US Networking User Association Overview with Jason Gintert

Everybody, I'm here to talk about, Uh, The US Working Youth Association. So I'm Jason Gird. I'm, uh, uh, one of the, the co-founders And responsible For of the community outreach at, uh, at the U-S-N-U-A.

Um, as I like to affectionately say, uh, IT environment with beer, it doesn't have to be alcoholic or an Alcoholic, you can have that too, but, Uh, What is the U-S-N-U-A? So, it, it's a professional organization, uh, um, that that is built around the network, network engineering community. So, um, we started this in Ohio.

It started, actually started out as the Ohio Networking user group. Uh, and we started it, uh, I think it's about nine years ago now. Um, and really the idea was where many organizations were for other parts of, uh, of it.

So you had, uh, you know, VMware user group, the Linux user group, and there was even some industry specific networking user groups, like there's the, you know, Cisco user group, et cetera. But there wasn't a vendor neutral organization that, that, uh, got network engineers to talk about. Um, you know, the, the, the, the problems of the day, the, the, the, the things that they are encountering, uh, in managing and operating, uh, their own networks.

So, um, we started out doing, um, a few of these Ohio networking user group events, and, um, we, uh, did the first one in Cleveland. There was about 15 people that showed up to that one. And then, you know, we at the next one, a few more people showed up, and eventually we were getting these events up to about, uh, I think at peak, about 120 people, um, you know, regional network engineers that got together and, and, uh, we'd have a, uh, you know, a, a presentation of some kind, a panel discussion.

And, um, it was a nice lively night to get these people together. And, well, you know, one of the, the coolest things about it was, um, folks that had maybe had worked with one another, uh, as colleagues or, um, you know, maybe, you know, customer service provider relationships, getting people back together and, and, um, getting them face to face, uh, to interact with one another. It, it was a, it was a really powerful and cool thing, and then Covid happened.

Uh, so, uh, during that time, kind of a, a zoom, Uh, You know, guys would go grab a beer And, or A lot of people remember early on in, in, uh, during covid, uh, you know, those Zoom happy hours were, were pretty popular until everybody got sick of being on Zoom all day for work. And then also, you know, personally, um, but during That time outside Of Ohio, so to create a template that we could leverage to take to, uh, to other places. So, um, We Own event coordinators that are responsible for, um, helping manage each of these events.

Uh, and we rely on, uh, on people, um, in each respective region to help with the, um, the group organization, uh, you know, finding a venue for, for us to get together. And actually, um, I got Scott Rob on here who, uh, was gracious enough to speak about, um, his role as organiz. So he's gonna tell you a little more looks like, but you know, the, as I mentioned, the, the, the format of the events is followed by a panel discussion we drink at these events, and, uh, it's kind of up to each of the local chapter, and they'd like to do them per year.

Some people do them quarterly, some people do, you know, the two a year, one or two a year. Um, it's largely up to them. We give them a lot of, uh, flexibility to, to determine what works for their area.

Alright. So, um, so the format of these events presentation followed by panel discussion, but we, uh, you know, in that spirit of leaving it open to the local organizers, we allow them to, um, to kind of pick how that that local event goes. So, um, for example, in, uh, in our pa nug, uh, Pennsylvania NUG chapter, they, they chose to do, um, like, uh, a, it was a panel discussion, but it was, it was podcasters and they made a podcast out of it.

Uh, we've also had events where we've done debates. Um, uh, in fact, I, I think I might have a slide in here on, on one that we did, uh, at the Network automation Forum event. We had a social event there where we did the great debate of EVPN versus, uh, layer two leaf spine, uh, where we had each, you know, each, uh, candidate duking it out about their position.

So, um, kind of cool different, different types of, uh, ideas and different formats that end up at the events. But, um, more, more often than not, it's a presentation and it's a, and it's important to note it's a vendor neutral presentation. So it's about open technologies or prob interesting problems that, that folks have solved.

For example, we had a, a retailer in Ohio talk about how they created their own open source routers for 1600 of their stores. And they talked about, you know, here's the hardware we selected, here's how we, we, uh, um, built the software stack, here's how we deployed it. Um, so really cool stories about, uh, people solving interesting problems.

Jason? Yes. From Westfall, your interim group?

Yeah. And, uh, regional chapters. Uh, how many across the US and is there one in Texas?

