Okay, and now to bring it all home, we have my dear friend, Dr. Catherine O'Rourke. One of the things we've, you know, we've talked today about a couple of different things. The specifics of the sit-in movement, the importance of Woolworths and the lunch counters, Alamo Plaza and its history has so many things, as Dr. Winters pointed out, and its long civil rights history, as Everett Fly pointed out. So Catherine O'Rourke is coming to tell us about Alamo Plaza Woolworth in our unfinished project. She is the associate professor of art history at Trinity. She teaches architectural history, Latin American art. She's the author of Modern Architecture in Mexico City, History Representation and the Shaping of a Capital, which received the Hitchcock Award from the Society of Architectural Historians in 2018. She's the editor of the recent O'Neil Ford on Architecture from last year and is at work on her third book project, Archaism and Humanism in Modern Architecture. She's on the State Board of Review and is secretary of the Society of Architectural Historians. Welcome, Catherine O'Rourke. Good afternoon. Thank you, Vince. Thank you, Patty. Thank you, Conservation Society, for including me in this process. This is not just today. As many of you know, this is an ongoing process. But thank you especially for today and for putting this together. If we could possibly turn down the lights just a little bit more. It's much more important that you see the pictures than you see me. And I just, I want to see too, you heard a bit from Vince. He asked me to talk about the plaza and the relationship between plazas and civil rights. And that's not a small topic, so I'm going to try to pull as much together here as I can. We are here today because of the Woolworth building. But also because of the building that stands opposite. And because of the space between them. There is perhaps no building in the United States to which so much meaning has been attached for so long as to the Alamo. Indeed, the Woolworth is at risk of being demolished because of the emotional and symbolic weight the Alamo has long been made to bear. And while it would hardly seem necessary to revisit the story of this mission for it, ruin, icon, tourist, magnet, revenue generator. In order to fully make the case for the Woolworth, we have to talk about the story attached to the building across the way. There are many reasons why the Woolworth, and I think the whole Woolworth, should remain standing. The building itself is a great example of urban commercial architecture of the early 20th century. It is representative of the broad patterns of commerce and economic development that have long shaped U.S. cities. With James Warrenberger's Reuter building down the street and Alfred Giles' Crockett block in the palace, in the post office and federal courthouse, on the opposite corner, and the Gibbs building across Houston Street. The Woolworth forms part of a vibrant streetscape of great buildings by important architects. And this wonderfully varied stretch of the urban fabric is even richer because of its proximity to the Alamo. A building whose form and structure we owe to the work of, among others, Antonio Tejo, Ironimo Ibarra, John Fries, and Carolyn Peterson. A list of names stitched together across centuries that itself attest to the historical and cultural richness of this place. Indeed, the Woolworth is an integral piece of a cultural landscape marked by its diversity. It belongs to a network of buildings where in March of 1960, thanks to the courage of ordinary people, we, the people, became a little bit more democratic and a little bit more free. Woolworth should stand because of the people who sat down in it. And among the places of business that began to integrate that day, the Woolworth is especially important because of where it is, because of the plaza in front of it and the building opposite it. It's true that the lunch counter is gone. It's true that you can't see the history of the civil rights movement in the building right now. But there is a lot of history that we cannot see. And in fact, we know that the histories and the places and the spaces of the people who weren't in power, or whose stories proved inconvenient or uncomfortable to the ones who were, have often been allowed to disappear or made to disappear. As it exists today, the Alamo Comprehensive Interpretive Plan reflects a long and difficult process in which the architects, I imagine, have worked quite hard to acknowledge a wide range of perspectives and concerns. It's clear from the differences between the initial plan that the public saw and the revised version that the designers have been listening, and so too have the city leaders charged with shepherding the design development process. And yet the fundamental idea is unchanged. The plan doesn't take a definitive stand on the Woolworth and instead offers four possibilities for treating the buildings on the west side of the plaza that range from preservation to partial demolition to complete demolition. It tries to somehow make the space between market and Houston do so many things at once to be both rural and urban, to be both open and closed at the same time. On the south end it is to be a lively public commercial space while the north end, the space between the Alamo and the Woolworth, is to be defined by some kind of perimeter barrier with gates in order presumably to help ensure that this area be, in the words of the plan, a place for reverence and learning. The text of the proposal has ample language about inclusivity and the telling of many stories, and yet it is clear from the drawings that one story is more important than the others. And that is the story, of course, of the 1836 battle. The Alamo Trust, which is the private entity driving much of the proposal, makes clear what that battle and the redefined space is supposed to mean. In the mission of the trust, they write, this is in the mission statement, the 1836 battle of the Alamo is one of the most pivotal battles in world history, signifying Texan identity, the fight for liberty, and bravery in the face of impossible odds. In radically altering the character of the most important stretch of downtown San Antonio, the Comprehensive Plan aims, among other things, to help people in the language of tourism and marketing, quote, personally connect to the Alamo area experience. And it promises that the space will be comfortable. There is no question that the 1836 battle fought in the crumbling remains of a Spanish colonial mission turned for it is of great historical significance. But the implications of that battle, and of the social and political transformations that followed it, are so much more complex than a tale of heroes and villains, of defenders and aggressors. The difficulty is that the place where that battle occurred has changed in character so dramatically since then, and the meaning of the Alamo been manipulated so much that in privileging one story over all others, the plan subordinates the histories and experiences that don't match up with the one that is given supremacy. To put it plainly, the Alamo and the space we call Alamo Plaza have radically different meanings for different people, as Dr. Winder's noted. But because of the centrality of the space in the city, its public character today, and its highly charged symbolism to give it over to one narrative, is not only to deny the other stories, but to foreclose on the possibility of creating new ones. Of greatest relevance to the fate of the Woolworth is the proposed redesign of the area bordered by Houston and Crockett. Here the plan proposes transforming what today is a pretty vibrant, pretty successful urban space of a kind that many cities would love to have into, in the words of the plan, an open-air museum that functions essentially as a memorial, a memorial centered on one event. A space in which we are all supposed to feel a sense of reverence, and presumably to behave reverently. Nearly all of the other aspects of the history of this space are meant to be dealt with in a museum, shoved inside while the focal point, the spatial evocation of the battlefield, that place imagined as essential to Texan identity, is made even more prominent outside. And probably, many of the drawings suggest, that museum will require taking down another place where history was made. It is a proposal that spatially and visually represents and re-enacts exclusion. What is a plaza? The space between the Woolworth and the Alamo doesn't neatly fit the historical definition of a plaza. The space originally belonged to the atrio, or the atrium of the mission. Atrios in front of churches in Spanish colonial missions began to appear in the Americas in the 16th century. And you see an example here at Huelo Tzingo in the state of Puebla in central Mexico. They were integral to the entwined projects of evangelization and colonization. In its earliest incarnation, the space we call Alamo