 While Albert, Momo from Trimble Chairs, our Diversity Equity and Inclusion Committee DEI, and really has exerted tremendous leadership for that committee, on our WGIC or the secretariat staff, Coo Haley has been the point person on that. And for many of our committees, you'll know that a lot of times getting all the busy people from each of our industries together, it's like herding cats. So Coo Haley, you've done a really nice job on that. And really, the report was done under Albert's direction, and so I'll let him do most of the talking here. But before I hand over the mic, it was really Albert, who was Trimble Executive, came to WGIC several years ago and said, listen, there is a general challenge in our community from a diversity perspective. Now it can be racial, ethnic, gender, geographic diversity. There are many dimensions to that. You'll see those referenced in the report. But through Albert's assertiveness presented to the board the need for a committee where much like the last panel discussed from an ocean's perspective, if you were in that room, that in many ways were stronger together than individually. And so I think there was a really nice tie-in from that last panel to what Albert was able to do within WGIC to create a diversity equity and inclusion panel committee with a couple of members and then to not just get together to talk, but to have a product that comes out of that committee. So Albert, I'll get off the stage, leave it to you to talk about the report, and then invite your panelists up. And I guess before we, let me just say before I give up the mic, another thing about what has been so good for WGIC here with the entire inter-GAO team is that they have allowed us to present what we call our Trailblazer Awards. It was launched last year at Inter-GAO in Essen, and we're going to repeat that effort here in Berlin. So thanks to the entire Inter-GAO team. Albert, over to you. Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Barbara. And before I start this, as you know, this is probably one of the last events of Barbara as the lead person for WGIC. So let me take this opportunity, Barbara, to thank you for your leadership and for all you have done for WGIC, and in particular for the GEI committee. We owe you a lot. Your support was, I would say, the most important element that brought us to the success that we are having now. So thank you so much, and we hope to still be able to lean on you whenever we're going to need your advice or your leadership. And thank you again, Barbara. And I would echo Barbara also by thanking Kuheli for, she's really the brand behind this. She's the one who did all the work. Yes, please. She really deserves all of this. Barbara said, I think we are very successful in the GEI committee for all we were able to accomplish in the past, what, two, three years that we started this. So we start with a white paper on GEI in general, and now I'm really, really proud to launch this book. Because there is this, there is some, this report, I mean, there is something that we identify the minute we start talking about GEI in the Geospatial Committee. Is that when you look, when you go to events, or when you look at the leadership of geospatial companies, the lack of diversity is very clear, right? Everywhere you go, you don't see enough women. So there's a gender diversity that needs to be pointed out. There's a racial diversity also that needs to be pointed out. And most of the time people will give you the easy answer, oh, we cannot find them. That's why they are not here. We can, you know, we can create diversity because people are not interested. This report will tell you something different. And this report is based on studies, on surveys, and there are actually more surveys coming out. But I want you really to look at this and say the issue of leadership diversity within geospatial companies is something that is real, is something that can be addressed, and is something that we want to be part of the solution. So that's all I'm going to say. You can go and download this. I don't know if we have the the code there. Can we show it at some point? But people should be able to download the report. And we also, you know, Quela and I are still already thinking about the next one where we're going to have actually a little bit more information coming from the surveys that are going out. And we plan to launch that one, you know, probably during Joe week. And we will have something else for interview next year. So that's the first part of this DEI event. And then the second part is one that I really enjoy. Because it gives me and you the opportunity to share from some of the people that we have selected because of the knowledge of the DEI issue and because of the need for us to continue having the conversation and to continue educating people on DEI matters within the geospatial community. So we set up this panel discussion where I'm going to have, unfortunately we lost one person, so we're going to have four bright minds from the geospatial community coming here and answer some of the questions that we have when it comes to DEI. And hopefully you're going to leave this event with more element to add to your toolbox on DEI. And more importantly, I always want people to leave this becoming more and more advocate for for DEI. So let me invite here Laura Burns from Diversity Communications, Clinton Johnson from Esri, or Proger Marathar from Fugro, and last but not least, Olivia Powell from the UK Office of National Statistics. I think we have to be closer. I will sit here maybe. Thank you. Okay, so this is not the first time we're doing this. Some of the people