As many of you know we are in a relatively unknown industry. What makes me incredibly proud is that without the digital infrastructure that this community designs, builds and operates, the progress of people and economies across the world would slow, or even regress.
Digital infrastructure is a key component to almost everything in our daily lives. What’s even more impressive is when you look at what we have been able to achieve during the course of a two-year global pandemic; frankly it’s nothing short of astonishing.
This industry has delivered unprecedented growth even with significant limitations in travel, on-site access, supply chain challenges, hiring and working with many people that we have yet to meet in person. Companies have undergone massive digital transformations in very short periods of time and delivered results.
I am very proud of the iMasons community. We are uniting the builders of the digital age by enabling our members to connect, grow and give back. While Digital Infrastructure is developing and deploying faster than ever before, many people are still excluded from the connectivity many of us take for granted. Access to digital technology for everyone on this planet is not only a necessity, I believe it is a human right. Today we are celebrating many leaders who are doing their part to help across every layer of technology and society.
Finally, I would like to thank our incredibly generous IM Awards partners. Amazon, Google, Meta and Microsoft for being our champion award partners announcing the winners and donating $25,000 each to our scholarship fund. Our event sponsors, CBRE, Digital Realty, Pure, Yondr and Vertiv also donated to the scholarship fund bringing the total amount raised to date to $853,000. We are very close to meeting our $1M education challenge! Together, we are making a difference in our industry and the world – and I believe we are just getting started.