Plaza was a very late example at the northern edge of a vast empire of a distinctive spatial type. More characteristic of the plaza type is in fact just outside of this building, what we call main plaza. It reflected the principles of one of the world's most influential planning documents, the Law of the Endes of 1583, which itself was shaped by ancient Roman ideas about cities, new Renaissance theories of urban space, and the monumental plazas of the great Mesoamerican cities. As the Law of the Endes and the History of Urban Planning make clear, plazas are not just big, open-planned spaces in the city. They are defined by the buildings that surround them and by what goes on in them. One of the most remarkable things to me about the Alamo is its doorway. It's less celebrated than the parapet, but unlike it, it was actually there in 1836 and long before. The doorway is a regionalized, baroque interpretation of the triumphal arch form popularized in illustrated texts by the Renaissance architect Sebastian Osterlio in the 16th century, just as the Spanish began their vast building campaign in this hemisphere. The triumphal arch dates to antiquity, but it was in the Renaissance, in the work of Leon Battista Alberti, that it began to appear on building facades, not just to make them look nice, but in order to help them define the spaces in front of them. The Renaissance ambition to order urban space, which you see here in Piero della Francesca's view of an ideal city of 1460, expressed a humanistic belief that well-ordered cities reflected and supported well-functioning societies. In reality, the plaza, whether it was geometrically regular or not, was physically and symbolically the epicenter and the embodiment of this ideal. This planning tradition has come down to us in a variety of contexts, and governments have long spent enormous sums building and changing plazas precisely because they are such potent characters of symbolism. Since the Renaissance, the shaping of urban space has been marked by a nearly perpetual tension between the ideal of social harmony and the reality of governmental control. Indeed, the history of many of the great plazas, such as Angeot Gabriel's Great Square for King Louis XV in Paris of the 1750s, which you know as the Place de la Concorde, is a history of the shaping of space in order to project an image of a well-functioning, agreeable society. Yet in this instance, as in so many others, patrons, planners, and architects used urban space and the buildings and monuments that define it to project power abstractly. In Paris, the Statue of the King, placed at the center, and it's pretty tiny, but it is up there in the middle of the square, seems to command, the Statue of the King seems to command not just the square, but the vast reaches of the city and country beyond it by virtue of its alignment with the axes of the streets and gardens. Several decades later, revolutionaries built a guillotine here. Colonial Mexico City offers a vivid example of how a plaza may be transformed by enclosure and its political and social meaning changed in the process. The main plaza, or Socalo, had itself been built to help affect the spatial and political transformation of Aztec Tenochtitlan into Spanish Mexico City. Cristóbal Villalpando's 1704 Vista de la Plaza de México shows an idealized image of the city's great square as a place of well-ordered markets, tranquil social interaction, and even class diversity.  But in the upper right corner, he shows the rebuilding of the part of the royal palace that had been badly damaged in popular riots over a steep rise in the price of corn. This detail served as a subtle reminder of the ultimate authority and stability of the monarch, even in the face of insurrection. Much less subtle was the step the viceroy took nearly 100 years later, when in the waning years of Spanish control, he directed the plaza to be cleared of markets and of people, and to be enclosed by a low wall and, in the French manner, installed a statue of the king at the center to remind everyone who was in charge. Perhaps the closest comparison in the U.S. to the Alamo Plaza plan was the creation of Independence Mall by the National Park Service in the 1950s. The idea there, too, was to make a focal building seem more special by clearing out the city around it, demolishing buildings that didn't fit into a central narrative, and replacing them with lots of open space. The result was intensely criticized, and one observer likened Independence Mall to an open wound. Of course, Alamo Plaza has never been completely shaped by a single entity. Over the course of the second half of the 19th century, the space west of the Alamo took on the character of an urban commercial plaza, to its east and southward modest vernacular buildings. In 1880, the two-storey Hugo and Schmelzer store occupied the former site of the Cloister, a modest meat market stood in what had been the atrio. By the 1890s, the city we know had come into view. New three- and four-storey commercial buildings stood on the west side of Alamo Street. To the north was James Riley Gordon's Romanesque Revival Post Office. The plaza had been paved with mesquite blocks and an oval-shaped landscaped park with winding paths, a bandstand, and a rock encircled garden known as the Mexican Cactus Garden was installed. This park was still in place in the plaza, and the Alamo grounds were fully integrated into a dense urban fabric in 1918. The Hugo and Schmelzer stores dismantled in 1913 for the rebuilding of the lower walls of the Cloister, following a fierce debate about whether the Alamo should be commemorated chiefly as a battle site or a mission. In the 1920s, Alamo Plaza Park embodied the informality and genteel rusticity that were hallmarks of San Antonio's spaces of leisure in the early 20th century. A new octagonal bandstand with classical columns on a rock base replaced the old one, and a small faux-bois bench by Dionisio Rodriguez stood among palm trees. The cenotaph was dedicated in 1940. By then, the park was bisected to accommodate vehicular traffic along Crockett Street. The land behind the Alamo, between Houston and Bonham, had been developed as another park, a change that contributed to the denaturing of the Alamo itself as part of the city, and anticipated the demolitions of historic buildings throughout downtown San Antonio in the decades to come. Buildings that comprised a larger cultural landscape that also reflected the diversity of the 19th and early 20th century city. That denaturing at mid-century accelerated the process of converting the Alamo into a memorial as the building grew in importance in the popular imagination. Thanks in large part to Walt Disney and John Wayne. Popular fascination with the Battle of the Alamo had emerged in the late 19th century and reached one of its high points just after the turn of the century. As Richard Flores has documented in the 1950s and 1960s, the Davy Crockett television show and Wayne's film intensified popular interest and helped solidify the familiar story. The accelerated spread of that version of the battle, now to a younger and very large generation, coincided with the rise of the suburbs as destinations for white flight. The shift of commercial and civic life away from downtown and the deepening racial and economic segregation that accompanied that process. It also coincided with the civil rights movement. Indeed, the Alamo has been the subject of greatest attention at moments of social and political change that were strongly bound up with race. Yet through all of this, the plaza was a place of vibrant activity. Since at least 1890, the site of festive celebrations, a photo-op setting sought by politicians as different as Franklin Roosevelt and Richard Nixon, the place that people went to see Douglas MacArthur and the Fiesta Royalty. Segregation was by definition spatial. It was enacted in the public realm on sidewalks and buses and in restaurants and schools and in housing. Segregation was enforced in the public realm by official and unofficial means by, we might even say, public-private partnerships. It was also in the public realm that desegregation happened, where it was realized by ordinary people. Historian Dell Upton has observed the civil rights movement may have been the only truly democratic movement this country has ever had. Indeed, civil rights become real not only through the execution of just laws, but in the public spaces of ordinary life. They are enacted, lived, protected through the conduct and contact of individuals face-to-face in a diverse, multi-colored society. Having places that are widely recognized as communal, shared and capable of bearing many meanings and that are lived as open and flexible is essential for the kinds of interactions that are the cornerstones of tolerance and understanding, the foundation of real democracy. The civil rights movement was forged in heroic, memorable moments, but as importantly, it