here are kind of tired of me bringing them to those events and asking them tough questions, but they're still going to do that. So let me sit and give you a little bit of history behind this. This is, you know, within WGIC, I don't know, the fifth or the sixth one that we are having, where we just had people sitting, you know, in front of sometimes a larger audience than this, but sitting in front of an audience and try to go deeper in the DEI issues within the geospatial community. So I think the first one we had, Barbara correct me if I'm wrong, was 2021 at Geospatial World Forum. And we found out that this is a very effective way to push for people to be aware, because at that time it was really awareness, right? Be aware of DEI issues, because some of the time people just don't know, you know, and you cannot fix something that you don't know. And of course you cannot fix something that you cannot name. So that's why we move from awareness to actions, and we always wanted people to be able to hear from us without any filter, how some of us, our people feel, you know, when it comes to diversity, and how people live in the workplace, in the environment, some of the diversity issues. So without any more talk from me, let me ask the first question to someone who I think is well equipped to give that answer. So I will talk to Clinton first, because I have this question, what is the current state of leadership diversity in the geospatial sector, and why is it important to have diverse leaders in this field? Thank you for the question, Albert. And thanks for having me on this panel. I'm honored to be here with such esteemed colleagues, both in the geospatial sector, but also focusing on diversity, equity, and inclusion. And you know, before I answer the question, I always want to make sure that we're on the same page about the terms that we use, because I think sometimes people will hear these terms so much and not fully understand what they mean. So I want to talk about what diversity means. So when we talk about diversity, what we're really referring to is how well our teams and our organizations reflect the richness of the human tapestry, right? We want to understand the degree to which the unique, the broad, the expansive voices that make up the world are reflected in our organizations. And I think we all understand this to some degree, right? But I'm going to use a bowl of fruit as an example. So imagine you have a bowl of oranges in the middle of the table. Would anyone refer to that bowl of oranges as a diverse bowl of fruit? They wouldn't. Even if you added one or two apples to this bowl of 10 oranges, you would know that that is not a diverse bowl of fruit. And while people are not fruit, likewise, you would know that if you looked at a leadership team that had five or six people on it, and only one of them was a woman, you would know that that team was not diverse. Likewise, you would know that if you looked at a team of, let's say, 10 people, and half of those people were women. But the women on that team shared the same racial backgrounds as all of the other people on that team. Again, you would know that that team is not diverse. And in the geospatial sector in our industry, our data, our tools, our techniques touch so many different policy areas. They impact so many aspects of human life, so many of the issues that we face as societies collectively and distinctly. So we need to make sure that our teams really reflect that rich human tapestry. We need to make sure that people from all backgrounds on our teams, we need to make sure that Black people are on our teams, that other people of color are on our teams, people from Indigenous communities, people living with disabilities, and women of all backgrounds are on our team. And while we've seen some progress in terms of diversity in the geospatial field, we still have a lot of road to cover. And we have a lot of road to cover in the leadership space in particular. And given how important it is to tap into diverse perspectives that just come from living different lives in our society, we need to make sure that our goal is an industry that completely reflects the breadth of our societies. And that every geospatial organization is led by a team of people who reflect those rich voices, those rich perspectives, and those rich identities. Because those organizations are going to come up with more complete solutions, more impactful and effective solutions. And those organizations just outperform others financially as well. Thank you. Thank you so much, Quinton. And I do agree with you that the leadership of our organizations should reflect the society that we live in. Let me go with the second question, and this time I'm going to ask Olivia. So what are the key benefits and advantages of having diverse leadership teams in the geospatial industry? So there's plenty of research out there and resource online. So I'm not going to teach anyone why we need a leadership team. But if we wanted to do some examples, I've just picked up a few. And one is by having a diverse leadership team, you obviously bring a more diverse workforce to start with, you get better staffing engagement, probably more, you know, because you feel more inclusive, you gain respect and trust from your employees. And also, obviously I work for the government so I'm not a private, I'm not from a private company, but there's plenty of evidence that shows that diversity-led companies do better. So profit, revenue, investment, creativity, there's plenty of studies on that. But for me, it's not really what are these tangible key benefits that we need to reiterate and repeat every