Behind the Scenes at the Travelers Championship

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Text, Wednesdays with Woodward (registered trademark) A Webinar Series, Behind the Scenes at the Travelers Championship. At the bottom are logos for the Metro Hartford Alliance, Travelers Institute, Travelers, The Connecticut Business Industry Association, CBIA, and Travelers Championship. 

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Hello. Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you, so much, for joining today's program, a behind the scenes look at the Travelers Championship. 

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A video box appears in the top right corner with speaker Joan Woodward.  

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I'm Joan Woodward, and I'm honored to lead the Travelers Institute, which is the public policy and educational arm of Travelers. Today's program is part of our Wednesdays with Woodward, a webinar series we started last year to connect with you and explore issues impacting our personal and our professional lives in these very uncertain times. 

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Text, Join our mailing list, institute@travelers.com, LinkedIn logo, text, Connect, Joan Kois Woodward. Watch replays, travelersinstitute.org. hashtag Wednesdays with Woodward 

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Today, we're pleased you're here with us and we'll hope you'll stay engaged with us. 

You can join our mailing list by emailing us. You connect with me directly on LinkedIn, if you would like, or watch webinar replays of our past webinars. I think we've had about 25, now, at TravelersInstitute.org. So before we get started, I'd like to share our disclaimer about today's webinar. 

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About Travelers Institute Webinars. Wednesdays with Woodward is an educational webinar series presented by the Travelers Institute, the public policy division of Travelers. This program is offered for informational and educational purposes only. You should consult with your financial, legal, insurance or other advisors about any practices suggested by this program. Please note that this session is being recorded and may be used as Travelers deems appropriate. 

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We have a really terrific program for you and always we'll save time at the end to answer your questions. 

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Back to the first slide, Text, Wednesdays with Woodward, A Webinar Series, Behind the Scenes at the Travelers Championship. At the bottom are logos for the Metro Hartford Alliance, Travelers Institute, Travelers, the Connecticut Business Industry Association, CBIA, and Travelers Championship. 

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If you want to, click on the Q&A function at the bottom, middle of the screen, and ask your question in that Q&A function. If you want me to read your name, I certainly will, or you can also send anonymously if you don't want me to read your name. 

Today, we're thrilled to be joined by our partners the Metro Hartford Alliance; the Connecticut Business and Industry Alliance, CBIA; and the Travelers Championship, who's led, of course, by our Tournament Director Nathan Grube, who's joining us for this special conversation today. Like many of you, I look forward every year to Connecticut's annual PGA TOUR (registered trademark, used with permission) golf tournament, the Travelers Championship. Travelers has been the title sponsor of this event since 2007 and we did just announce that we're extending our partnership proudly through 2030. The Travelers Championship donates 100% of net proceeds to charity every year and we're going to talk about that today. What does that really mean, and do other professional sports leagues donate to charities? We'll peel that onion for you today. Since 1952, the tournament has raised more than $44 million for all these charities. And last year alone, in 2020, a tough year for all of us, the event raised more than $1.6 million for 115 charities throughout our region. 

So given these contributions, it's no surprise that the tournament holds a special place in the hearts of many Connecticut residents and golf fans alike. And we're really humbled that is just as important to many of the game's best players. But now, I'm very excited to welcome our speakers today. With me are two really important people who make it all work and they're instrumental in this and make it possible every single year. So first, we have Andy Bessette, who is Executive Vice President and Chief Administrative Officer at Travelers. And Andy wears many hats. 

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Text, Speakers, Joan Woodward, Executive Vice President, Public Policy, President Travelers Institute Travelers. Andy Bessette, Executive Vice President & Chief Administrative Officer Travelers. Nathan Grube, Executive Director, Greater Hartford Community Foundation Inc, Tournament Director Travelers Championship 

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He has responsibility for corporate real estate, administrative services, community relations, and the Travelers Foundation, among others. So notably, he has responsibility for Travelers sports sponsorships, including our marketing partnership with the PGA TOUR and title sponsorship of the Travelers Championship. 

Andy is really active in the community. Many of you have seen him around town serving on the boards of the Greater Hartford Community Foundation, as a trustee of the University of Connecticut, as vice chairman of the Capital Region Development Authority, and his past Chair of the Board of the Metro Hartford Alliance, just to name a few. So he's widely recognized for his community support and was named to the Hartford Business Journal's 2020 Power 50 List this past spring. And finally, Andy, if you don't know this, was a member of the 1980 United States Olympic team and continues to support Olympic Committee activities. So thank you for being with us, Andy. 

And then we also have Nathan Grube with us today. Nathan is the Executive Director of the Greater Hartford Community Foundation and the Tournament Director for the Travelers Championship. During his tenure, the Travelers Championship has generated more than $20 million in charity and has been recognized by the PGA TOUR for several awards, including the Players Choice Award, the Tournament of the Year Award, and the Best Charity Integration Award. So Nathan is also a Class A Member of the PGA of America and is active member of the Connecticut section of the PGA. He also played professional golf from 1996 to 2001, participating in various tours throughout the Southeast. So we're going to talk about that a bit, Nathan, and hear how that all went for you. Welcome to you both and thank you for joining us. 

So let's kick it off with Andy. So Travelers has been the title sponsor for the championship for the past 14 years and you've just announced that we're extending this partnership through 2030. So what are you most proud of, Andy? Here, it's been a long and it's been a great run. You've built quite an organization. Why are we so committed here at Travelers to this endeavor? 

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3 video boxes, Joan Woodward on the top left, Andy Bessette on the top right, and Nathan Grube on the bottom 

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Thanks, Joan. And you know this is a team effort. I always say that no one person could successfully do what we've done over the last 14 years. This will be our 15th year of doing this. But you know l think what we're most proud of is that this benefits the community, it benefits charities, many charities, and it's great for our brand. And I think that what we took this tournament from, where it was back in 2006, and then our first term was in 2007, was light years where we've taken it to today, to be one of the top five or six on the PGA TOUR. And that's why we're so committed to this. And you know I think of Alan’s comments, Alan Schnitzer's comments, about our promise, about Traveler's promise. We take care of our customers, we take care of our communities, and we take care of each other. And this checks a lot of the boxes and does a lot of that. But you know what we're most proud of is that we can give back. It's part of the Travelers ethos in our culture, to give back to the community, to give back to charities, and we take the time to make sure that we're a part of the change in our communities and that we help create the environment that we all work in every day. So it's really terrific. We're so excited to be able to--we were able to announce extending through 2030, which is really important. And I think that the feedback that we've gotten from the community, overall, has been just fantastic. 