was lived in millions of unrecorded ones. Small ones, when people in their daily lives reached out from what was comfortable to do what was right. Our great open space of democracy at the National Mall is lodged in our hearts, not because we love long expanses of grass, or even because of the buildings that frame it, but because of the democracy-defining events that took place there. The moments when citizens have come together from all over the country to make real the promises etched on the walls of the monuments and written in the documents housed nearby to stand up for civil rights, to make clear that gay lives are worth saving, or that women's rights are human rights. The Alamo Comprehensive Plan says that the plaza will be comfortable, and above all that it will be a place of reverence. Comfortable for who? Reverence. A word repeated so much in discussions of the plan, not just by its promoters, but by the press, by the politicians. Reverence for what? And this is where it gets uncomfortable. Reverence that requires taking down a building central to the history of civil rights in Texas. Reverence for an idea that has been, over the course of the last 120 years or so, been predicated on a narrative of us versus them. We, the white Americans, against them, the brown Americans. There is abundant scholarship that explains how the story of the Alamo got to be this way, and how it is not an accurate reflection. But more to the point, there is the lived experience of the many Mexican Americans who, as a consequence of this story, have been made to feel themselves the enemy. Who have been made to feel different and made to feel lesser than. Reverence for what? 1830s Mexico was hardly a democratic utopia. But how to 1836 and 1845 look if you're African American? Reverence for the codification of slavery in Texas and its expansion in the United States? Reverence for the new danger in which your forbearers now lived? For a significant number of Texans, the world actually became less free as a consequence of the battle of 1836. And now the proposal is to transform a pretty good public space into a memorial to that moment. When we historians talk about architectural history, we understand it contextually, because buildings and cities require patrons and clients. Indeed, there is no greater index of the values and priorities of a culture than what it builds and what it tears down. When we talk about the plaza of Louis XV, we talk about monarchical absolutism. When we talk about the redesigned Socalo of the late 18th century, we talk about a regime clinging to power in a colony that would soon slip away. So what will historians of the future say of this time and this project? Will they write that at the moment that Bear County was working so hard to reconnect itself through great parks and public places along its river and streams and creeks? As the city of San Antonio worked to make housing more affordable and transportation more effective, that in this period, for the first time since the 19th century, when more Texans were not white than were, that the people of San Antonio let the state cordon off and control their most important public space and tell them how they were supposed to feel there. That same state at that same time did nothing as the federal government separated brown-skinned children from their parents at the border. The historians will not miss that that state welcomed the further building of a giant wall along that border. If they are writing about the demolition of the Woolworth, those historians will surely note that the building was taken down by the same state that tried all sorts of things to make it more difficult for people to vote or to make sure that their vote didn't matter too much and that that state seemed perpetually unwilling to adequately fund public schools. But that history hasn't been written yet. The bulldozers haven't arrived. There is still a chance that the historians could write a different story. They might record instead that those Texans who so loved doing unexpected, daring things, especially when they knew the world was watching, looked at their history and at their present and said, come and take it, repurposing that old phrase while keeping its spirit of optimistic defiance. Those Texans, they might write, realized that that plaza and the buildings around it were embedded in their history not because of one event, but because of the many. They might write that those Texans even remembered that sometimes they had fun there. They looked around and realized that maybe that plaza had been doing its work all along in honoring the long, hard, unending work of making a little bit more real the promise of a more perfect union. A promise that even through or especially through the strained, tense, acrimonious years of the late teens and at least the first month of 2020, the backers of the plan and its opponents both cherished. Whether people came to the plaza because they wanted more prayer or because they wanted ethnic studies. Whether they came to proclaim their rights as gun owners or to demand an end to the shooting of students in their classrooms, the plaza the people realized was working. With their different histories and cultures and memories and feelings, people kept coming, renewing democracy through their varied and various expressions. And when they paused, they realized that the proposal to change the plaza had done more to help them realize their common ideals than actually redesigning it ever could.  And they rediscovered that freedom and liberty don't live in an open-air museum. They live in the processes through which people work for these ideals. They live in the contest of ideas and in the basic, ordinary act of coming together in the public realm. So they left the plaza alone and the Woolworth and the Crockett Block and all the other buildings continued to stand, but with some new plaques and information about why they were important. Nearly everybody agreed that they'd prefer something other than the souvenir shops and touristic amusements across from the Alamo. And in the historic buildings there, they worked with legacy business owners in different parts of the city to open branches in ground floors of the historic buildings so that residents and tourists alike might better understand what was truly distinctive and special about San Antonio. And in one of those buildings they created a big bookstore with all kinds of books about Texas, books about the 1836 battle by commentators on conservative media, along with those by scholars of Mexican-American history and of African-American Texas. There were biographies of Davy Crockett and William Barrett Travis and James Bowie and also of Anne Richards and Barbara Jordan and Emma Tenayuca. And they did build a museum but not where the Woolworth is. Instead they built it on a parking lot nearby. And that museum had lots of objects associated with the battle, but it also told a longer unfinished story about courage, bravery and the struggle to realize the ideas that for quite a long time had seemed to only belong to the Alamo defenders. In the museum people learned about bravery on battlefields but also of the bravery of the African-American men and women who in 1960 sat down at lunch counters along Houston Street. Of the bravery of the African-American children and their families as they walked into white classrooms. Of the courage of the parents and grandparents who kept speaking Spanish at home even as they knew their children might be punished at school for doing so. The museum presented Texas history in a way that visitors learned, in the words of architect Robert Venturi, about the difficult unity of inclusion, not the easy unity of exclusion. And the tourists still came, in fact more than ever, because they had heard that the people in San Antonio were doing something different with their history, really different. And because they wanted to see the Alamo, they were surprised to discover how entwined Mexico and the U.S. have always been. And surprised to learn that on a Monday, each January, so many people in San Antonio got together to affirm the importance of everyone's liberty. They were astonished by just how big Texan identity, like Texas, actually is. And they admired the bravery of the Texans. Thanks. Thank you so much. I literally have two minutes for questions. That was wonderful. Well, we have to be out of this space in the next 15 minutes or so. So I do have one, we'll take one question back here and we'll try to go as quick as we can. I'll make it quick. You mentioned that in the drawings, one story is more important than the others. So I just want to caution us about so much focus on the Woolworth and not speaking of the Crockett as often as possible, because the story of Samuel Maverick and his sons and Alfred Giles are tied up in all of this. Absolutely. And that is totally the point, too. There are so many stories, and I think we've been hearing that