time, because effectively what we're trying to do here is convince who that this is the right thing to do. I think the reason is the right thing to do is actually obvious and logical. It's about, like Clinton said, it's about having the company run by a diverse group of people that have that big breadth of experiences and perspective, ability to relate to their employees, to their prospective clients. So it's kind of logical. And I just wanted to have the participation of the audience, if possible. But please raise your hand if you knew this already, deep down, that these things were important. And that's the problem, isn't it, because what we've got here is an audience that actually is already converted. So effectively, I think the painful truth on the key benefits of having a leadership team is actually the real change will be in terms of diverse workforce, etc., will be when it comes from the top. And there's been, I'm just going to quote a few stats because there was a study by Workable that looked at, which this is the wider industry, obviously not geospatial, but they said that if you look at the DEI strategy priorities, 65% of the company surveyed had a company-wide diversity as a objective. But when you looked at the leadership diversity only, it was only 25%. So what does that mean? Does that mean that basically people are happy to have a diverse workforce, but not really change the leadership because they're quite happy in their space? And I think for me it's a hard question, but as leaders, whether we're whichever background we are, especially for the majority background, do we need to start thinking about stepping down or change and let the others do the job? This is a hard question, obviously, but it's kind of going back to, it's well and good to kind of demonstrate the advantage and the benefits of having a diverse leadership team, but we need the leadership team to embrace it and do something about it. Okay, thank you. Thank you, Olivia. Putra, the next question is for you. So how can organizations promote and support the government of diverse leaders? That's a great question. I mean, I think the first, if I were to summarize what organizations should do, it is to really walk the talk. It's all nice to talk about diversity, it's all nice to have panels about it, events about it, but in the end, the proof's in the footing, right? And I can maybe give you some examples of what we as a company do as Fugro and also some of the best practices that I've heard from other companies that I think really make a difference. I think to start off with, you need to have active goals and an active strategy to increase diversity within your organizations. It shouldn't be a chance thing. It shouldn't be, let's just wait for the right applicant to come by and then we hire the right people. There should be a strategy in place. How do you target these kinds of applicants? How do you make job profiles interesting for a variety of different applicants? How do you nuance the wording in your job advertisements so that a range of different people apply? How do you encourage people with imposter syndrome to apply to these positions? So it has to go deep. The other thing is to have that culture within the company that enforces this sort of behavior. So at Fugro, we have what we call the Fugro values, which are four key pillars on which we base all of our decisions, business and otherwise. We are determined to deliver and you can only deliver if you have a diverse workforce. We prepare for tomorrow. How do you prepare for tomorrow with a diverse workforce? We do what's right. Obviously the right thing to do is to hire a wide range of people and we build trust. We build trust both within the company amongst our employees, but also trust outside with our partners, with our clients, with all of our stakeholders. Something else that's important is transparency. I think the culture must foster transparency and I'm talking about programs such as making sure there's equal pay, making sure that there is a transparency. We do research internally to make sure that on the grand scheme of things, the men and women who do the same job are paid the same amount. These kind of endeavors are I think very, very important to build that transparency within the system. And then there's other things like maybe more intangible things like flexible working arrangements. Being flexible enough to make sure that people, no matter what their circumstances are at home, whether they're caregivers at home or whatever, they all have a space in the workforce. They're all enabled to circumvent their limitations, work whenever they are able to. And of course, I'm a technologist by background. I love technology, so I will have to throw that into the story and we're always a technology company. We also invest in technologies that help us reach these goals when it comes to diversity. A lot of our work in Fugro is offshore. That means people going out on boats and vessels away from their families for very long periods of time. What we've done is invest in technologies around remote operation centers. We call this our future workforce program. So essentially what we're doing is we're taking people away from these kind of environments where they have to be away from home, which by definition means that if you're a young mother, if you have a small baby at home, you cannot do these jobs, right? But this way, through our remote operation centers, we have the experts in the office behind the computer screen able to do exactly what they would have been able to do had they been offshore in that vessel. So having these technology enablers really helps in