That's great. So Nathan, we're going to go to you. You took over as the tournament director in 2005, tell us a bit about that journey over the last 16 years. What have you accomplished during that time and what did you--what was the most unexpected part of your last 15 years here at the Travelers Championship? 

Oh, thanks, Joan. Thanks for having me a part of this. I would say it's kind of interesting. Kind of the normal, I guess you call it life cycle, of a tournament director, it's probably three or four years. You go into a market, you have a title sponsor that you build a relationship with, a title sponsor leaves, they might bring in their new team. So kind of among, I would say in our industry, kind of that four to six year time frame is kind of when you kind of carve out that you're going to have an event. So when I moved up here in '05, that's kind of what my mentality was, was OK, this is going to be a great event but you know I hadn't met Travelers yet, that Buick was the title sponsor at the time. And I mean, Connecticut is such a unique place. I mean, we fell in love with it, my wife and I. And both our kids are now born and raised here. And it is just such a special place. And once Travelers came in, and how they looked at, and I'll touch on that in a second, but how they looked at this event, from a title sponsorship standpoint, was totally different than anything I've ever experienced. 

And to Andy's point, it was a community, family feel, like, hey, how are we going to get there together? But I would say two things, kind of back to your original question. I went off on a tangent, sorry. But the two things I think I'm most proud of, as you look back at the last 16 years, one, is the charitable impact. I mean, it had gotten to a point where the tournament was generating a few hundred thousand dollars for charity. And now, once we crested two million a couple of years ago, like that is--to put on a professional sporting event, to have 100% of the net proceeds go to charity, and to continually be able to raise that bar every year, that's been pretty significant to be able to see that. And the other sense of it is the pride, hands-down. I love tucking my badge in, pulling my hat down, and walking around with my sunglasses in the crowd during tournament week to listen, to listen to what people are saying, to understand how they're feeling about the event, standing in different concession areas, just to listen. And what you've heard over 7, 8, 9, 10--the community pride of this is phenomenal. I mean, they are so proud of what we have done together. And they know we're on the world stage. And we're showing the world what we do with professional sports. So it's that sense of pride that you hear and you feel, and the charitable impact would be probably the two things that I'm most excited about over the last 16 years. 

That's really great. So "Undercover Boss," watch for you on the-- 

Yeah, something like that. 

--fairway. 

Yeah. I would say, he's not so undercover. Nathan could put on a hat, sunglasses. Now you're starting to see a little bit of Andy in Nathan. And we've become like brothers in the last 15 years, Nathan, right? 16 years? Well, I'm not sure you wanted it brothers, maybe it was fathers, I don't know, whatever it is. But we're the best partners around. And Nathan and I go at it all the time. I guess we're like brothers. And you know, Nathan's right. He does go in and he tries to get feedback, and he does. But Nathan, putting on sunglasses and going to the crowd, you can still tell its Nathan. He's the only 6' 3" guy walking round with sun--that looks like John Belushi, that's trying to blend in with the crowd, so. But Nathan is so, so good at what he does. I'm going off script a little bit, but Nathan is a world class tournament director. And when I think of what's so special about the Travelers Championship, it's the fact that Nathan and his team are world class. But there are many other tournaments that would love to have Nathan Grube on as their tournament director but there's no way he's ever leaving Travelers. But Nathan is world class. And you have to have a world class manager, whatever you want to name it, on any sports team, to be successful. So Nathan is all of that, Joan, so. 

Well, I concur, we are clearly, clearly lucky to have you, Nathan, on the team, and leading the team. It's small but mighty, right, a very small team but certainly impactful. OK, so let's go behind the scenes. Everyone who joined this call really wants to know what happens, how the sausage is made behind the scenes. Can each of you share that favorite memory that maybe the camera's kind of didn't catch. And if you'd share that with us, so we kind of get an inside look at what you saw. Nathan, why don't you go first. 

Oh, gosh. I have a feeling Andy and I might have one of the same memories. But Joan, to your point, there's so many behind the scenes things that seeing that volunteer there at 3:30 AM, with their face excited and ready to go, like you don't see that in normal course of business. But I mean, there's been--I think '16 was a pretty special year, when Jay Fishman was diagnosed with ALS and the tournament, we had to focus on ALS. And I remember Andy and I sitting down, talking. And this was six, eight months before the tournament. And he said, I want to do something special this year in honor of Jay and what he's meant to this community and what he's done. And he said, I want to do a dinner on Saturday night and we're going to sell 100 tables at $10,000 a table and we're going to raise a million dollars for ALS research. I was like, wow, OK, like let's go. I mean, he was like, here's what we're doing and we're going together and we're going to do it. And I mean, we were in. But as we started to roll out that idea, there were a lot of people that were like, really? You think you're going to sell 100 tables for $10,000? 

I remember having a conversation with a business and they said, you're doing that in August? Because that year we were in August, we were opposite the Olympics. And they just said, yeah, that's going to be really hard. And for those of you that know Andy, you do not say to Andy Bessette, yeah, I'm not sure that you're going to be able to do that. That is the last thing you say to him. And he said, that's it, we're doing this. And we ended up selling, I want to say, 130 tables, raised a significant amount of money. And then, I know, I think, Andy, I can probably guess your memory of that year with Furyk and Jay, so I'll let you share that. But that was a pretty special year, Joan, to see the community come together and rally around that and to raise that money in the middle of tournament week was pretty phenomenal. I remember Jay sitting there on Saturday night and he raised his glass and he said, this is just so special. And I knew that moment was going to burn in my mind forever. It was one of the most special moments I've been a part of, so. 

I agree. That dinner was really--and the room was packed, just packed with people. And it was really special. So thank you for sharing that. And Andy, what was yours? 

