 Hi everyone. We've had those of us who were out there an amazing welcome to this land earlier this morning. It's my job to welcome us to Socap where we're gathering to build trust, trusted relationships. We need the indigenous wisdom that we've felt and seen and heard today more than ever. I flew in late last night from Dubai where I'd spent a week. I've been involved in various conversations about things happening there. And so I also want to pause and acknowledge not just the conflict there but the conflicts around the world that are taking place. We've lost, forgive me if I get emotional, but we've lost more than 220,000 people to conflict around the world in the last year. We've lost 6,000 in that region in the last two weeks. So not wanting to put a dark cloud over things but I'll just ask us to pause for a few seconds and acknowledge them and honor them in their passing. Thank you. As we gather here, there are certainly multiple perspectives on what's happening in that region and we've had some issues already even this morning as we begin. And so I start with an ask, a request. Let us not let our differences of opinion stop us from our work of building the world that we want. Let us honor them not with more conflict here but with trust. Let us listen with respect. Let us talk with respect. Let us show appreciation and even show love. This morning we had the Manari blessing to awaken wisdom within us to help us rise up and be more conscious as humans. That reminded me of a Maya Angelou poem which I quickly modified my comments today to include. She said, you may write me down in history with your bitter twisted lies. You may trod me in the very dirt but still like dust I'll rise. Just like the moons and like the suns with the certainty of tides just like hopes springing high still I'll rise. Leaving behind nights of terror and fear I rise into a daybreak that's wondrously clear I rise, I rise, I rise. Let us rise to build trust. In this time of conflict, let us rise and choose trust. In this time of political polarization, let us rise and choose trust. In this time of social polarization on so-called social media, let us rise and choose trust. In this time of talk show gladiators, let us rise and choose trust. Let us choose unity. Hemingway said, the best way to learn if you can trust someone is to trust them. Let us lean into that here together these next three days. We gather to build trust, not as a cute theme, not as a tagline, but as a path forward and a way to accelerate our progress, accelerate our impact through collaboration. Trust, Stephen Covey said, trust is the glue of human relations. Trust, end quote, this is me now. Trust makes everything better, faster, easier, more enjoyable. Trust powers our collaboration, which accelerates our impact. Some of you know I recently had a birthday and I'm reading 52 books this year, a book a week. The one I'm reading now, and I was reading on the way over here, is Malcolm Gladwell talking to strangers. And in there he outlines that we as humans have a bias towards trust. We have a natural default to trust. That's why sometimes we get duped by strangers. But as social scientists, even economists have looked at this, they've found that net net, it is far better to choose trust. That trust is rightfully placed more than 90% of the time. And it's worth it for the occasional times when trust is broken. So choose trust, extend trust, lean into trust. Use this time to build and accelerate trust so we can collaborate to build the world we all want. To close, I'll read a haiku that I wrote in a jet-lagged stupor. We'll see how it goes. I will admit also on the side, I had a little help from chatGPT when I was stuck. Mistrust blocks the sun. Trust opens doors to new light. Hope blooms when we are one. Welcome to SoCAP23.