building that whole diversity story. Thank you. Thank you so much, Pujal. One aspect of trying to promote leadership, diversity in the leadership that has been always mentioned is, of course, mentorship and sponsorship. So Laura, I'm going to ask you a question on that. So what role do you think mentorship and sponsorship programs can play in fostering leadership diversity in our organizations? I mean, I think both mentorship and sponsorship are absolutely necessary, and I think it's part of those actionable steps that a company can implement. I think a lot of times people seek out mentorships naturally, but I think that it's a good idea for companies to have more formal written programs about mentorship and to encourage that to happen. And now mentorship is typically someone with influence guiding and supporting someone who might be newer to the industry, whereas sponsorship is more deliberate. It's recognizing that, you know, someone might be from a historically marginalized community and then recognizing that someone else is in a position of power and then should use that power to help advance the career path for another person. And I mean, I think people think that it sounds like a huge undertaking to kind of develop sponsorship programs, but a sponsorship program can be, you know, something as simple as verbally advocating for someone, but also really it's, I mean, I think you need to put a budget line for sponsorship, and it doesn't have to be a lot. It could be something as simple as ensuring that someone every year goes to a conference like this. So it could be, you know, paying for that ticket, paying for that travel to ensure that those people are seen and able to participate in the industry. Thank you. Thank you so much, Laura. I'm going to be a little bit more concrete in the conversation. So when we think diversity, there are three elements that come to mind, that come to mind. Hiring, promoting, and retaining, and you can take them, I mean, retaining and promoting, you can take them in any order. So in order to have diverse leadership, you need to hire better, you need to promote better, and you need to find ways to retain the people that end up going to be promoted. So Olivier, I'm going to go back to you and ask you, what step can be taken to ensure that hiring and promotion processes are fair and unbiased, and that they promote diversity in leadership positions? So, caveat here, don't work for HR. I'm not, don't take my advice for, but again, there's lots of resource out there, but working for the government, I think is a good example, because we do have some robust systems to make sure that we do inclusive hiring as called. So things like anonymized applications, making sure that the job description is not biased when we post it out. There's lots of things, so I mean, you can Google inclusive hiring, there's a lot of resource on there. But what I didn't realize, and researching a little bit before coming here, was there's actually a nice standard for HR management and diversity and inclusion, and I didn't know this, so there are some tools out there that people can use, and I even found a company that provides AI tool to remove the bias from job description, so there's lots of stuff out there. I'm going to be controversial again, there's so much stuff out there, to the point that really there's no excuse anymore. But for me, there's three main points that we need to kind of implement, as well as all the different tools that exist, because effectively, like you said, you recruit people, but it's not just about recruiting, it's about keeping the diversity, right? So if your diversity, you know, we all have targets like we have to have 15% representation of ethnic minority in the workforce, but that doesn't mean anything if you're advert biased, or if you're, you know, all these other things, so you need to kind of think about it as in a holistic way. And I think for me, the three takeaways are, it starts with being conscious that we need to improve. So it's that growth mindset, and as long as people in the organization have got that growth mindset, you can then start implementing those tools and make it work. Second thing is what you said earlier, Albert, is about understanding the problem. So being curious, starting with understanding from within what are the issues, focus group, looking at internal mobility, tracking, learning and iterating, basically. And then the third one, which is a bit of a plug, is to basically connect with the diversity network. Effectively, you need to get in touch with those, lots of those voluntary organizations that are doing that because it's their passion, because that's what they believe in. You need to set partnerships and work with them, fund them, help them because they will help you in return to kind of advertise in those hard to reach areas. And you need to make the most of that because there's so many that exist. I mean, I think all of us are part of one, pretty much. So, yeah, look out for those. Thank you. Thank you so much, Olivia. Clinton, how can organizations create inclusive leadership cultures that anchor diverse voices and perspectives? And we know how proud companies are with the culture, right? So how can we make sure that those cultures are actually inclusive leadership cultures? Yeah. I'm going to define maybe four terms this time. And I think it's really important, again, to have shared understanding of these terms. I'm going to define inclusion. I'm going to define culture. I'm going to define climate. And I'm going to define equity. I'm going to take my time with all this stuff, but I'll start with culture versus climate. So