Use the hashtag artist places. Fire up your smart phones if you get a chance. I am mark muro, senior fellow at the metropolitan policy program and my privilege to kick off todays auspicious event. I say our event today is auspicious for several reasons. It is always auspicious to welcome and help launch a book into the world, given it is a red letter day for fred bacher whose excellent book the smartest places on earth is just out and if i do say so, rush to pick up a copy, we have some out beyond the back, on the way out please do that. Also two experienced economic observers focusing not on the standard inside the beltway with spin cycles, and at brookings, the most fundamental elements of national wellbeing, r d and stem worker advanced industries from aerospace, Regional Technology clusters, Regional Technology ecosystems, critical, that is part of their focus, and collaborations they accelerate. The fact that cities and regions themselves can become incubators of growth. They trav