There are actually multiple in Texas when we can jump ahead. Oh, right. So here, so here's all the different chapters that we have out there.

Perfect. Uh, today, uh, currently there's 28. Um, we have a few more slated for this year, um, that are on here.

And we don't like to really reveal those until they actually get up and going, because, you know, sometimes these things fall through, you know, the have folks that, that think they're interested and then they, they figure out, you know, what it might take as far as, uh, commitments to, to drive these sorts of things. And Scott can can talk to that, you know, what, what local organizers, um, are responsible for when it comes to managing these groups. But yeah, you have a few options in Texas.

There is actually, um, a few, um, people in Are, are you in the Austin area? Houston. Houston, okay, perfect.

Yeah, you're set. I was gonna say, we did have some Austin folks too. Um, and they come and go.

So they'll do their own like little mini events from time to time. Uh, but, uh, Houston's actually very active and I actually went down to one of their events not too long ago. So they're, they're a pretty active group.

Uh, and, uh, yeah, that's one of our, our better ones. So, um, we'll help Austin out. What's that?

We'll help Austin out. Yeah. There, there you go.

Thank you. Lead the way. So Jason, um, yes, quick question.

Uh, just kind of a follow up to this. I, I noticed that like there's not a lot in some states that you would expect them to be, like, for instance, California Yes. Washington.

Um, is there a reason for that? No, it, it, it's really comes down to, um, we've had conversations and tried to get traction in, in those places, but as I'd mentioned, there's sometimes, um, uh, like those, those, those plans fall through. And it, it could be because of, uh, you know, uh, lack of appropriate sponsorship.

So the way, way that we, um, fund these events is by re sponsors either regionally or, or nationally. Uh, but we bring in, uh, sponsors, be it bars or manufacturers, uh, software companies, those in the networking space that will, that wanna, uh, sponsor an event. And we have a few different sponsorship options.

Actually. We have a, a few new ones coming out that we hope are hoping will be, will be attractive, but there's a lot of factors about, you know, what we've tried to get started, uh, in, in a few western regions and, and just fallen through for whatever reason. That said, we are work right now working on a, uh, um, a new chapter in Seattle.

So, uh, I, I can actually get you tied in with those guys. What we like to do is we like to connect the people in each of these regions with the local organizers to help one another out. So I'm happy to connect you with the folks in, in that region that are, that have planned for an event in the fall for, for, for right now.

And I just wanna, you know, state that they, it might get pushed depending on, on scheduling and planning and, and those sorts of things. But for now, tentatively they're looking at a, at a fall inaugural event. So, um, and we do, we have had conversations with folks in California.

Um, you know, we started these groups as state-based groups initially, but then we had, uh, it was actually Phil Avai, uh, from Kente who, who mentioned, uh, uh, Hey, I'm in upstate New York. I'm not gonna, I don't wanna go to New York City all the time for these, you know, so nobody upstate wants Steve. There you go.

So realizing that there's kind of regional, uh, um, regional considerations and also just large territories to work with, like talking about Texas, you know, there's just very, or California. Um, we, we decided to break them up into, um, city-based regions. So you'll see a few, you know, a few chapters in, in each of these states.

Um, so that's been really successful for us and, and we're able to, um, to, you know, service more, more folks make it, um, you know, so they have to travel, uh, a shorter distance to get to the events. Um, but we are working on ones in, in Northern California right now, um, and had conversations with folks about, about Southern California. So, you know, I, I mentioned before we got about, we have a few more chapters coming online right now.

We're working on about six of them. So hopefully you'll see this list grow. Um, one other thing I wanted to mention about, about the US NUA and there'll be more on this later.

Um, there, there's a gr a lot of great member resources we're collecting together. Um, we have videos of some of the events, uh, available, uh, to, to review. We have, um, we've done some cool webinars.

Phil actually did, did a, a great webinar on, on ai, Phil Gisi, um, and there's, uh, PowerPoint presentations up there from our events. So if you wanna see what other folks have spoken about, you can go into our members section and see those things. We also have a slack for people to communicate.

So we have, uh, that that's a great place to, to go in and talk to folks in the community. We have a channel for each regional group, so, um, that they can communicate, you know, locally about their events. com.