culture are your values. It's the things that at the highest levels you profess you will do as an organization. We believe in transparency, fairness, equity, inclusion. Those are the things that they say at the highest level. Now, climate is what it actually feels like on the ground, on your team, in a meeting. Our inclusive practice is being used, right? So when we think about inclusion, just to define that really quick, if diversity was about measuring the breadth of that human tapestry that exists on our teams, inclusion is about celebrating that diversity. And it's more than just acknowledging those differences, it's about embracing those differences. And it's not just differences in the disciplines that we have. Those are important. It's not just differences in the countries that we come from. Those are all so important. But it's also about the differences in the wide range of ethnic and cultural and social backgrounds that we have. And our social backgrounds, they lead to differences in our experiences and our perspectives. Which if we embrace those differences, not just the things that we have in common that bring us together, but those differences, then we're tapping into what I think is like the most important thing about humanity difference. When we tap into those differences, we create more complete and comprehensive solutions. Now, getting back to what folks can do to create spaces that are inclusive. I think there are three sets of things you can do. You can promote safety and belonging. And leaders should do that, but it's also everyone's job. You can promote active listening and continuous learning. Again, leaders can do that, but it's everyone's job. You can take proactive and equitable actions. And again, it's leaders' responsibility to do this, but it's everyone's job. And since I said equity and equitable, I'll define that really quick. So everyone has been talking about how this stuff is the right thing to do. Why is it the right thing to do? Why is it the right thing to do to invest more in underrepresented groups, more in marginalized communities? Well, it's because those communities have been marginalized. They're underrepresented because they've been underserved and pushed to the side. We all live in societies that have historically created barriers for some and benefits and opportunities for others. So we have to invest thoughtfully in ways that will level the playing field. And sometimes that leveling means investing more where needs are greater, providing sponsorship programming for those organizations, for those groups and those people who maybe are coming from backgrounds where they have less resources. So when we think about how we would promote safety and belonging, I'll say something really practical. If you're in a meeting and you want to share an idea, but you know that there's a person in that meeting who always gets upset when someone has something new to say or they have a difference of opinion, then you know that you're not in a space that's safe, you're not in a space that's promoting belonging. So everyone should be listening to everyone else in the room, making sure that everyone's voice is heard, every perspective is shared and understood, and really consider those voices that are coming almost out of nowhere. You know that one person who disagrees with everyone else or sees it slightly differently, they may be having a difference of opinion that comes from a difference in their background that has positioned them in society differently so that they see the problem at another angle. They're probably giving you an additional viewpoint to the same challenge that you're dealing with. So make sure that people can feel comfortable being heard and encouraged to speak up. Listen actively and learn. Everyone should constantly be learning, but leaders in particular. Leaders should find time to read books, watch shows, not just TV, not just documentaries, but TV shows that center the lived experiences of people who don't look like them. So you can understand other people's perspectives, think about the challenges people are facing, read the news about groups of people who are not like you, and bring that understanding into the workplace and take equitable actions, be proactive, so proactively mentor. Find someone in your organization from an underrepresented group and mentor them. Find people from underrepresented groups in your organization and sponsor them. Speak up for them, put their name forward, ask yourself why you're not putting their name forward when an opportunity presents itself. During COVID-19 at my company at Esri, when everyone was scrambling to address this disaster and it happens with every disaster, we weren't always bringing, thinking about who's the best person to bring to the table to address these issues, we were thinking about the people who we usually bring to the table. And as a result, all across the country in the U.S., people were leaving race and ethnicity and gender and sex off of the maps, even though that data was always there and always available. But because in other spaces, in small spaces, small communities, or some big cities in case, in fact like Milwaukee, there were black and brown women who found it important to just put race and ethnicity on the map alongside all the other data and they saw the patterns. It was immediately obvious and it would have been immediately obvious to all of us had different people been brought into those rooms, had different people been sat at the table and those different perspectives considered. So diversity and equity and inclusion, these things don't just make us feel comfortable at work, but