Thank you guys so much for being here. Im niki coffman, director of events and marketing at parnassus books. Where delighted to have you here. If youre not already please join us, like us on facebook. With so many exciting things coming down the pike. I just let this one out of the bag last night. Roxanne day is coming. I know. In july. Its very exciting and shes one of many, many, many brilliant basically to events a day between now and the indigent. Make sure youre on our email list or follow us on facebook. Tonight author has been a friend to us for the whole time he has been we watched his kids go from really small guys to birdie awesome guys who are deeply, deeply interested in star wars and mine craft, and this is her second event with him. Its always a pleasure to host summit in your community. So it gives me great pleasure to give you guys daniel sharfstein. [applause] thank you, niki. Its so wonderful to be here at parnassus books. These kind of places, i think of parnassus bo
But theyll be ushered in. Good afternoon and welcome to the Aspen Institute. On behalf of the Strategy Group and the Rural Development Innovation Group, i want to thank you for joining us for this lunchtime dialogue series. Americas rural opportunity. I want to thank all the people in the room here, in washington, d. C. , with us, as well as the hundreds of the people Live Streaming and those of you watching on cspan3. So i am i wonder how many there are. Im janet topolsky. Im executive director of the Aspen Institute strategies group. What we do here at aspen usg is we do a lot of work out in the country equipping local leaders to build more prosperous regions. And to advance those living on the economic margins while they do that. Since 1985, aspen csg has focused most of its work in Rural America. And through our experience over those years, we have learned full well that Rural America is not flyover country. Rural america, rather, is livein, workin, start a business in, and raise a