So if you wanna check that out, um, it's a good place to start. So you kind of coming back to why we started it, um, you, you know, we wanted a place that, a vendor neutral place where people could share ideas about networking. Um, this was the, uh, event I mentioned at naf, so we called it Nugget naf, um, where we, we had the great debate of, uh, EVPN, uh, versus layer, layer to the spine.

We had about 250 folks in, in the room there. It was a really fun event. Um, and, um, you know, we're looking for new ways to, to do these sorts of things where we're partnering with, with organizations like naf, um, and, and able to bring, uh, folks together at, at some of these national events in addition to the regional events.

Do you see a lot of potential cooperation with some of the local nog, like the shy nog and there's, you know, Absolutely. Yeah. We've been talking to the, the regional nos and nanog about potential partnerships and relationships there where we can, um, you know, kind of, um, co-market co uh, you know, work together on, on some of these events.

So it's definitely something we're working on right now. How do You, uh, ensure vendor neutrality when it's sponsored by vendors? That's, that's a great question.

Um, we, we, so we have, uh, a lot of mechanisms in place, uh, and it's largely falls to the, the group organizers to make sure, and, and, and I, I, I, I keep, I, I keep teeing Scott up, but there, we, we, we send out, um, yellow and red cards. I, in soccer, I don't know if you guys know, like, if, if there's a, you have a yellow card where it's, it's a warning red cards, you're outta the game. Uh, we, we send those cards to the regional organizers so they can warn people if they're being a little overzealous from a sales perspective that, uh, that they, they, they, they'll get, they'll pull a card.

Um, we, we've had to use the, the, the, you know, yellow cards a few times. We've, I think we've only had to use a red card once. Uh, somebody did try to corner someone for a PO and, uh, uh, at the event and just wouldn't leave 'em alone.

So we, we had to give him the boot. Um, no one wants to do that, but we, we, we, I mean, that's a great question and something we think a lot about is how to, to maintain vendor neutrality at these events. Uh, and we've had challenges with, with folks, you know, putting things into slide presentations.

When I talk about some of the presenters, sometimes it's someone who's representing a vendor, maybe we, we let them talk about, you know, technologies that are, uh, loosely, you know, related to their products, but we don't want them pitching their product in those presentations. So sometimes there's been challenges there. We like to review every single one of those presentations before they go up.

But there's been, you know, a few times where there's been a little bit of a switch switcheroo at the end before the presentation goes up. And, and we police that. So we, we are very, um, uh, I guess cognizant of that and, and try to keep it as neutral as possible at the events.

You can adopt a hockey penalty box. Yeah, Maybe we'll add that one. That, that's a good idea.

Have put a little corded off area. Yeah, you get the red card, you're in the penalty box. Um, a another cool thing about, uh, the US NUA, uh, events that we've been, uh, incorporating is, uh, bringing in folks new to the industry and giving them the ability to meet some of their peers.

And, uh, and we've been asking at the beginning of a lot of the events, is there anybody in the room who has open, open positions that, and maybe can, you know, kind of be a matchmaking service for some of these, these folks, uh, to get together? Um, so there's some more that we're planning for this year, um, as far as, um, some of those efforts to get people new to the industry, connected with, with folks that, uh, think could get them started on their career. So, uh, stay tuned for some of those things.

So we went through the active groups. com. They, they should be right there on the, on the front page or else, uh, I think you can go to, uh, uh, membership in groups at the top of the page as well.

I think we're up to 36 groups now on the webpage. It says 36 is, is it 36? There you go.

So, uh, it's, I may have updated information on this slide. Um, they might have, they might have done a, um, a refresh recently, potentially after I made this. Um, so I mentioned the, the member resources before.

Here's some examples of some of the things that we have there. Like I mentioned, Phil Avai did a great webinar on, uh, on AI overview and large, large language models, um, which was, uh, I mean, it was helpful for me. I really enjoyed that presentation.

Uh, we got a video of the, the great debate, uh, the Nugget naf, um, debate is up there now. Um, the podcast panel in, in Pennsylvania, we've got, uh, I think it's audio only, but we have that up there. In addition, it's the, uh, it's on the, uh, art of network engineering.

Uh, I think that they have it in their, uh, in, in their feed now. So yeah, it should be available there. And then here's some examples, uh, on the bottom here of, of some of the, uh, presentations that, that folks have given at the events.