I have to laugh because that memory, Nathan, that is--nobody will ever know what we did. And I refuse to lose. It's just it's just not in my vocabulary, right. And Nathan knows it. And I set out that goal of 100 tables, $10,000 a table, and we're slugging our way through, trying to sell these tickets. I mean, the tables, oh, my gosh, it was the most difficult--we get to about 30, 35 tables and I'm like, oh, I just don't know if we're going to make it this is--oh, no, this is not me, we're going to make it. So we go back. We finally inched our way up to like 65 or so, and I called Jay and I said, Jay, the whole team is just burned out. And it was the funniest thing, Jay goes, well, I'm going to buy--what did he say--10 or 15 tables. I said, oh, thank you. And then that gave us enough impetus and steam to go and sell 120, 130 tables. We raised well over a million dollars for ALS research and then we went from a very happy time to two weeks later, when Jay passed, and it made that night even more special. 

But I think, Joan, to me, you know, I've had a lot of special memories, as Nathan said, over the years, funny ones and whatever. But you know, when Bubba won his first Travelers Championship and I was out on the 16th green, the par 3, with he and his wife and he won in the playoff, and he was crying, and I was crying, and we were all crying. And it was just one of those things that was so special because you knew his dad didn't have very much longer to live and that he had gotten to see his son win his first tournament. And that was really cool. And you know, then, of course, we have everything that everybody else has seen. But what Nathan was referring to was when Jim Furyk came off the 18th green after he had shot a 58. Lowest score ever, ever, in professional golf. Jay was sitting in his wheelchair at the top of the hill and Jim stopped--and normally they don't stop because they have to go sign their cards. He stopped and he talked to Jay for about a minute or two. And it was just one of those special--I still have the picture in my phone. And it's one of those special moments in life where you say, you know, that time just stopped for a minute there. And Jim and Jay were talking, and Nathan and I were standing there. And I think we were probably getting teary eyed. But they weren't, they were having a good time. 

And you know, Jim Furyk, 58, are you kidding me? And in the excitement that day around the course, people were running. You never see anybody running at the Travelers Championship. But people were running, reporters--hey, you got to get to 14, Jim Furyk is--I mean, I've never seen that before or since. It was just like an all-day thing with Jim Furyk playing so well. But there have been a lot of great moments and the last one I'll share is just charitable, the charitable moments we've had and some of the annual chair children I'll call them. A lot of the campers have been chairs for us. And that's such a special, special moment when you know what these kids are battling, with cancer and other diseases. And Nathan and I get-- we kind of keep each other-- Nathan gets--well, no, we both get emotional. Nathan gets a little bit more emotional, but I think we both do in such a sincere way, in such a special way. To think, to think what's been created over these last 14 years, this would be the 15th year, and for 10 more to come, I can't wait to see what happens over the next 10 years. 

Well, thank you both for that. And Andy, you touched on a charitable aspect. I want to talk specifically about the Hole In The Wall Gang Camp now for just a minute. Many of you know they had a devastating fire at their facility and we had lots to do with raising money to, as the community did, with raising money to help rebuild, including Bubba Watson, I think, also made a big donation. Can you talk about that, Andy, in terms of how these relationships have evolved over the years, with Bubba donating to the Hole In The Wall, as he did, and it's grown into something bigger, hasn't it? 

Yeah. You know, so many of the PGA TOUR pros are very special people. I mean, they're independent contractors. They don't have to play Travelers. They don't have to play anywhere. Well, they have to play somewhere. But they don't have to come. And they're some of the most generous people I've ever met. And Ken Duke, when he won, made a charitable donation on the 18th green. Remember that, Nathan? That was so special. And Bubba, Bubba just keeps shocking us year after year. But you know, he actually is very--he has a relationship with camp that's so special. And that fire that occurred, I remember the night, the Friday night that it happened. And a friend of mine who's in the media here, locally, texted me and said, hey, did you see this fire at camp? And I called Jimmy Canton, there was one second of a funny moment. Jimmy said, how do you know about that? They just called me one minute ago and told me. I said, I got friends in places. And so we just laughed. 

And sure enough, there was a really bad fire that night. And you know Bubba is so generous. He heard about that without anybody prompting, anybody asking, he made a huge donation to help rebuild the camp. And it actually went against our Travelers--and the Travelers Championship partnered to make a million-dollar challenge, a challenge grant. If people would raise a million, we'd donate a million. And so within five days--so that was Monday morning, we announced that, right, Nathan. And then by Friday, we had reached the million, and we exceeded the million. And it was just really terrific to be able to do something so special for such a special place. And in some ways, it's a blessing because camp is not going to be in session. And so they have time to rebuild it here very quickly. And to have Bubba and the PGA TOUR pros be as generous as they are with their time and with their money is, I think, what differentiates the PGA TOUR from any other professional sports league. Not that any other professional athletes and are not very generous, but you see how this all comes together at the Travelers Championship. And you know, when Nathan and I say it's all about charity and community, that's what it's about. 

OK. So now we're going to get into the really behind the scenes, so the nuts and bolts of how this all comes together. So, Nathan, I'm going to go back to you, our world class tournament director, that we're so grateful that you're with us, when do you start planning for these events. So let's really break it down. So the event is at the third week of June, this year. When do you start planning for that event? How many people are involved, either on your team or on-- let's talk about the course itself. What is the process actually like? What do you do first, second, and third, from a planning process? 

OK, well, let me start with, it usually takes about 15 months to do an annual event. If you go into a market like where there's just like one event there, like a PGA Championship or something like that, you would need to be in that market probably 2 and 1/2 years in advance. With annual events, usually it's about a 15-month cycle. So we are, for the last you know 16 years, we basically start about three months before that year's tournament, working on the next year's tournament, is the way the cycle goes. So there's about a three month period where you're working on two events and then they overlap. So that's the life cycle of it from that standpoint. Our team, we have 11 full time staff members. I'm saying in a normal year, we have close to 4,000 volunteers. And those are broken down into committees. You know, those committees are identified end of summer, late fall, before the next year. What committees do we need? What tweaks do we need to make? Are there any new needs with the PGA TOUR? 

And what are the committees? Can you just give us an example of the type of a committee, for the volunteers? 

