and vision. And finally to the OE Global Team for creating a space this conference with such care and such dedication and such consideration of our community. We really appreciate your efforts and sincerely thank the opportunity to learn from one another. This is a great space that you are embarking on and I challenge you to take full advantage of the incredible people that you will find in the Open Education Global Conference. All the best and stay safe.