Uh, and we make those available, uh, freely as well. So, um, we have some featured ones at the top, but you can, you can go root through, and if there's any you don't see on there, a good place to be is on the slack to ask, Hey, does anybody have a, a copy of that, that presentation? We try to put as many up up there as we can, but, uh, you know, obviously, uh, sometimes things fall through the cracks and, uh, uh, we don't get them all, but great resources, highly recommend you, you sign up, a sign up is required.

It is free. Everything that I'm talking about here is free to members. So the events are free, the member page is free.

Uh, all of those things are free for members. Uh, of course, you know, the, on the sponsor side, that's how we pay for all this. Um, so all more information on that later if folks are interested in, in, uh, uh, you know, helping the cause, supporting what we're doing and, uh, getting their brand, brand in front of a bunch of network engineers.

Um, so last year we held, uh, 57 events Nation nationwide. Um, we had the 28 active groups last year. As we talked about.

There's, look, sounds like we've got a few more launched here, um, uh, in the past week or so. Um, we have a bunch of registered members, uh, as far as, um, you know, the, the, the members only section, and we're hoping to, to double that number this year. Uh, and, and a lot of engagement.

Um, so you can see by, by the, the, the registration numbers. Some of these events are, are, are really taking hold. So Nebraska is actually a pretty new chapter that, that took off very quickly.

Um, I mentioned Ohio being our oldest chapter will, will get, you know, over a hundred, um, folks to those events now. Um, but it took a long time to get there. Um, usually takes a little bit of, you know, momentum building to get to the, these sorts of numbers.

But, um, you know, a lot of folks end up at these events. So again, from the perspective of sponsors, there's a lot of folks that, that you could be communicating with. Uh, so here's the Nugget naf, um, great event.

Uh, if you were wondering EVPN won as far as the, the great debate, we actually voted at the end to see, uh, who, who won. Like, there, there's been some, uh, question about, uh, um, some, some ballot stuffing there. So, um, at the other event, this is the first time we've actually run this, uh, debate before in Ohio.

Uh, and a lat leaves spine one every one, uh, before, but this time EVPN won. And it was fun. We, we actually added a, a raffle to it, and it was cool 'cause we were at the Network Automation Forum event.

Some of the authors of those book of, uh, some of the books about automation, we were able to raffle off their books and give those away. So it was, it was a pretty fun event. Very cool.

Um, and we're, you know, we're, we're talking to, to Scott and, uh, Chris right now about pot, the potential for doing it again here in the US in the fall. So, uh, hoping to make that happen. I think the, the debate will be a different topic.

Some of like the automation community, there's a lot of software focused people, so I think we might have something more software focused for them. But, um, you know, this was a lot of fun. Hopefully we're doing the same thing in the fall.

Uh, so I'd like to pass things over to Scott Roon to talk about his experiences as, as a group leader. So, uh, Scott, take it away. Thanks, Jason.

I don't know about the last bullet. You, you make your own decision on that, but, uh, so I have my hat on as a, you know, the Virginia nug, one of the co-founders and leaders. I could just give you some flavor on how it works at a local chapter level.

First of all, it's awesome. Um, there's nothing like getting people together, you know, with common interest in networking and having all sorts of different exposure and ideas, um, in a pretty flexible forum, and ha having it around beer does not hurt. Um, again, you can have your, your choice whether you like the cloth hauler or, or or other, but, uh, uh, 2024 has been the first year for Virginia Nug.

Um, we had four meetings last year that was aggressive. We will not have four meetings in 2025. Um, but, uh, you know, the idea of hyper-local events and letting folks organize based on geography, what kind of businesses are in the area and so forth, that, that gives, you know, the 79 Ohio nug ones, different flavors, sorry, not 79, 4, 4 different Ohio nug, um, you know, versus New York with, you know, metro and upstate chapters, Virginia, we would like to move it around eventually, but we're kind of sticking with Northern Virginia and the DC metro area to get momentum and get some regularity there.

Um, what else can I tell you about, uh, how this works? We have great, uh, back office support from the corporate office, and I'll give a plug for Kayla Anthony in particular, she's not the only one, but, uh, she keeps all our planning meetings organized. She drives all the sponsor interaction.

She makes sure we have panelists confirmed and speakers confirmed. And there's really minimal work that you have to do, um, on the front line of being a, an organizer because of all that backend support. So, you know, they really let you do what you want to do, what fits for your area, you know, within guidelines that they, they set up, but it's not, uh, it's not managed with an iron fist or anything like that.