I mean, they're all over the place. We have Taylor Whiting on our team, oversees the volunteer committees. And they're phenomenal. So I mean, anywhere from distribution, right, let's break that down for a second. So you have these, at any one time, 1,500 to 1,800 volunteers around the golf course. How are you going to feed them? How are you going to get them water? How do you make sure, you know, sunscreen, shade--like, some of these positions are out in the sun, you know? Whether it's marking balls or looking for things. So distribution committee, making sure--driving around, logistically, getting through the crowds to make sure people have water, make sure they have food. Like, that's an entire operation because you put that many people on a golf course, you can't just say, hey, I'm going to run over there and drop off a lunch. No, you have to map and plan out how you're actually moving around this golf course. So distribution. 

Gallery, OK, how are you controlling some of the best fans in sport, right. Like, you know, hey, you can't go here. You have to wait here. Players are crossing here. That's a very, from a customer relationship standpoint, that's delicate, right. You want people having fun but everybody, you know--you need to have one of the loudest roars when they make birdie but then within a few seconds, it's silent, you know, because the next person is putting. And I remember that, when Jordan holed out in '17, the crowd went insane. It was one of the loudest things I've ever been a part of. And Jordan would say that too. But within 15 seconds, it was silent because Berger had to go try to make his putt. And so our gallery committee is there trying to navigate that and manage that. And so you have all these committees that basically help the machine continue to run. And so much of it's behind the scenes. I mean, a lot of our volunteers would say, oh, I remember I was doing x work when Jordan holed that out because my committee had to break down stakes over here, you know. So like it's not always glamorous, and you're not always, hey, I got to see the highlights. Like, it's work. And so you know, we have our staff, we have those volunteers. 

In a typical year, we'll have anywhere from 10 to 12 interns that work with us. So you know, they'll start in the fall. They'll work through the year. So when it comes to tournament time, you'll have 20 to 25 of us in the office, working. And you'll have a few thousand volunteers. And that's just the tournament team. Then you go to the Travelers team and they have 30, 40, 50 people that we get together with every single Friday, starting in September through the year, planning on that side. And they're part of our working group. And so you have that group. And then you have the people at TPC River Highlands. That entire food and beverage, golf operations, range set up, course set up, that you meet with once a month leading into it, and then once a week those last few months. 

So it's really, I mean, the short--the long answer that I just gave you, it's about a 15-month cycle. There's all these different groups that all have critical, critical roles. The maintenance crew, the golf course is--all year, it is being prepped for that week. I mean, how they grow grass in the fall, how it goes down in the winter, how it comes out in the spring, like it is a living, breathing entity. So that team is critically important. So you have all these people that are all, I would say, what makes us unique from other events, is all of those groups are rowing in the same direction. The club, the volunteers, the sponsors, the staff, the interns, the title sponsor--and when you get that happening and you see what we're doing here, it's pretty special. 

So, Nathan, just a quick follow up, and then, Andy, I'm going to talk to you and ask you about how you get all these amazing players. But, Nathan, back to you for a sec. So the title sponsorship, are other companies that are title sponsors that embedded and that involved in the planning, every Friday there's a call throughout the year and just the hundreds of people working together, is that typical for a title sponsor to be so embedded and involved in the event? 

So, no, and let me tell you that we are the envy of other tournaments because tournaments are always trying to figure out what their title sponsor wants, what they need. What do they need to get out of this? How do you justify--like what's your reason for being here, right? Like what do you need to see out of sponsoring a TOUR event? And there are tournaments that are just trying to pull that information out of their title sponsor. Hey, can we get a meeting? Can we do this? From the beginning, Travelers looked at this like they look at their business. They looked at the fans, the players, the media, everybody, as customers. And that is the big difference, right there. Because when you have a title that says everybody that we want to come out as a customer, what does our customer need? How do we listen to our customer? This isn't us as a title showing the community what we're going to do with a tournament. This is us coming along as a title saying, who are our customers and how do we need to serve them? How do we make sure the products are the right products? How do we make sure we're listening? Are we getting the right feedback? Let's go out and talk to them to see what they need, what they want. And so that just perspective is completely, still, very, very unique on tour. A lot of times, titles will come on and say, here's what we want out of the tournament, and they put a very, I would say, focused agenda on what they want out of the tournament. Not at all how Travelers took over. They came in '05, '06--really in '06 for '07, and said, we need to talk to our customers to see what we need this to be. So that's, I think, the big difference. 

That's really, really interesting because you've seen other tournaments and how the title sponsors kind of interact with the tournament director, so it's a really good perspective. Thank you. All right, Andy, so I want to go to the audience. So if anyone has a question, please put it in the Q&A function. Just click Q&A. We have a couple coming in and we're going to get to your questions in just a few minutes, here. But Andy, I want to talk about top tier talent. And you and Nathan have been able to go out among the pros and recruit them to Travelers. One, is it easy? Two, you've just been able to get a lot of the top 10 players coming to Cromwell, especially after the US Open week, which I assume is a difficult week to be placed. So what keeps them coming back? How do you get them? And what lessons have you learned in past years or from other tournaments to be able to do this? 

Wow, that's a tough one, Joan. That's a lot of questions in there. But here's--so it's not easy. It takes a lot of work and it's a year-round effort. And a lot of time we get asked, how do we recruit players? We don't recruit players. We go out and we befriend them, we attract them. We do things with them all of the time. And like, you know, Nathan and I were in Charlotte yesterday at Wells Fargo, and they had a great player field. And we were down talking to all of the guys, I mean all of them. And I think, Nathan, in the end of the day, because some of the circumstances, they had some bad weather at the end of the day, we saw everybody. And Rory was showing Nathan and I his baby pictures of his little daughter who's like nine years old--nine months, sorry--eight or nine months old. And we're talking to Patrick Reed and Justine, his wife, and I'm saying, so Justine, when are you going to get back in the bag? And so she was his caddie, like, oh, God, how many years ago, Nathan? Like many, many years ago. So Justine--you know, pretty soon. But her brother is on the bag for Patrick Reed. And we saw Bryson and I said Bryson, I love the way you play. I love your strength and how hard you hit it. Not the fact that you hit it hard, but his attitude is so different from other golfers. So I find this incredibly interesting and intriguing to me. And like Paul Casey will ask me questions about how I trained way back when for the Olympics. And I'm like, what do you care about that for? 