in different ways all day long, that this is a part of our city that is so rich with histories that we don't even fully understand. There's so much that is not yet even known, and that's all the more reason to not obliterate it, and that it's the many buildings, the many people. There can't be a sort of trading card game here going on. This has to be, I think, a very clear statement about the whole picture, the big picture that we're dealing with here, not to get into little bargainings here and there. I'd like to say a thank you to everyone. As you all may know, this is the African American Month. Anyway, our separation, all this coincided together is excellent. I'd like to say also about, I hope all of us come out and continue to support this effort to say to what we're building as such. There's a whole lot going on here. One is that, okay? We're building here, and then there's one in Greensboro as well. To me, you should see the coalition there. It is very important, to my opinion, only two are left in the United States. One in Greenboro, one in San Antonio. To me, in Nashville, wherever, but to me, that's very important. How many people realize that it impact that the Civil Rights Movement have had in our society? Not only for African Americans as such, but all of us have benefited from that. Women's rights, human rights, all of us. So I'm saying to San Antonio, to everybody involved here now, hey, yesterday you used this not only for the Alamo, but when people come in to show them, hey, the importance of this woodwork building has had on society today. This is why they're here today, because we all have benefited and still benefit from it. Absolutely. Okay, one more. Catherine, thank you so much. That was just absolutely amazing. You got everything in. Quickly, I have to say, you said it was such elegance. I'm not sure that the room really understands one of the things that really tugs at my heart, and that is that I have read enough to understand that when the Battle of the Alamo occurred, this territory was Mexico, and I'm saying it clearly because you said all of this gracefully. But at the same time, Mexico had outlawed slavery in this territory. As a result, they were not allowed, the Texians, the white settlers, were not allowed to bring their slaves in, though they did and there was a lot of discussion about it. Mexico said, you just got to stop doing that. So I want people to make sure they know that historically, and maybe everybody does know that, but I didn't for many, many years, and it wasn't taught in my school. It's not taught, right? But the point is that one month after the Battle of the Alamo, after the Republic was established, slavery was written back into law in this area. So I have to say that we have to kind of say out loud by extolling the virtues of the Alamo, not the mission part of it, but that battle meant freedom for them, but enslavement for my ancestors. And as a result, we could walk across the plaza now and tell what those enslaved Americans, citizens of Texas, did in order to further gain their freedom. Exactly. So I think it's important that we make a point of saying that. Absolutely. Thank you so much. I just wanted to say that in the third grade at Grand Elementary School, Mrs. Mitchell taught us about blacks and slavery as related to the Battle of Mexico. And then Mrs. Richardson continued it. In the fourth grade, Ms. Marshall in the fifth, and Mrs. Garrison in the sixth. But Grand Elementary doesn't exist anymore because they tore it down. That's it. And so then we moved over to Dunbar. We were taught more and more about it. They didn't tear it down, but they changed it into something else. But I'd like to ask a question of everybody here. How many people here, lives were affected by segregation? Right. Right. How many people? Well, it's amazing that most of you put your hands up, but some of the white people did not.  That's the point that I'm trying to make, that all of our lives were affected by segregation. San Antonio perhaps was a little bit more liberal than some of the East Texas towns and stuff in terms of riding the bus where the sign was said that the back seats were reserved for colored patrons, et cetera, et cetera. And sometimes you didn't have to sit at the back of the bus. And my brother integrated San Pedro Park swimming pool by simply going swimming. My mother integrated the chameleon room at Joskies with her friend, Kathleen Voight. They went and they had lunch there. And my uncle showed up and said he wanted to join them. And he told them that he couldn't because he was colored. He said, well, you're serving my sister. And he said, who is your sister? And he pointed to my mother who was sitting inside. So they went inside and they asked my mother and said, there's a man out here who says he's your brother and he wants to come here and eat. And she looked at, she asked my brother, G.J. Yeah. And so they brought him in and that integrated the chameleon room. Sometimes it was easy. Sometimes it was very, very difficult. But I'm glad to hear what you had to say. I know that you didn't bring up the cannon in Gonzales. We'll come and take it. And just want to again say thank you. Thank you so much to the Andrews family. Amy, do you have one? Just one second comment. Wouldn't it be wonderful if the Alamo Plaza became also a place to tell the story of the struggle for control of a narrative? It played a big role. It played a big role in the creation of the Fiesta City, as we say. And in teaching the majority Mexican American population to celebrate the victory of the U.S. over Mexico. So that would be great too. Absolutely. I mean there's so much opportunity here actually to go in the right direction. Okay. I'm going to give Nettie the last moment and then Patty's going to bring us home. Everybody, listen, last year the state demolished the Sutton office building. The first office building belonging to the state that was the state legislature that was not located in Austin, Texas. So the first state office building that was named for the first black state representative for the state of Texas. They demolished the Sutton office building. It's now a vacant lot. Do not let them demolish or repurpose the Woolworth building. You have come and you have heard. I hope that you will go forward with the spirit that we've all shared today. We've heard from five wonderful speakers. We've heard from Everett who had to leave and Tara and Catherine and Todd and Bruce. Did I get you all? Yes, I did. It's very important that we save the Woolworth building. But what's important is that we have to save the narrative that's there. And we as preservationists, I think we're all like-minded in this room, know what it's like to fight a battle, to preserve something that's important to our lives, and most importantly, the legacy of the future. Because you can't have a future without having your past. And we need to keep the elements of our past to tell the story for the future. We've had some really good speakers today. And I hope that you have enjoyed and appreciated them and your time here today. And the girls have passed out some comment cards and feedback. We weren't real sure what this day was going to be when we started out planning it. And I have to thank Vincent because as you've seen, Vincent is the intellectual, and I might be the president, but I'm also the little detail person that runs around and picks up on the details. So I cannot thank you enough for being here, because your presence here has shown the support that you are giving us and our coalition members, thank you. Thank you to our coalition members. Because it can't just be the conservation society. I think someone said it takes a village. Well, this is our village, our coalition is our village, our coalition is our spirit that keeps us going. And we have so many people that are on this journey. And it's a journey, it's a long road, it's not finished yet.  So just make sure your life insurance is paid out. Thank you for being here. God bless your travels.