Um, Virginia has some in, uh, interesting particularities with, you know, data Center alley being in Loudoun County. Um, that's just about 10 miles away from where we've been meeting in Reston, Virginia. You have a lot of folks who have come in for hyperscalers, for data center operators, but also longtime telco folks, you know, from the Bell Atlantic UU net, um, and subsequent comms heritage days.

Um, one of the other things that I think has been successful, um, are the adjacent technology meetups. So there've been some collaboration with security organizations. Um, there's room to do things like that.

Um, if you're familiar with Yco and the wireless land professional community, um, we're thinking about doing something in the fall in Virginia, um, that organizes, you know, a, uh, Virginia NUG meeting with the Yco herd meeting. Um, and that could just be a lot of fun, right? Um, ask me some questions.

What else, what else should I say about local chapter activity? Um, maybe you want to talk a little bit about, you know, the selection of venues and the process that you go to, the amount of time that you actually put into, um, you know, helping organize locally. Yeah.

You have to understand traffic patterns, where you are and where critical mass of folks are, uh, exist in a given area and, you know, timing and how, how accessible is it going to be, um, to get to a given location. And traffic is a mess in the DC metro area, like everything's back to, uh, pre covid levels now. Uh, it was, we had a reprieve for a few years, and that game is over.

Um, we were meeting in one location that was a little further away from, uh, DC and we got decent uptake, but we had people request, um, a location that was convenient to public transportation. So we actually got a location in Reston Town Center, which now has great, um, metro subway access. Um, and that's helped, uh, a little bit with, uh, with uptake.

You, you do have to, you know, it takes local knowledge to pick venues to understand timing and things like that. Um, and, and to figure out what makes sense from a moving locations perspective. Like even within the DC Metro, we'd like to do something closer in.

Um, there's kind of been a revitalization of tech companies closer in to DC in the Arlington area, if you know the area. So we're making decisions about, okay, we had a couple people ask about doing something at different venues that's gonna make it harder for people further out, but it might attract people closer in what's the right decision? I don't know, but let's try it and see what happens.

Um, also because of where we are, you know, the, the DC Metro can attract people from Maryland, but again, traffic is a barrier. So I think there's a couple interested parties looking at starting a Maryland nug that's not that far away, but, uh, the distance topologically is much greater 'cause of, of the Potomac River barrier and the bridges to get across it. Um, and like, I'm happy to help those folks get started.

And even if we lose people that have been coming to Virginia because of the Maryland activity, that's fine. Um, there are also groups of people that travel around, like there's a core of folks from PA nug that come down to Virginia Nug, and it's, it's awesome to see people who want to do that. Um, you can't count on that for regular attendance, but it's been fun to see.

I've had the privilege of, I think going to 10, 11, 12 different nug meetings last year, um, and into January this year to just kind of see how other nugs operate. And because I'm an independent consultant, I can do that with my own marketing and money. Uh, but it's been a great place to not just present, but also see, you know, what the, what the nuances are of different chapters.

So if you're interested in putting up, um, a nug or thinking about it in your local area, I'd highly encourage talking to Jason, talking to the team, asking me questions. I mean, you can tell that I'm pretty positive on it, but I'll, I'll talk about all the hard things too. You know, there are, there are challenges.

So any other questions on local nug stuff? Is there some type of like threshold or metric board getting presenters and sponsors before you can set up and schedule a nug or can, like what if there was a situation where everyone just wanted to get together to hang out and commiserate on something or whatever? Is there an expectation that there's a number of presentations of things?

So, um, I think Jason should follow up on that more, but I'll just say short answer is yes, you have to have enough sponsorship to actually pay for food and beverages. Um, that threshold is not onerous. And getting people to, uh, speak as a main speaker or be a panelist, like obviously the threshold for panelist is much easier.

There are people who are very nervous about it. It's understandable if you don't do this a lot and you know, don't let 'em see you sweat. Um, you know, once you do it a couple times, you get more comfortable with it.

Um, but like, it's a great, it's a great place to build some muscle, um, for things like that in a pretty low risk environment. I haven't seen any hypercritical, nug folks. You know, that presentation was horrible.

You should never do that again. I've never heard anything like that, but let me have Jason speak to the rest of those details. Yeah, thanks Scott.