But that's how athletes talk to each other and how we try to learn from everybody else. And so it's like, there's no magic here, it's going out and being with them--which has hurt us most. Nathan and I kept saying yesterday wow, this feels so good. Because we haven't been out with players for like, what, Nathan, 15 months? And to see the guys and to talk about their families and to talk about the games and what they're doing and what the schedule looks like the rest of the way. I went up to Phil yesterday. And Phil is a very intense practicer, I'll call it. When he's practicing, you don't interrupt him. So Tim is on his bag, his brother. I said, Tim, when's a good time to just say hi to Phil? So he said, come back in 15 minutes, we have to go to the putting area and that's a great time. So we go back in 15 minutes, Phil walks off the ball, comes back to his bag, hey, Andy. So we talked for just a couple of minutes and he said, I'm still thinking. He said, I would like to get back to Travelers this year. And so that's how it happens. And that's how we talk to the players. That's how we build relationships year-round. And this may sound a little funny to some people, but we have, I call it, the baby onesie program. And it's not really a program, but it is. We have blue onesies for baby boys, and pink onesies for baby girls. And we have all sizes and we know which players are having--because they're all young families, right, and they're having young kids. They're having babies. And so we ship out onesies to all the players when they have a new baby. And they'll, invariably, take a picture of the baby, send them back to us, with the onesie on, which is really terrific, and we do that. 

Now we've graduated. We even have Travelers Championship small golf shirts for little kids, for little one-, two-, three-year-old’s, whatever, once they get out of onesies. And so I keep going on and on. So we look, we make it a practice to learn how to reach out to our customers because they're our customers. I mean, we have customers at the tournament, sponsors and fans and things, but as far as I'm concerned, in many ways the players are our customers. And when we first took this over in 2006, that was a year before we went live, the first thing I did down at TPC River Highlands, and Nathan remembers this, is I went to meet with all the broadcasters and Mike Tirico was phenomenal. Mike and I had lunch. He told me exactly what to do and what not to do. Wow, really? And then and then I had lunch with a whole group of players. Player after player after player, what should we do to make this better? What should we do to improve it? And I still do that to this day. When we spend time, when Nathan and I spend time with players, we're forever asking them, what can we do better? And first thing is just don't stop doing what you're doing, is usually the answer. 

But we work so hard at making sure that we're in the face of our customer, that we know what the customer wants, and what they want to quote-unquote buy, right, and be a part of what we do here. And we do it for everybody. We do that with our sponsors, with our customers, and everybody. And that's how we get the best players in the world. The last piece, I'll say, is once you do this for a while, you know, like the video that everybody saw about Jordan and Kevin Streelman, and the guys talking about all their great memories and what they did at the Travelers, that word is infectious. That word gets out amongst the rest of your customers and the rest of your people. And all of a sudden, now, everybody says, well, I got to get to Travelers. I got to get to Travelers. And so that's what we do. And I went on here a bit long, but I think, if you want to know inside baseball, that's inside baseball. That's how you develop a winning roster and a winning team to be able to do some really special things on the golf course and for the community. 

Joan, I got to add into that. Hold on, one second. To Andy's point, we went to a tournament one time, and Andy said, I want to know everything of what we can do better. So we found the caddie area, where the caddies eat. And usually that's an off the beaten path area. And we walked back there, going through tents and things like that, and sat and had lunch. And there were people looking around like, who are you? And we're in there having--and one of the guys went, no, I'm sorry, who are you? And he goes, oh, we're going to be a title sponsor on Tour next year. And he goes, what? Like, why are you here? And he's like, we want to know how to make things better. And so it was the little things like that. I had forgotten about that, Andy. But little things like that, Joan, to Andy's point, from the beginning, they treated everybody like they were a customer. So anyway. 

And I have to add to that, that yesterday we were talking to, I won't name the player, but he's a top five player in the world that may not make it with us this year, but he's here every year. And his caddie came up to us and I said listen, just because so-and-so can't come this year, but he's going to be here for the next two or three years, you're invited. And he said, oh, I'm going to come, I'll just carry somebody else's bag. So I saw the player and I said, hey, your caddie just said that he's going to come carry, and he just laughed, he said, good for him, he should. And so you know, that's the relationship we have with these people. It's knowing who you can talk to, who you can joke with, and to have a caddie want to come without his player, that's really special, Nathan, right? We are not in the caddie business. 

Well, it sounds like you guys have figured out really creative ways, just smart ways to make the magic happen to bring these players here in Cromwell, and that's really, really--we're so grateful to you to have figured this out. Hanging with the caddies, I think that's a good one. All right, we're going to move on. We're going to talk about what the tournament's going to look like this year, the safety protocols, how many tickets, when to get them, where to go if you want to volunteer. But first, I have to get to Nathan because many of you may not know this, but I did mention it in your opening, that you did play professional golf on the Tour. So tell us about your career in a minute, and second, how does that impact how you kind of relate to the players? 

Sure. Career in a minute, so I did not do well playing professional golf, let's clarify that. So I remember the day that I realized that. I got out of college, I thought I had some game, I raised a little bit of money, I moved down to Florida to play on the mini tours. And if anybody's ever played on those, they are a grind. It's everybody shows up, you pay your money, and you just go at it. But I played there for a couple of years and I remember the moment that I realized it wasn't going to happen. It was a windy, rainy day. I played probably one of the best rounds of golf of my life. I think I was 3 under, I finish up and I was so proud of how I played. I'm like, man, this is-- nobody is going to play better than me today. And I go in there. And they post the leaderboard. And I'm looking. And I go and make it through the first page. And I flip the page. And I make it through the second page. And I flip the page again. I got to the third page and let me just give a little piece of advice, if your best is on the third page, that's probably not your career choice that you need to go after. So anyway, I love the game, but I realized I wasn't going to make a living playing. Got into the event management side of it and I just absolutely love it. I mean, I could not imagine what I would be doing differently if I wasn't doing this. Just, there's so many moving pieces, the community involvement, so I'm actually very glad that that didn't work out and that I get to do what I get to do now. But yeah, when your best is on the third page, Joan, it’s time to re-evaluate. 

I don't know where my best is. Thank you for that, Nathan. All right, last quick question, then we're going to get to this year's tournament and safety protocols. Who's on your wish list? We had a couple of questions come in through the Q&A function, here. Our attendees are asking me to ask you, who's on your wish list? Andy, you want to go first? And then, Nathan. 