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Good morning. How's everybody doing today? This is Rich from Rich TV Live and we have a brand new IPO for everyone to enjoy today. Brand new IPO for everybody to enjoy today. And I'm super excited about this IPO. I think the upside for this IPO is tremendous and I believe that they have an amazing future and that's why today we're gonna talk about it. We're gonna bring it down. We're gonna break it down. We're gonna let everybody know about this brand new IPO that is launching today. Ritual Super Foods Commencing Trading on the Canadian Security Exchange under the symbol RSF. Here it is, the news, Ritual Super Foods Inc. RSF in Canada, RSFWT for the warrants if you wanna buy the warrants. It's pleased to announce that its common shares and warrants will commence trading today on the Canadian Security Exchange, CSE under the ticker symbol RSF and RSF.WT. Additional information is being updated on the company website at investors.ritual.com. Let's quickly see if we can see what that has. There's the website, investors.ritual.com. Pretty cool packaging. Embrace the power of functional super foods and adipatogens. The premium brand is the emerging functional mushroom and adipatogenic super food market. Ritual food offers a range of products to fit every lifestyle. Our natural elixirs are powered by super ingredients that help you navigate the mental, emotional, and physical challenges of our modern lifestyle, helping you find the balance you've been missing. Brand new IPO only in Canada so far is launching today. We've been the first to bring you pick after pick after pick after pick and this is no different just another pick that we're bringing you first. David Kerbell, CEO of Ritual Super Foods Inc. states, we think our community of investors for supporting us to date and we're excited to list on the Canadian Security Exchange so they're on the CSE and highlight Ritual Super Foods as it positions to be a leader in the emerging functional food industry. As part of the company's disclosure, that's gonna be on CEDAR, about Ritual Foods, Ritual Super Foods, plant-based elixirs support immunity, focus and relaxation. Under the executive leadership with over 100 years of consumer packaged goods pedigree, Ritual plans to launch in North America in Q2 2021 as the company positions itself to be a leader in the functional health and wellness industry. So let's go through some of this information. Okay, so this is their website, ritual.com and you can go and sign up for their mailing list, really nice packaging. We've also got some samples from the company that we will be sending out to some members who put some good comments on the videos. So guys, please run to this video, comment on the video, smash the like button, share the video everywhere and subscribe. Let me know why you like this company or what you're interested about in this company or leave a really cool comment about this company and we may send you a sample so you can try it first. Elevated wellness from the ground up. We are deep delivers and believers in the power of natural nourishment, which I am as well. Our small batch elixirs are made with mindfully selected medicinal mushrooms to optimize cognitive and immuno performance and abdactogenic herbs like cow cow, ginger and cinnamon resulting in blends that are delicious as they are beneficial. Now I'm gonna share my screen with you guys, so you guys can see what I'm looking at. Okay, we'll take a look here. So the symbol is RFG, Ritual Super Foods. Sorry, RSF, Ritual Super Foods, RSF brand new symbol, brand new IPO, open today for the first day ever. And RSF is the symbol and it's brand new and it's just open today. That's right, it's just open today, which means if you are investing in this IPO, you are literally first to the party. Literally first to the party and why wouldn't we wanna be first to the party? Are you doing Barbara? Mr. Steele, how you doing? It's not in the US yet, no. Not in the US yet, but like most of our picks, if not all of our picks, they always do get listed in America eventually, just early to the party here. You can see here issuing outstanding 59 million shares, reserve for issuance an extra 25. So fully diluted 85 million shares, 59 million right now and fully diluted 85 million shares. I think that's a tight float. Under 100 million is really nice, under 50 million is perfect. So right now 59 million is a great start, I like that. Now you can see here the bid prices at 40 cents, the offer is at 80. I'm not looking at the level two right now. It was opening up at 37, but we were seeing that pre-market it was at least at 40 cents. If you guys know the actual price right now, please let us know, put it in the chat. I'd love to know what the actual price is for Ritual Superfoods RSF. Like I said, it's on the Canadian Securities Exchange, CSE exchange. There's the market depth right there. Obviously there's a little bit of a delay here so we don't see the exact prices, but we will in the next 10 minutes know exactly where it's at. And if you guys see the level two market depth on it and you know exactly what price it's at, please let us know. Love to get an update on the exact price. So this is the website Ritual.com. Now Ritual has two Rs, R-R-I-T-U-A-L so Ritual.com is their website. You can see the packaging looks really, really nice. Now, if you actually Google Ritual Foods, a picture like this shows up and it shows all the different superfoods that they really focus on and you can see these superfoods and it literally breaks down what they do, their meanings and how they help your health. So really into superfoods and healthy living and healthy eating and healthy foods, organic foods, organic vegetables, anything organic. I'm a really big fan of and we've seen a lot of success with organic everything over the last year. So I believe that this will continue. I think this trend continues right now and Rike says it is at 38 cents. Thank you very much. So it was opening up at 37, currently at 38. So it's right where it started. This might be a good position to start thinking about positioning yourself. Now remember, Rich TV Live is strictly for education and entertainment purposes. Always do your due diligence, always do your research before you invest anything that we talk about here in Rich TV Live. Always invest in the best, the best is blessed and we bring you the best every single day first. I think we've proven that. Hey, good morning, Robert. Hope you're having a great day, brother. Are you planning to get into Ritual Foods? Now, when I bring you guys a new IPO and I've brought you many, this is my third IPO in the last week. So as we bring you a lot of these picks, it's important that you put them on your watch list, put them on your radar. I'm not sitting here telling you to buy anything, okay? You guys do whatever you want to do, all right? I've never told anyone what to buy, when to buy, what price to buy at, what price to sell at. It's not what I do. I bring you picks, we create conversations, we've got large communities all over the world that are looking at these picks and we wanna have intelligent conversations talking about the picks. From there, everyone can make their own decisions, okay? That's really what the whole idea is because I'm not licensed to be able to give you guys any advice. And so based on that, all I can do is educate you and allow you to make your own decisions.  We've seen that on pick after pick after pick after pick, but not every single pick is guaranteed to go up. That's not the way the market works. So don't just immediately buy anything just cause you're hurting here on Rich TV Live, okay? Don't do that. Do the research, do the due diligence, find what you like, find out what you dislike, engage in powerful conversations. If you really like the deal, invest because you like the deal. Don't invest because I like the deal, invest because you like the deal. If you come to me and say, man, I bought that new Ritual Foods IPO. Thanks Rich, I love it. I'm probably gonna say, why'd you buy it? And if you don't know why you bought it, if your answer is because you talked about it, that's not a good enough answer. That's not a good answer. I wanna know why you bought it, tell me. And you should know why you bought it. It shouldn't be because you heard it on Rich TV Live. That's just craziness, right? So please, let's be intelligent. Let's make smart decisions. I'm bringing you these picks for education, entertainment purposes, above and beyond that, whatever happens, happens, right? I can't control these deals. I don't control this deal. I don't own this deal. I'm not the CEO of the company. I'm just the guy that delivers the news. Today's the first day it's public. It's the first day it's trading. I just want you to know. And congratulations for everyone who knows because now you know about a brand new pick and it could be a screamer. It could, I like to explain why. So premium plant based elixirs, superfood dominance. I like that superfood. That's good. Powerhouse team of CPG over 100 plus years of combined specialty CPG experience with leading brands such as Celsius Beverage, Nude Beverages, Gaia Herbs, Mega Foods, Notiva and Denone Water. Retail commitments consisting of 2,400 stores and 10,000 points of distribution already. Whoa. Revenue projections, how about this guys? 8.4 million USD this year for a stock trading of 38 cents. Not bad, eh? 16.7 million next year and 25.1 million in 2023 for a stock trading at under 40 cents. So I'm gonna make a bold prediction right away. I believe that this company goes to at least a dollar this year in 2021 based on the fact that they're gonna do 8.4 million US in revenues which is over 10 million Canadian. And that's kind of the benchmark. When I see a company that we're talking about with a relatively tight float and at least 10 million in revenue, I always assume they're gonna go to at least a dollar. And that's kind of the benchmark that 10 million dollar benchmark Canadian is what I like to see if I expect the company to go to at least a dollar. And these guys are going to do that based on their projection. So assuming they do, I think we've got an opportunity for some incredible upside. The only premium brand of adaptogen, Alexers, validated by recent ECM-RM Buyer's Choice Awards, rapidly emerging space, Whole Foods recently named Functional Foods and Aptogens as the number one top food trend in 2021. And I'm all over it. An opportunity to dominate the functional mushroom and Aptogen space with clear points of differentiation. Welcome to the 275 billion functional food market. And why do I like plant-based foods? We all need food. It doesn't make a difference. Yeah, we're in a pandemic, we still need food. And when people are thinking about putting food into their bodies, why not put in super food in your bodies? Chances are if you put super food in your bodies, you give yourself a better chance to heal, deal with pain, deal with anxiety, deal with depression, and just feel better. You ever hear that saying you are what you eat?   