Yep. Appreciate You. Um, so yeah, like, like, uh, Scott mentioned there's, um, there is some, you know, sometimes challenges as far as getting enough sponsorship to, to support an event.

So in, in those cases, you know, we, we may reschedule, push an event out if we don't get the kind of the minimum number we need, which is, you know, to, to cover, uh, the costs of the venue, the food, the, the, the potential alcohol based on the number of signups that we have. Uh, we have some rough calculations of what to expect because it varies by region. You know, an, an event that's happening in, in, in Des Moines, Iowa is gonna be a different cost than an event happening in downtown San Francisco.

So we have to pick all those things into account when we're, when we're working with sponsors to figure that out. Um, so it's kind of a case by case sort of thing, um, where we figure that out. Uh, we've been fortunate as far as, you know, presenters and, um, panelists that they, they're, you know, in most places, the, it's a, you know, active community.

There's, there's folks who are interested in, in being a part of it, and it is great exposure for some of those, some, some of those folks who might not have it. So we've had, like for example, you know, in, in our backyard we had a guy from the local electric utility present on his automation journey. And it was his first time presenting, you know, he was, he was nervous as heck, but it's, it's a low impact place to start.

You know, there was, there was, you know, 80, a hundred people in the room, but he got to, you know, tell his story about how he built, you know, used, you know, started off with Ansible and moved on to Python and started building frameworks for himself. And it was really cool as he demoed, uh, and showed it, showed that off. And then there was engagement, you know, uh, you know, after each part of the event.

So if we have a, a speaker and, and a panel discussion, we try to leave space in the middle for folks together to get together and talk. Um, there was a lot of people that went up to him asking him questions. A lot of good engagement that happened after the fact.

So, pretty cool. So Jason, a a couple of comments, well, a question and a comment question. Do you allow, uh, co-sponsors, so, you know, a lot of people, a lot of local vendors, man, I probably can't pay for the whole thing, but I'll pay for a quarter or half.

We do. Is that doable too? It is, Yeah.

So we've got, um, four sponsorship levels today. Um, and you can kind of pick and choose which one's appropriate for you. Each level gets you more stuff.

Obviously as you move up the, you know, from a cost perspective, you get, get more out of it as far as, um, you know, places where we're presenting your brand, whether it's, uh, on table, placards, the slides, uh, a few different options. We're actually introducing some, some more calls to action, uh, now too, where, you know, um, sponsors will get to, to, you know, include a link in our post event message. So it's kind of, you know, if you don't wanna click on it, you don't have to.

So we're not trying to push any, any agendas or, or anything like that, but giving sponsors an opportunity to, you know, get their message out there about whatever, maybe it's a new product or service they're, they're offering or just in general about them. So, um, so yeah, there's, there's a few different options and there, and at most events, there's, there's, you know, five or six sponsors typically. And those could be, uh, um, you know, the typical hardware vendors, the Cisco, the Juniper, the, uh, Arista, um, it could be, um, software vendors.

Kente is, is sponsored a lot of events. Um, it could even be local VARs and MSPs, um, will sometimes sponsor an event and, and, you know, have a presence there. So.

Okay. And, and one quick comment. Um, the ones in Minneapolis, I, I would imagine, uh, most of 'em are the same way.

They, they're very heavy engineering, very technical. Uh, one thing I wouldn't mind seeing more of is, um, you know, there's a lot of experience with these things, things, you know, what does architecture look like? What does, you know, more of the, the higher level of the thought process because people wanna progress in their career, right?

Yeah. And, and incorporate more of that. The, we, we, we do, we kinda leave it up to the local organizers, you know, and that's good feedback to give your local organizers to say, Hey, I'd like to see more of these sorts of topics, and then they might be able to, to build that.

The, the cool thing is, is, is the, you know, you get the local flavor, they, they get to figure out, you know, what that looks like. Yeah. So, um, how to get involved.

com, uh, go to membership and become a member at the top of the page. Join the slack to, to chat with us. com.

Um, you know, it's a good way to get the word out about your brand, uh, your products. Again, we we're adding a few more calls to action. So, um, a few things that we'll be able to offer.

Um, so those are coming up at, at the end of the month, and here's our, our great team Scott mentioned. We, we, you know, uh, a lot of this I is, uh, is possible because of the folks that, that organize the events. So the folks behind the scenes that are, that handle all that, all the heavy lifting, so you don't have to.