Yeah. Hey, listen. The first question that always gets asked of us is when is Tiger Woods coming? Well, right now, we all saw that unfortunately Tiger had an accident and he's not playing golf right now. But I've talked to Tiger, we've talked to his agent, and you know, he's further along in his career and he's being more selective on different tournaments. And he hardly ever plays the week after a major, but we always say to Tiger, hey, we're here. We're here for you. We'd love to have you come here. And if it ever works, just let us know. Call us up. And so we'd love to have Tiger, we'd love to have everybody. And you know, Dustin Johnson is coming back this year, our defending champion, which he's so strongly entrenched as number one in the world, it's scary. But he is phenomenal. So we'll have one in the world. So far, Bryson DeChambeau, five--I think he's still 5th, Nathan, and Patrick Reed, who I think is 6th or 7th, and Brooks Koepka is 10th. So we've got four of the top 10, so far. 

But our wish list is, I mean, like last year, we had nine of the top 10. We always wish for all of them. And we go after all of them as strongly as we can. But I think that's really the--we're here for everybody. We're here for all the top players. And whenever they come, they say wow, you treat us so well. And that's what we learned back in 2006, was if you treat the players well, if you treat their wives well, and their children well, and their caddies well--I know, the list keeps going, but if you take those four pods, and those four groups of people and you treat them well, you're going to be successful. And we have all kinds of toys for the kids. We feed the caddies, like Nathan was saying, we feed them like, oh, my gosh, I go eat there most days too. And we just take care of them. And we show people a good time, so. 

All right, Nathan, your turn. Who would you like to see to come? 

I honestly, Joan, I would say, you're never going to get every player, every year, I mean, just the way the schedules work out and things like that. But since '07, I mean, it's just everybody they're either talking about it or they're coming, you look back at the current number ones, the former number ones. And I remember the first year, it was Jordan and Rory came. They're like, man, we've been hearing about this event and we are so excited to be here. And then, sure enough, they're like, oh, no, no, we are not going to be missing this if we can help it. Like, this is an amazing--like, what people were saying about it was right. 

Then I remember, to Andy's point on Tiger, we were talking to his management team, this was a couple of years ago, and the guy said, I forget his name, but he said, he goes, Tiger keeps hearing about this event. He goes, all Rory does is be like, man, it's an awesome event. You have no idea. So I mean, that's--like, it's either going to work for a guy or it's not. But the fact that you have other players talking about your event to other players, like that's all we can hope for. And the fact, I mean, Andy and I take it very, very seriously every year. We feel like it is our responsibility to deliver the best feel we can for our community because we know how much the community loves it. And so that's--I mean, every year, we don't take anything for granted. We go out there and go, OK, we've got to build this thing up and how are we going to do it? So I'm thrilled with the reputation that we've gotten on Tour. And to Andy's point, last year, having 9 out of the top 10 here, like, we're just--it's in a good spot and that's due to our crowds, our sponsors, like, the players love coming here. 

OK, so let's pivot to this year. So in six weeks, or so, we'll all be in Cromwell watching good golf. What are the plans, Nathan? So last year, obviously, we had no fans at all, and you said nine of the top 10. We all watched it on television. We're so grateful and happy to be able to do that. But now we're going to be back in person. How many people? What is the PGA protocols in place that we must follow? Because a lot of people think that we're making this up or doing this ourselves. But there are protocols that have been in place. And when our tickets available? Give us everything we need to know. 

Sure. So, Joan, to your point, that's a good point. We are a PGA TOUR event first and foremost, right. Like, this is not just us putting together an event. So there are regulations, parameters, guidelines, health and safety protocols, from the PGA TOUR's perspective. So we definitely are falling under those, obviously working with the state of Connecticut and what the Governor is doing and what their team is doing, where are things going to be? So and then you have, obviously, Travelers, and there's just a lot of people that are kind of overseeing where we're going. But to your point, we're a TOUR event. So a lot of the guidelines come from them, to be able to host the competition. It's going to look different; I would say that. We're still going to have some structures up on 18 and 17 but it's all open air. 

And there's going to be two tiers of tickets. We're not doing big corporate boxes and private areas. Like everybody's going to be able to get everywhere which actually is going to create some very interesting sightlines that I think people may have never seen before at the tournament, the way the build's going this year. So there'll be one ticket that has high-end, all-inclusive food and beverage, open bar. There's another ticket, general admission to the grounds, to be able to come out with your family and watch golf and things like that. So it's going to look different. And as of right now, you know, masks outdoors for large public gatherings. It's funny, when you look at the regulations, it's like outdoor sporting events with lots of people still need masks. We're like, well, that's us. So you know, we're obviously following what the state is doing and CDC and educating our sponsors and fans on what it's going to be like. 

But it's going to be the energy that's going to be out there. I can't tell you how many calls we've gotten, phone calls, emails, going, we are so excited to get back. Tickets go on sale May 25th. It's going to be limited versus normal year. We're going to have--we're trying to get about up to 10,000 fans as our goal. So that's obviously lower than other years but it's going to be a big number of people. I mean, there's going to be roars out there. The players are very excited to have those roars back. But we're trying to communicate to our fans as well. Making sure they're educated on what to expect. So it'll look a little different but the energy is going to be there this year for sure. 

OK. We are opening it up now--thank you, Nathan--to audience questions. And we have a number coming in. Two on the same topic. Melanie Hudson and Joe Lindsey coming up with, how do you choose to give sponsor exemptions? We saw players who were given one many years past doing well, like Viktor Hovland, and Andy, do you want to take that question? How do we do the exemptions? 

Yeah. It's a complicated--let me just narrow it down. There's different categories of exemptions, Joan. 

But there's--what we've become known for is every year, we invite two to three of the best amateur golfers in the world. And these are the top collegiate players coming out of school. And this goes way back. Webb Simpson in 2008, Nathan, right? He's on the range. He's this little kid. And he goes, Mr. Bessette, thank you, very much, for my exemption. Great. We're like, Webb, glad to have you here. He goes on, what, two or three years later he wins the US Open. Are you kidding me? Really? I mean, that's why we do it. We love to give these young athletes a start, a kick start. And many of them come with our exemptions and they turn pro with us, like Viktor Hovland. We had that star class, what was that, three years ago? I get confused with the pandemic. 

