 So you're probably wondering why we just showed you a video about fly fishing, right? It's because in most of my free time you can find me out in places like this, out on the water, actually fly fishing. And as I said in the video, if you don't know anything about fly fishing, historically, it's a very male-dominated activity. But over the past few years, that demographic has been shifting significantly, due in large part to campaigns like Orvus's 50-50 on the water. And what a lot of people also don't know is that much of the conservation efforts surrounding waterways in the US are actually spearheaded by organizations somehow tied to angling. And no, we didn't actually plan this order of talks, but climate change and those things are really important to us. So I subscribed to Orvus's channel on YouTube and I watched the 50-50 on the water video shortly after it was released. And I got to tell you, I was feeling good. I was excited that a company at the heart of the sport was taking such a proactive approach to encourage more women to give it a try and to join the community. And I was really proud of them for addressing the issues head-on, knowing full well that there'd be more fallout and more opinions like that of the guy in the video. But somehow all this joy and all of this excitement that I was thinking and feeling went straight to my brain. Because I made a terrible mistake, a mistake I hope none of you ever make. I read the comments and my excitement quickly faded. It was replaced by disgust and anger and disbelief. I could not understand how so many people could take issue with such an obviously beneficial cause. And in reading through the comments, a few things started to jump out at me. A lot of the commenters seem to interpret the campaign as take a man's spot on the water. And many seem completely unaware or maybe it was just indifferent to the barriers of entry facing women getting into the sport. Most seem to completely discount the value that a diverse community brings to everybody. And let's be honest, there is a product and marketing and revenue opportunity for companies like Orvis. But with increased environmental pressures, a vibrant and diverse community is critical to the survival of our waterways and ultimately to our sport. And so I'm actually glad that I read the comments because it inspired me along with people like Swarna and Dan Jones to get up here and start talking about this issue. You see, inclusion is not just the fair thing to do. It's also about the greater good. Inclusive communities benefit all of us. As Morgan Tilton wrote about fly fishing, women's increased involvement unites communities and invigorates conservation initiatives, ultimately leading to sustainability of angling and healthier ecosystems. See, climate change is a very hard problem and it has very real consequences to fishing. And so clearly having a larger, more active community focused on conservation efforts benefits everybody on the water and far beyond. And yet somehow the people commenting on the video seem to completely miss that point. We've actually got similar challenges in technology. We too face hard problems. Yet in our communities, many of us come from similar places and similar backgrounds and have similar experiences. And what that means is that we often approach challenges in the same way. To echo Jessica Powell, we've created a monoculture of thought in technology and that's a real problem. It's a real problem because diverse teams make better decisions. According to this study up to 87% of the time. And that's because diverse teams have diverse perspectives. They approach challenges from different angles. If you welcome the ideas and contributions from everybody, if you listen and adapt, you can make better decisions. The science is there. There's a ton of studies that say the exact same thing. So what's at stake if we don't address these issues? Well, we could certainly miss out on some pretty important contributions. The contributions from Grace and Joan. I assume many of you know the irreplaceable contributions to technology made by Grace Hopper. From her work with early compilers to the notion that computers could be programmed using the English language in a machine independent way. Her impact is almost immeasurable. For anybody that had to struggle with assembly languages and things like that in school, know just how important these ideas are. However, I bet very few people in the audience know anything about Joan Wolfe. Joan Wolfe is actually the architect of modern fly casting. She dominated casting championships for over 15 years against all male fields. But more importantly, she dedicated her life to sharing her knowledge and teaching other people how to cast. And she's still doing that today. If you're sitting in the audience and you know how to cast a fly rod, you likely owe that to Joan. But even if you don't know how to cast a fly rod, think about the impact of inspiring generation after generation of conservationists. She's impacted your life too. The truth is the technology world and the greater world would be significantly different without the contributions of Grace Hopper. And the fly fishing world and our environment would be greatly affected without the contributions of people like Joan Wolfe. So when I think about this, I stop and I ask myself, what would my life be like if Grace or Joan didn't have the courage to join their respective communities? It's a scary thought and I'm thankful that that wasn't the case. You know, we're all very lucky to be stewarded by such a progressive group at the Cloud Foundry Foundation, where equality and inclusion have been core areas of focus since its inception. And yet, take a moment and look around. I can tell you from up here that we're making progress, but I can also tell you that we've got a really long way to go. And that extends beyond just diversity of gender. We see the same at most other tech companies and most other tech communities as well. And so given the obvious benefits of a diverse community, why is this so different? What's standing in the way? The answers are obviously complex and varied and more than we can deal with today here. But there are things we can learn from fly fishing and things we can all agree to do right now. If you've never walked into a fly shop before, it is extremely intimidating. Because you walk in and you see a myriad of flies and rods and reels and line and all this sport specific gear that's completely foreign to most people. There's no physical barrier of entry. Anybody can walk in the store, but you walk in the store and you go, oh, wow. So there's a pretty significant barrier there, even though it's a public place. But now imagine walking into that same shop and the guy behind the counter gives you a funny look. It doesn't matter if it's your first time in or you're a world-class fly fishing guide like April Voki. Believe it or not, we have similar issues in cloud foundry. And you might say, wait a minute, it's open source. There's no barrier, right? Anybody can go grab the source code and anybody can get the docs and anybody can get on our Slack channels. But there's a problem. There's over 600 repositories in the cloud foundry orgs on GitHub. There's 280 public Slack channels with over 9,000 members. And there's hundreds, if not thousands, of pages of documentation. So like a fly shop, that's a pretty intimidating place to walk into, right? A lot of you were here for the first time. That's part of the problem, but there's actually a bigger problem. Me, I'm part of the problem. You see, I've actively worked and looked for ways to lower the barrier of entry for new people into the community. But I also assume that diversity and inclusion isn't something a middle-aged white guy can do. And in fact, when the cloud foundry foundation asked me to give this talk, I said, no, I do not want to take somebody else's spot. That is not for me. What I failed to realize is that inclusion is about addition, not subtraction. It's not about taking somebody else's spot but affording all the same opportunities to be involved for the betterment of everyone involved. When we all work together, we all get a voice and we all get to listen. And as a community, we all benefit. And so what I've learned is I can be part of the solution. I can make people feel welcome, but I can also participate in the conversation and bring my perspective. I can listen and I can share. If you're still having reservations with all of this, I want you to close your eyes, stop and think about Grace and Joan. Imagine if they were too intimidated, if they didn't feel welcome enough or they didn't feel like they could get involved in the community to contribute. We can all make sure that that doesn't happen. You would be very surprised how many barriers you can remove simply by making somebody feel welcome, especially if you look like me, especially if you're a middle-aged white guy. I am not asking anyone here to give up your spot, actually quite the opposite. I'm asking everyone here to get involved. I'm asking you to work to identify and remove barriers both perceived and real to make sure everybody in this community has a voice and we treat each other with respect and kindness so that we can all share in the rewards. Thanks.