The whole idea here is eat good, feel good, be good. This is the whole philosophy behind ritual foods. And I love it. Functional mushrooms are top 10 rated functional food and possess unique properties that boost immunity, improve brain function and more. And you guys know, I love mushrooms. I've been talking to you guys about psychedelic stocks. These guys are using them for food. There's a global shift towards functional food that supports wellness with a 7.9% CAGR. Which stands for Compound Annual Growth Rate to of 7.9% growth to 2025. Functional mushrooms demand is growing exponentially and forecast to rise from 23 billion to 34 billion by 2024. COVID-19 pandemic has supercharged growth. Industry is an early but rapid stage of development and a dominant consumer brand has yet to emerge. Which means we are in the early stages, we are just getting started. So let's talk about the elevated wellness from the ground up, functional mushrooms, transforming the functional food industry. So you could see here all the different types of mushrooms and some functional mushroom quick facts ranked as the top food trend by whole foods. Mushrooms is here to stay used as health aids for 2000 plus years, typically consumed in a dry powered form, powdered form can be combined with adaptogen herbs for unique benefits, long shelf life when correctly processed and packaged. So a lot of positives with mushrooms and they are the key ingredient with ritual foods. Currently no brand leader market in a state of rapid growth and there's not one brand leader leading the charge maybe ritual foods will be that leader. Global functional mushroom market projected to exceed 50 billion by 2025. Global functional food market to reach 275 billion by 2025 with a compound annual growth rate of 7.9%. Recent data shows up to 800% demand increase for key mushroom varieties. You can see some of the different several players but no dominant or premium brand in the place and in the space. Which means ritual foods is positioned to be a potential giant. Oh wow, Julie is saying it's at 45 cents now. The symbol is RSF, Ritual Superfoods and congratulations to members that are getting in early, you're already up. Okay, so this is early stage of an industry maturity means no dominant brand is in place, gaps remain in the market including complete absence of a premium brand. Wellness players watching the market and beginning to make acquisitions. This is just getting started folks. So this is the Ritual Timeline and Catalysts Q1 2020 formulation of R&D research and development, product line development, test marketing and brand development. Q2 2020, Logistics Partnership and Agreements, Initial Distributor Partnership and Seed Financing. Q3 and Q4 2020 received USDA Organic Certification recognized as a winner of ECRM Whole Body and Mind Program, R&D into iHealth and Beauty Categories with various Superfood Adaptogens. And Q2 2021, which is pretty much starting now, soon, in less than a month. Phase one product launched Lion's Mane, Chaga, Reshi and Adaptogen, Alexa's IPO, which is today, e-commerce rollout and receive NPH approval for entrance into the Canadian market. And the product looks like this, very sleek packaging, nice packaging, quality packaging. So what makes these guys unique is they have a strong focus on compliance and quality standards. You can see their certifications are USDA Organic, which is huge value to Ritual and differentiates Ritual from their competitors. And that is their certification. So they are USDA Organic certified and CCOF Organic certified. So CCOF was the first organic certification entity in the US, CCOF is the USDA accredited organic certifying and trade association. So as you can see here, they are going to be doing a lot of business in America and they don't even have a US symbol yet. Imagine when they do get the US symbol, what this will do for the stock. So yes, we get in early in Canada, but that means that for the American community members that are watching, keep this on your radar, keep on your watch list like we did with very good butchers. And I told you guys it would explode. And it did. There's a very good chance that when this company sets their symbol up in America, we're gonna see similar results where everyone in America is gonna want a piece of this IPO.  They have a co-manufacturing partner certification, GMP and save quality food program. So adding a lot of value to ritual foods. What this does having the USDA Organic certification, it certifies organic products that are in high demand, differentiates ritual from their competitors and opens doors to retailers In two ways, organic is a leading purchasing influencer of health conscious consumers, especially when purchasing health products. Several national retail chains, including Whole Foods Market have also implemented mandatory shelf labeling of non-GMO ingredients and having USDA seal provides reassurance to the buyer, the product has been vetted and validated to be organic and non-GMO. This then gives retailers confidence in the product quality and purity of the products they offer. And CCOF value to ritual is integrity and organic production of certification, social, environmental and economic responsibility. And the co-manufacturing partner certification is giving ritual easier access to enter the Canadian and EU markets which means they wanna focus on the Canadian markets and European markets with the GMP certification. And Canadian products with NPH number requires GMP manufacturing. Safe quality food program offers them recognition by our industry consumers and retailers that ritual is adhering to the highest quality manufacturing, food safety and quality codes in the industry. So this is a company that's focused on quality. And because of that, I think the upside is tremendous. You can see they are crafted with purpose, beautiful sleek packaging and they are the defenders of calm. Our products ritual initial, products lines, the immune buster, the chaga, bursting with bioactive polysaccharides, rituals chaga blend combines the chaga mushroom with the ilio thorough route for optimal immune system benefits. The brain booster lion's mane, this unique blend of lion's mane mushroom and rhodiola root supports cognitive function and brain health while also improving your body's ability to manage stress and stress support. Rishi rich in trituripines, polysaccharides, fatty acids and amino acids, rituals, Rishi blend includes the ashwag and root to help body and mind combat anxiety. Long-term use can also improve quality of sleep for restless minds. This is gonna be so big. There's so many people that have problems with all of those things and they are crafted with purpose, our small batch elixirs are made with limited yet very purposeful and organic ingredients beginning with natural harvested mushrooms, herbal spices like cinnamon and ginger and whole foods like coconut plus fruit powders to create blends that are as delicious as they are beneficial. The first premium brand, ritual premium mushroom superfood elixirs, the world's greatest champion for mental fitness. It's also trademarked. The market's first premium brand of functional mushrooms and adiptogenic elixirs, unique plant-based blends that provide powerful cognition, mood and immune support developed by rituals formulations team led by award-winning consumer health expert, Stacy Gillespie. So this is looking good guys. If you guys know the price right now of ritual superfoods, please share it in the group. Last time I looked it was at 45 cents. It opened up at 37. I think it went to 40, went down to 38 and currently now is 45. If you guys know the price, please let me know. Love to be able to keep up to date with it. I don't