Two years ago, yeah. 

Two or three years ago. And guys like Morikawa Collin, I mean, he was in that class. Vik Hovland was in that class. Matt Wolff was in that class. Are you kidding me? Matt Wolff goes on and wins, right, in his rookie year. And Morikawa did too. And that's unbelievable. And so we get really jazzed, Nathan and I and our entire team, when we start looking at these top, top players in the world, and who needs an exemption to get in, who are just coming out of college. And I was a young athlete once. And you really appreciate somebody who gives you a shot when you're a nobody. Well, I shouldn't say a nobody. When you're a young athlete coming out of school. You appreciate that and you never forget it. Back to Webb Simpson, I saw him yesterday in Charlotte, and he will never forget what we did for him. And he'll come back to us year after year after year. And it's just terrific. So I think that's how it happens. It's a very studied--as you would think, in an insurance company, with actuaries and underwriters, would we really just make an off the cuff decision, no. We study this thing to death. And we challenge it. And we go back and say, what, did he win this award? Did he finish? How did he putt? We go on, right Nathan? I mean, you can comment too. It's like, we go through this many times before we finalize who we're going to give the exemptions to. 

OK, great. We have two questions from Katie Graham and Diana Walquist about Women's Day. So Women's Day is always a wonderful event during the Championship. Is it coming back this year? And what was the original thinking behind creating this, and do other tournaments have it? So I'm going to take this question, if you don't mind, gentlemen. 13 years ago, when I landed at Travelers, a group of senior women and the CEO and Vice Chairman, Alan Schnitzer, got together and we, with Andy and Nathan, said, we women Travelers would love to host kind of a ladies' lunch, let's call it. We want to get more women onto the tournament days out there and onto the greens and the fairways, and we want to teach golf. So we decided to have a Women's Day. And we didn't really know, one, if we could sell tickets; two, who would come? We didn't know. We thought, we're going to try this and see how it goes. So 13 years ago, we started Women's Day. And we always have kind of a featured guest speaker. We've done Mika Brzezinski, Martha Stewart, lots of different high-profile speakers. And we built it and they did come. And so the one thing I will say is we were forced to get a larger tent a couple of years ago. The pro-am tent went from, I don't know, 300 people up to 700 people, right, Andy? So our last Women's Day, two years ago, now, we had a 700 person tent that we brought in. And we were so thrilled. The whole community came together. We raised a ton of money for charity for Women's Day. And I'm sad to say, we will not have a Women's Day this year. So it's just going to be a blowout next year. It's going to be amazing. So please do plan on coming to Women's Day. Any other thoughts on Women's Day, Nathan or Andy? 

You hit the nail on the head. It became the most popular ticket at the tournament, Joan. There's no doubt. Selling out like--it was crazy. It was awesome. So to your point, we look forward to having it back in '22. 

OK. Next question. Do you find it more difficult to draw top talent when the US Open is on the West Coast? Ken Vance asked that question. 

You want take this one, Andy, or you want me to? 

Yeah I don't--the answer is, not really. Somebody said to me, and you should never say this to me, oh, you picked the worst date in golf. This is in 2006. You will never succeed the week after the US Open. Hmm, don't say that to me. And so I'm glad he did though. I can tell you who it was but I won't. But every year, we get, what, Nathan, five of the top 10 in the world-- 

Our average right now, yeah. 

--and we have a charter that the tournament provides to players to fly from the US Open, whether it's on the West Coast or the East Coast, to bring them here, which the players yesterday, all of them said, my gosh, that's going to just save us. Oh, my gosh, this is great. So we do a lot of things to make sure that we get the best of the best here, and we work hard at it. And I would say, no, I don't think that the US Open really has that big an eff--it has a little effect, maybe. But when you're getting four or five of the top 10 in the world every year, whether it's West Coast or East Coast, that's pretty good. 

Yeah. I would echo that. If you would ask me this question back in '06, '07, I would have said, well, we'll see. But now we've done four or maybe four or five West Coast US Opens, and everything's been everything's been good with it, so. But to Andy's point, it was work, to say like, hey, let's change the mentality of the week after the Open. We're not going to have it be like, let's find out why guys don't want to play the week after the open. Like why do they have that? And let's just tear down the reasons why. And then a guy said this yesterday, he goes, you guys make it so easy to play you. And that's not what happens every week. We actually enjoy coming there because everything is taken care of, from the charter, to the cars waiting at the airport, to how we handle day care, to I mean like the details of it. They're like it's so easy to play you guys. And that's what we've worked for. 

Great. And thank you for doing that because we just love having the top talent here. OK, a couple of questions coming in. A little personal, here, but how often do you and Nathan golf, and what is your handicaps? 

[LAUGHS] 

Oh, all right, I'm telling this story. All right. 

No I'm going to tell it. I want to tell it. 

No, no. You're going to mess it up. You're going to mess it up. So Andy and I will occasionally play together in outings and events where we have to maybe be a little more professional. And then there's other times where Andy and I play together, and we are needling each other. And so we will spend time doing that. So we're on the 10th hole at TPC River Highlands. And for those of you that have played there or have seen it on TV, there's a very skinny tree in the left center of the fairway that players--Stewart Cink will say, I aim at the tree. And there's no way that I'm going to hit the tree. So I always know if it's going to go right or left but that's my target line. And Andy and I are talking about this. And he goes, I'm aiming for the tree. And I said, Andy, you're not going to do what Cink does. Like if you hit that tree, let's just say there was an undisclosed financial offer that I made to him, of a certain amount. I said, I will give you x If you hit that tree. And he looked at me--again, don't say he can't do that. I swear that ball never left the tree. 265 yards and it just hits it, dead in the middle. And he looks at me and his arms are up and I'm shaking my head. So let me just say this, Joan, we play together apparently too much because I lost money that day. And he absolutely shut me up for the back nine. I didn't say another word, so. 