in the work that we do, they save lives. Thank you, Clinton. So just special sector is not an isolated sector, right? So Laura, I have a question for you on how can the just special industry collaborate with other sectors to learn from the experiences and best practices in promoting leadership diversity? Yeah, that's a great question and kind of not sure where to start with that because there's so many industries that are doing good work. I mean, I think that the construction industry has been making leaps and bounds with at least trying to advance more gender equality. I also think that we can kind of start collaborating with academic institutions and I kind of think that that is the way to kind of build this pipeline of diversity by collaborating more with academic institutions. I think it's great. I've seen so many universities here, but you know, I would like to see, you know, kind of like networking as like part of the curriculum for some of these for some of these academic institutions if they could send people to events like this. There's also a lot of other industries that have been doing things successfully. I mean, if you look at some of the giants from like financial institutions like MasterCard, I think, is doing massive financing of STEM programs. Johnson & Johnson is about 50% leadership of women in their leadership roles and so there's a lot of these big giants that are doing stuff and I think there's a lot of smaller companies too, but I think that it's interesting to look at some of these big companies because they're investing massive millions and millions of dollars and the reason why they're doing that, you know, because it's the right thing to do, sure, maybe, but also because it's impacting the bottom line and so they recognize that by having more diverse leadership, they're making more money. Okay, thank you. Thank you so much Laura. So once again, I really recommend you to to look at that report that we are putting out and one thing that you're going to notice is most of the ideas that we are hearing now here are actually captured in in the report and there is a part of the report that I like is all those use cases that you know we have at the end of the report and most of our organizations actually share some of their best practices when it comes to diversity in the leadership and I'm not the first one to say everything is perfect because we all know it's not. So my last question to you, Fujia, is actually how can we hold our organizations accountable for making progress in leadership diversity and are there some metrics that can be used to measure that? Oh, that's a great question. I mean, asking a geodata specialist about metrics is a dangerous one because you'll get a very long answer. But I think, I think, I mean, the obvious metrics are looking at, you know, demographics, right? Like look at the higher management, look at how many, how is it distributed? Those are the obvious ones. I think, I think what's also important is to always set a time frame along with these targets. So you're not saying, well, this is a loose target, this is really something that should be embedded within whatever system you're using to track targets, whether it's OKRs, whether it's KPIs, whatever you want to call it. But I think there should be a time frame and there should be a solid goal. And I think other metrics could be around, you know, pay equity kind of assessments. You can have metrics around succession planning because again, I think what it was mentioned earlier, an easy excuse to say is that, well, we don't have the applicants for this position, so we can't use them. But if you put some thought into it and do an upfront succession planning, then you can, you can, you know, plan depending on when these applications come in and, you know, have that sort of as a real metric. And I think that there should be constant feedback within the organization. So employee surveys is a good way to check the policy of the company, make sure that, you know, environments you're in have the right level of diversity. And I think also ad hoc things, right? I've been in meetings where I walked in and then it's been just a room full of men and I'm literally the only woman in there. And I think the more and more this happens, it should be raised to management. And you need to say, well, it's all nice to say you're being diverse, but then, you know, where are the women in the room? Like, you know, make sure that the targets are sort of effective at all levels of the organization rather than, you know, a bucket target for the entire company. And I think other metrics that should be taken into account in terms of and also accountability is, for instance, exit interviews when people leave the company. It's important to emphasize and really understand the reasons, the true motivations for people to leave. And also continuously analyze retention rates when it comes to employees. And then there are other metrics, of course, that you could think of making sure that your work is recognized. So awards, like the one that we're going to be shortly announcing, I think. So awards, other kinds of external recognition, I think these are important metrics for organizations. But also, I mean, we all audit our businesses all the time. We should have audits and reviews for diversity as a metric as well. And I think that could be quite an effective way. So yeah, these are really some of the ideas that I can think of. Thank you. Thank you so much, Pooja. So I know that the DEI is a topic that makes people uncomfortable. And that's why when we have a panel like this, you don't want to love, you don't have a lot of people