know if it's showing up anywhere yet. Let's take a look. Ritual superfoods RSF. I don't see it showing up anywhere yet on Webull. Ritual. No, it's not showing up on Webull yet. Let's see if it shows up on CSE here. Canadian Securities Exchange. Okay, so there's probably a delay here. It shows that it's at 39 cents and bid at 36, offer at 39. Volume is 943,000 shares. So it's traded almost a million shares already for this brand new IPO and you can literally see the market depth on the CSE. So you can see that people are bidding for it at 36 and selling at 39. So my advice would be, if you're looking to get into this IPO, don't buy it at market. Sit on the bid, soak it up as low as humanly possible, maybe 35, maybe 36. Try to buy it as low as humanly possible. That's how you give yourself the best chance to win with any stock. All right, thank you, Tony. I will look at it. Green Bull says for so long now, we've very little options available to us nutrition-wise. No products are more important than products that elevate our minds, bodies and soul. Love seeing these companies popping up. I agree, this is the right time, the right place to start positioning ourselves in these types of opportunities. Janet says it's at 39 cents on CIBC Investors Edge. Thank you for sharing. Alberto Ramos says, type float another winner, thanks, rich brother. Hey, my pleasure, whatever I can do to help. Janet says now at 39 and a half cents. So brand new IPO just getting started, 39 and a half cents. Going to do, based on what they're saying here, about 8.4 million US this year, despite the fact that they're trading under 40 cents. I think the upside is tremendous. I think this goes to at least a dollar. Now remember, rich TV live is strictly for education and entertainment purposes. Always do your due diligence. Always do your research before you invest in anything that we talk about here, rich TV live, consult a financial advisor. Chances are your financial advisor is gonna say, good pick, where'd you get this pick from? And you can say, oh, from rich TV live and they'll say, that guy's good. Because I hear it every day. I wouldn't say it if it wasn't true. Guys, if you liked the video, it really helps if you smash the like button, comment on the videos, share the videos and subscribe. Thank you guys for all your support. And none of this would be possible without you guys. Hey, Carol, how you doing? It's at 44 cents and 1.7 million volume on TD. All right, not bad. So it's already up based on what Carol is saying at 44 cents. So that's good news. And hopefully for this investment and for the members that are watching all over the world, everyone gets an opportunity to position themselves early for this big potential future winner. And I believe this is just the beginning for this new IPO. So clearly it's the beginning because it's the first day of trading. Now, anything can happen, guys. IPOs can go up, they can go down, they can go sideways. Anything can happen. I can't guarantee anything. I just think that this company has a chance to be really good. And that's why I'm breaking it down. And if there's anything that you guys wanna communicate with or if you have a question or you disagree with me or something else you wanna talk about regarding ritual foods, let me know. I'd like to know so that I can do more digging. So let's talk about the Q2, Q3, 2021 product line, product pipeline, vegan chai rose latte collagen booster, collagen booster rose chai latte powder made with Tremella, Rishi, aloe vera and other beautifying superfoods in a skin hydrating and vegan cream base. Mood and energy ube matcha latte powder made with Cordyceps, Lion's mane matcha and purple, blue, hue superfoods, ube purple, sweet pea powder, purple pea flour, blue spirulina, broad spectrum of prebiotic superfoods of purple, sweet potato powder, lucima and inulin, which combined support a healthy microbiome so you can trust your gut again. And it's important for us to trust our gut. We gotta be able to eat good so we can feel good and we can live good. And I love what superfoods and ritual superfoods is doing and using natural remedies, mushrooms to change the world, imagine that. And who's been talking about mushrooms and psychedelics? Oh, your boy Rich, interesting. Superfood vegan creamer made with vegan cream base and proprietary immune synergy blend with key aptogenic botanicals. So this is their sales and distribution. So this is obviously key. You can have a big product. You can have a great product. You can have a revolutionary product. But if you don't got any sales, if you don't got any marketing, if you don't have any exposure, if you're not on Rich TV Live, nobody's gonna know. These guys have a global sales, global sales and distribution strategy. A global sales and distribution strategy, which means they're gonna go after America first, Canada second, smart. And then the Asian Pacific, that's huge. The American market, huge. So multi-stage targeted launch, be where the customers are. Three-stage global launch, targets countries with the highest demand for medicinal, mushrooms and superfood products. Turnkey scalable manufacturing distribution, co-packaging agreement with protein technologies harvested from certified organic US mushroom farms. Turnkey global service reduces time to market, simplifies operations and supports growth. Dual prong strategy leverages ritual team connections, e-commerce and bricks and mortar, low hanging fruit, launch will maximize teams connections with major retailers and e-tailers. So the US is the biggest market, obviously in North America and the US bricks and mortar rollout is a two-stage strategy. And I love the fact that they are focused on rolling out in America. That gets me really excited. Really, really excited because America is the market. America is the country with, it's the largest consuming country in the world. America is the largest consumers of the world. So when they find something they like, they consume it heavily. I believe that this is a company they're gonna just consume and eat up. And that's exciting for investors. Hey, thank you, Tony, I appreciate you. MJJ says, started a position this morning, we'll add if it dips. Hey, smart strategy, that's the way to trade brother. Thank you. Alberto Ramos says, screen pro ripping as predicted by Rich last week. Hey man, we do our best to bring you guys winners and we try to bring them two first, we do. So US bricks and mortar rollout, two stage strategy, stage one, 2,400 retail points of distribution with established national retailers love it. Stage two, 2,000 retail points of distribution with independent retail chains. So that is 4,400 retail points of distribution. That's exciting. Two stage initial rollout strategy into the US targeting 16 leading retailers, love it. So it's not a company that's going public and then trying to figure out what their plan is. They already figured out their plan before they went public. That is exciting. As an investor, you want to know what the company's plan is. Clearly this is a company that has a plan and most companies don't plan to fail, they just fail to plan. This is a company that has not failed to plan and that gets me even more excited. Canadian bricks and more rollout. So once they roll out in America, the next stage will be Canada. Stage one, anchor retailers, 1,400 points of distribution to establish retailers in Canada. Stage two, continued expansion of listing in major retailers, along with regional chains and wellness retailers. So they got a plan of how they're gonna roll in Canada. They got a plan of how they're gonna roll at US. And let's just see about what else. Now let's talk about their team. So I will be doing an interview with David, the CEO pretty soon. So keep that on watch and you can see the team that they're working with. So they've got some sales representatives that they're working with and they've got directors and they've got some experienced teams, members. So rituals, powerhouse, CPG branding and wellness team. So they focus with experience on e-commerce, wellness, brand marketing, distribution and retail, CPG and wellness brand experts with the connections to fast track sales and distribution. So this is not going to be a business that's going to take years to get sales. This is a business that's going to start doing sales almost immediately. Some huge, huge, huge distribution partners. Very excited about that. Very, very excited about that. And you can see the team, the chairman, the marketing and advisory team. So once again, multi-discipline leaders with key relationships and proven track records of success in natural wellness, health products, wellness, corporate finance, marketing and branding. I'm not going to go through every member but you guys can feel free to read this yourself. And this video is obviously being recorded and will be put on YouTube for future use and future visibility. You can see the capitalization