I kept asking him to give me more money because it would be more fun. But the best part of the rest of the story is, we don't play all that much together. We should play more. But we played on opening day at TPC, with a friend of mine. And we do play in some events together but Nathan's a scratch golfer. I mean, he's really good. He hits a ball 325 yards. And I'm like, I hit my ball 260 and I'm like, yeah, this is great. But I think my handicap I was 15. And Nathan's zero. So Nathan, I answered for you. But the best part, the rest of that story is, then my ball bounced 20 feet to the right of that tree. I hit my--it was 206 to the pin, I hit my fairway wood 15 feet from the pin. I parred the hole after I hit the tree. This was such a great day. I won money and I got a par on that hole. So anyways, that's the end of that, Joan, sorry. 

OK, let's move on. Well, it sounds like this guy wants to--guy or gal, whoever asked this question, wants to play golf with both of you. So next question, will there be a practice round and the Wednesday pro-am this year? Nathan-- 

Yeah, we're going to be open Wednesday through Sunday. So we will have the celebrity pro-am again, starting Wednesday, which we're excited about. Andy knows a lot of the people that are going to be playing, helping to secure the right people coming in. So we are going to have that on Wednesday as a pro-am and a practice round. Some guys use it as both, but they will be open to the public Wednesday through Sunday, with the pro-am on Wednesday. 

OK. Next question. How do we determine what local charities, other than the Hole In The Wall Camp, receives donations? And I had another question for you, Nathan, earlier I didn't ask it but if there's a charity out there that wants to be included in the Travelers Championship events, how do they go about that?

So this was something that we kind of hit head on back in '07 because the tournament, 100% of net proceeds go to charity. But there's revenues, there's expenses, and there's these donations. And so what we started to wrestle with was going, OK, how do we give beyond what the net proceeds are? Like, can we create a program that can generate even more money for charity? Or how do we breathe life into a program? So fast forward, we have a program called Birdies For Charity. So there's basically two ways that any charity in the state can get involved with us--actually, in the region. We're registered all around the region. 

So we have camp as our primary beneficiary but then our Birdies For Charity program, we have some partners who have put money into this bonus pool where charities, if they get donations, we put $0.15 on top of any donation that they get, out of this bonus pool. And actually, I'm sure Webster's on the call, they actually fund this bonus pool as part of their partnership with us. And so we have 120 charities, or so, that are involved in this Birdies For Charity Program, so I'm going to say this very simply. If you are a non-profit, I don't care if you have one employee or if you have 50 employees, the Birdies For Charity Program, it is a no-cost-to-you program. We build out the website, we handle everything, we give you $0.15, there's no money taking off of anything, of any donations that you get, we give you a platform to tell your story. So any charity can get involved with us, Joan, but really it's starting with the Birdies For Charity program, and then things kind of mushroom out of that. But really it's kind of a no-brainer for a charity to reach out to us, TravelersChampionship.com, and we can find a way to get you involved. 

Wonderful. Quick question for you, Andy, on volunteers. When will Travelers employees be allowed to sign up for volunteering? I know it's limited this year, correct? 

Yeah, it's limited only because in a normal year, Joan, we have 4,000 volunteers and Travelers supplies about 2,000 of them, about half of all volunteers which is incredible. So if the volunteers are watching, thank you, so much, for all your support. We can't do this without you. But this year, we're only going to need somewhere around 1,000 folks, or so. And so we'll be looking for maybe 500-ish from Travelers. And so it'll be limited. But we'll get the word out, here, shortly. I think it comes out, I forget what today's date is, in the next week or two. And it'll outline what to do and how to get signed up. 

OK, terrific. Well, we have come to the end of our program. We could go on and on. This has just been so much fun. I love interviewing guests on Wednesdays and this is one of the funnest we've had, I think. And I want to talk to my audience out there about the three upcoming webinars we have. But first, Andy and Nathan, any parting words before I thank you, at the bottom of my heart, for your time today, and your thoughts and your stories are just terrific. 

No. 

I would say, where you started, Joan, is what everybody should remember. Every net dollar that, of a professional sports team would be profit, all net proceeds of this tournament go to charity. And so if anybody listening wants to get involved, wants to be supportive, wants to make donations, you can think all of your money is going to go to something good. We have to pay for the hot dog and the hamburger first but then any net proceeds beyond that, it all goes to charity and to great organizations and it makes our community and our state and everybody around here feel proud. And that's the other word you used in the beginning, Joan, is you cannot even begin to measure the pride in the community. I still walk down the streets in Hartford and around Connecticut, and people say, thank you for taking it over. Now they say, thank you for extending to 2030. But get involved, be a part of it. You'll have as much fun as it looks like Nathan and I do when we're not freaking out in the back corner. But come on, be a part of it and have some fun and help charities and the community in the meantime. 

Terrific. Nathan, thank you, so much, for your time today, and your thoughts. And thank you for staying-- coming to the Travelers Championship and staying for the rest of your life. We really appreciate that. All right, folks. Now I just want to let you know some of the upcoming webinars we have with experts in the field, Travelers experts as well as external expert speakers. On May 12, Small Business, Big Opportunities, Everything You Need To Know About Running Your Small Business In These Times Of COVID. 

(DESCRIPTION) 
Text, Wednesdays with Woodward, A Webinar Series, Upcoming Webinars, May 12, Small Business, Big Opportunity, Traveler's Eric Nordquist & The US Chamber of Commerce's Tom Sullivan. May 19, The Data-Driven Enterprise, Transforming Business in the Digital Age, Travelers' Mojgan Lefebvre & author of The AI Advantage, Dr. Tom Davenport. May 26, The Future of Cities, Partnership for New York City's Kathryn Wylde and Bay Area Council's Jim Wunderman. Register, travelers institute.org. 

(SPEECH) 
May 19, Data Driven Enterprises, Transforming the Digital Transformation. And we're going to have a guest speaker, Tom Davenport, partnered with Mojgan Lefebvre, who is our Chief Information Officer, CIO. And then, May 26, The Future of Cities. So if you're in a big city right now, or a suburb, what are our cities going to look like? Hartford, New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago. We have a number of experts talking about that, from real estate issues to taking care of employees’ issues. So register for any of these programs at TravelersInstitute.org. Or you can directly LinkedIn me to follow me on LinkedIn. I post a lot about our webinar series. Thank you, again, for joining us, Nathan and Andy. It was just delightful having you on the program today. And we look forward to all of the audience joining us in the upcoming webinars. Stay safe, my friends. Wear your mask, get your vaccine. And we'll be together soon. Thank you.