who will join because they are not coming here to be uncomfortable. But it's okay to be uncomfortable. It's okay to feel like I don't like what they're talking about. But let me listen a little bit. And you may not agree with what we believe in. We may not, you may not see some of our ideas as being a priority for your organization. That's okay. All we want is for people to give a little bit of their time to hear what we have to say. We want people to, I always say I want people to become advocate of DEI. But in order to be advocate of DEI, you have to understand the issue and should I say the issues of DEI. It's not about pointing fingers at people. As you may have noticed, we didn't point fingers at anybody here. But we just said there is another way to look at how we operate as the geospatial community. And we can look better than the image that we give out. When you see a panel, when you go to a conference, when you go to a geospatial event, you should feel different whenever you notice that there is some kind of homogeneity in your audience, in your leadership, in your customer, you're talking to the audience that you are dressing. And you can be part of the solution. And being part of the solution is not cutting some people out. It's just trying to find ways to bring other people with us, to bring other people together. If that's one thing you can get out of a conversation like this, please let that be. We need to do more at the individual level within your team, within your organization, and within the geospatial community as whole. That's why we're having this event. Hopefully, next time we're going to have a little bit more people. I think this year we have maybe a little bit more than what we had last year. So I expect, you know, year after year, we're going to have more people to join. And we won't say that it's the bandwagon, it's just a long train. So as long as you want to join this train, we're going to add wagons to the train so that many of us are advocates of DEI. So that years from now, when you look at the geospatial community, the geospatial community looks like the world we live in. So thank you so much for attending. And I really want to thank my panel here for their thoughtful answers to the difficult questions that are prepared for them. So thank you so much. Thank you. So now I think I'm going to give the floor back to Kuhili. Thank you, Albert, and thank you for those, you know, these discussions are always so interesting. I'd never want them to end. But then it is important to take it to the next level. We were just talking about, you know, there is this things that we should do. It's not only talks. So one of the things, one of the action items that we have, we just started last year. So our trailblazer rewards. And now we're going to proceed on to the trailblazer rewards, Albert. Albert, you can stay back. So they can stay or no? Yes, you must stay. You're coming back. And I'd like to invite Barbara Ryan back again on to the stage for the awards, please. Last year, didn't you? Yeah. Congrats. Let's see. I think I said it at the beginning, but there are a few different people in the audience. We, WJC, have been working with Intergeo for, well, at least the last two years. And under, again, Albert's and the DEI committee's leadership with support from Kuhili, not only after they put the committee together, but said, well, why don't we initiate a trailblazer award? So there are two awards, one to an individual who has exerted leadership in this particular area globally. And so, and nominations can come from anywhere. It doesn't have to be a member of the WGIC community. It can be anywhere in the entire world, but in the geospatial sector. The second award doesn't that go to a membership member of WGIC. So again, nominations can come from anywhere, but the winner has to be a WGIC member. So this is the second inaugural year of the trailblazer awards. I'll, I'll stop there, but okay, I'll keep going. All right. Because I would like to just say on behalf of WGIC, I want to say something about the last panel, you know, the panel discussion that you had, because I have to say while this DEI committee came into place, that I think has actually put some peer pressure on our member companies because when I first came into WGIC, there were, there was no diversity at the patron level. There is now a member company has come forward and put some diversity at the highest level. And the diversity at our executive board level has, okay, the numbers were low. Let's be honest, there were maybe two people on the executive board. There are now four people on that executive board that are diverse. And I think the forcing function there was the creation of the DEI committee that facilitated these discussions while as uncomfortable as they are. And Albert, you mentioned that. They're not easy conversations to have. So, so thanks for that. Okay. With that, are we announcing the, how are we doing this? You start with this one. The individual award. All right. You want to do it? All right. So for the, I want to look back here. For the individual award, Olivia Powell, you just saw her on the last panel. Olivia, come up. And as, yeah. Thanks. Yeah. So let me get out of the way. Now there are two, you don't want to be on the picture. Sure. You want to picture with Barbara. And she's going to say some few words. And there's just two stories here. And I'll look to Artie Ayers in the audience already. We actually lost a shipment of awards that were coming in. And so Artie wasn't sure the original Trailblazer award was going to arrive. And so she actually had this made up also in the last week. So you'll get two awards. And it's kind of a nice mix of color too. So Artie, thank you for, thank you for doing that. Olivia, we'll hold the awards because I do think you might want to take a minute or two more and just talk about that journey. Because I know not only have you worked in women and GIS, largely on the government side, but feel free to say a couple of things about that. Okay. Hi. And thank you so much for giving me the award. I mean, I didn't expect it at all. So it's really nice. It's my first award as well. I never win. Yes. The reason I've started working, I guess, or being invested in diversity is because my background is geospatial. And we all know the geospatial. I've been in there for 20 years that, you know, in the start, it wasn't that diverse. But also I was working in the police service, which meant that in IT and in the police, you can imagine that I was pretty much on my own all the time. And it wasn't to kind of be saying, you know, I've had enough, there's not enough women in here. It was like because I felt a bit lonely. And I just wanted to kind of reach out. And so when some of my colleagues started women plus in geospatial, I joined in and I was fully in. And then I became a director of it and I pushed and I've been talking to everybody about it. I think that's probably why I'm known for being an advocate. But I guess for me, it's not a hard thing to do. It's just the right thing to do. And I think my journey, although it started as being the only woman, I have noticed, it's broadened my eyes and I've noticed the lack of diversity in general. And because I'm a bit of a sucker for fairness, I have to admit, I then push for the wider diversity. And now at work, I'm labeled the inclusion person again. But you know, I'm happy because it's kind of making a difference and helping others that wouldn't have that help. Thank you. I hope you got some luggage over the weekend. Congratulations. Congratulations, Olivia. And actually, also, Clinton was in the room and was the award last year. So thank you for joining us. Okay, the second and last award goes to a member company of WGIC. Unfortunately, they couldn't join us here, but I'm going to ask Erin to come up, incoming Executive Director for WGIC and accept the award on their behalf. And what's really interesting about this company, this is the award that goes to Ivona. I don't know if we have a slide. Oh, we do have a video. Yeah, let's show it now and then I'll come back and make one last intervention. Well, we're tearing up that video. Let me just say it. So this award that goes to a WGIC member company, Albert Chair is the panel, but it's WGIC people that are on the award committee. And what I think is so interesting about this, Ivona just joined. This is their first year in the institution and yet put a nomination package together that just rose to the top for the entire diversity committee to come in and say they deserve this award. So Ivona, we think. You know me, I don't like silent space. So let me keep talking. The other thing about Ivona and this kind of, while we often Oh, we're here. And this recognition really underpins our commitment to making the space industry more inclusive, equitable and accessible for all. And our work goes beyond just the working day. Hi, everybody. We're so sorry we can't be with you today, but it's my absolute pleasure as the MD of Ivona to accept the WGIC's DI trailblazer award for 2023. This recognition really underpins our commitment to making the space industry more inclusive, equitable and accessible for all. And our work goes beyond just the workplace. And that's embedded with the work that we do within our STEM community. And we really believe that if we can cultivate that at grassroots level, then that will benefit the industry as a whole. So thank you once again for this recognition. Thank you to everybody, all of our team who work hard at Ivona, but also all of our business partners and supporters. Thank you so much. This really means so much to us at Ivona. Thank you so much. Hi, everybody. We're so sorry we can't be with you today, but it's my absolute pleasure as the MD. Yeah, we got audio. Let me just finish the comment about Ivona. You know, we often talk about the geospatial sector not being, it's not as big as agriculture or energy or mining. It's a rather small sector. Of course, our new logo says geospatial is everywhere and for everyone. But when you look within that geospatial sector, there's just tremendous diversity. You have equipment manufacturers. You have satellite manufacturers, satellite operators. You have software providers. You have service providers. You've heard from many of them over the last couple of days on our panels. Ivona comes in as largely a staffing organization for the geospatial and or space sector. So they're just another part of this ecosystem. And while many of our companies, particularly the big companies have their own HR departments, all of many of our associate members, startup companies don't have that. And Ivona works specifically on staffing for our sector. So a really unique part of the ecosystem. And maybe that had a lot to do with them winning the award. I'll stop talking, Elba. I'm going to give you the last word. Thank you so much, Barbara. And with this, we end this session on GAI. And Aaron, you promised me that next year we're going to have another one. That should be your first decision as the new lead of WGSE. And once again, Barbara, you know what I think. Thank you for everything. And we hope to continue what you have started and to make sure that GAI is a priority for organizations. Thank you. Thank you, everyone.