table, founders and advisors own 25 million shares. Pre-IPO financing was at 10 cents, 10 million shares. Convertible note financing at 30 cents was 3 million shares. IPO financing at 30 cents was 20 million shares. That put $8.5 million in the cash treasury in the bank account for the company and leaves the company with just under 59 million shares issuing outstanding. So that's pretty good that the founders and advisors own about 40% of the shares. So that's very tightly held, which I really like. You can contact them at investors at where, where, ritual, we are ritual.com. Investors at we are ritual.com is the email address to contact them at. You can see here EM Brands, Ritual Winds at ECRM's virtual whole body and mind wellness session. Voted top product at the Buyer's Choice Award. A big part of our wellness these days, especially during the pandemic includes finding ways to relax the body and mind. Both Buyer's Choice Award winners have products aimed at calming and relaxing one's mental state. One from the outside and the other from the inside and each would be a great addition to Buyer's wellness assortments. Congratulations to both winners. And this is Craig SVP for ECRM. And you can see how they have a competitive comparison chart. So their products are certified organic. The mushrooms may sell y'all. And you can see that they pretty much have all the key ingredients and top five advantages over leading brands for some foremost transparency and labeling of key active potencies. No added stevia. US grown mycelia are easier to digest and offer a broad range of health promoting compounds, immune synergy, six mushroom blend, daily prebiotic superfood supports, microbiome and digestive health. And look at the packaging. Beautiful looking packaging. And we already have samples that were given to us from Ritual Foods. And like I said, for those of you that are commenting on our videos, we're gonna choose some of the best comments on this video once it's up on YouTube. And we're going to choose a few people to offer a few of these samples too. And we will ship them to you. So if you like the video, please comment on the video once the video is complete on YouTube, share it, like it. And we will choose a few of the comments to give away some samples. Green Bull says my research indicates also a benefit from breast cancer, from lion's mane mushrooms. That's possible. Robert Singh says I really liked the company and started a small position. I hope you win big, Robert. Handy Neighbor 100 says AITX and SNDD. Hey, thank you for sharing. Anna says I'm in high-rich 4,500 shares to start. I hope you win big, Anna. Thank you for all your support, I appreciate it. Green Bull says you can boost the effectiveness of your T cells by 300 to 400% using a combo of mushrooms. This was my secret immune booster I used to protect against viruses, very smart. Anna says there are talks of them selling on Amazon and Costco, am I right? You know what, I'm not sure. I can't say that. I don't see that in their presentation, but if that does happen, I promise you will be the first to know. You could see the packaging here. You can read the packaging, read the labeling. Very professional, very clean, very sleek look. And I'm a big fan of what I see here with Ritual Foods. So let's take a look at the premium brand in the emerging functional mushroom and adaptogenic superfood market, RSF on the CSE for any of you guys that don't know yet. And if you guys have an updated price, please share. So we know exactly what the price is right now, why are we alive? I'm not looking at level two right now, I'm just focused on this. But if you guys know the price right now, I'd love to know. Ritual Superfoods offers a range of plant-based electors to fit every lifestyle. Our natural and organic electors are powered by scientifically proven super ingredients that help navigate the mental, emotional and physical challenges of modern lifestyle and help find the balance that's been missing. Under the executive leadership with over a hundred years of CPG pedigree, excuse me, Ritual is launching in North America as the company position itself as a leader in the functional health and wellness industry. Ritual Superfood electors can be found online at Ritual.com, which I just showed you guys looks like this. This is the website Ritual.com. I'm not gonna go through everything, feel free to go through their website guys and learn more.  I want you guys to do some of yourselves. And if you see something you like or something you don't like, please let me know. I'd love to know. Now it is showing here that the bid is at 40 and the offer is at 41, this may be somewhat delayed. If you guys have a different price, please let me know. This is the CSE.com, which does show the buying and selling but there may be a slight delay here. So please let me know if this is different than what you guys see. Currently showing it at 42 cents. Looks like Bitcoin's making a big move up right now. And these are some of the superfoods. So you can see very healthy, very powerful superfoods which are transforming the way people can recharge their bodies. Super excited about this. Been talking about this one with our community for quite some time. Excited to see that they're doing well to start and people like them. And in my opinion, this is, like I said, it's brand new. So this is the first day and I think the upside is tremendous. Right now, I am PipGirl says RSF is at 43 and a half cents. Okay, that's good. So that means anyone that's gone started is already up. Green Bull says, is there something more healthy than weed on this planet? It's mushrooms, mushrooms predate humans. Yeah, mushrooms and cannabis both extremely filled with positive characteristics potentially when you take them. Carol says, hey, Rick, your Friday IPO pick SCRN is currently up 79% from Friday's close. Hey, so we like to see. So we like to see. Jordan says, I just buy the mushroom extract powder by Real Mushrooms on Amazon in Canada. Tastes amazing and coffee. Not too sure how this differs from these guys, but I love the benefits. Hey, thank you for your feedback. St. Gang Gang says lion's mane mushroom extract can be used to reverse dementia.  I mean, they can do so many things, so many things. And you can see the growth of the industry. We've already went through a lot of this, but really cool packaging, sleek packaging, nice looking packaging. And I think that the potential is huge for this company. And it's just getting started. So today's the first day and everyone gets an opportunity. And right now, I am Pip Girls saying it's at 40 cents. So it's at the same price that it pretty much opened at about an hour ago. So not a bad time for investors to get in. I think the upside is tremendous for these guys. And I don't think they're gonna stay at 40 cents for long. Jeffrey Lutz says, another winner rich love this company. Hey, glad to bring you winners, brother. And you know, that's my job. So if I don't bring you winners and I'm not doing what I'm supposed to do. Janet says, I have a lot of digestive problems and would love to try these products. Maybe if they would help with that, I would gain more weight. I'm 69 pounds and nothing I've tried has worked. Oh, wow, scary to hear. Yeah, hopefully these guys can help you. Janet says volume is 1.9 million right now. Wow, huge volume for this new IPO guys. That's exciting. And we already went through the team. We went through the timeline. So I'm not gonna do it again, but you can see pretty cool team. And this is just a short breakdown of the timeline and the capital structure which I already kind of went through. So I'm not gonna keep reiterating what I said, but love to know what you guys think. Brand new IPO, ritual, superfoods. What do you guys think RSF on the Canadian Securities Exchange launching in America going to do around 8.4 million in business this year, despite the fact of trading at 40 cents, my quick math tells me with this share structure that that should price the stock at at least a dollar, which means from 40 cents, we've got about 150% upside from these prices. Love to know what you guys think. Are you guys interested in this pick? Are you getting in for the win? Yes, no, maybe please let me know.  Jordan says Rishi mushroom studies show how it inhibits DHT to prevent genetic hair loss. Can't go wrong with that. Yeah, I mean, there's so many benefits. So, and we're just learning about this now and today's just the first day. So love to know what you guys think. Comment on the video, share it, subscribe. Is your boy Rich from Rich to be live bringing a brand new IPO and we're bringing it to you first. Once again, ritual foods, put it on your watch list, put it on your radar. If you buy it, let me know. If you don't like it, let me know why. Let's start the conversation about ritual foods. You guys know how this works, right? I bring a winner first and then the rest of the world jumps on board. Everyone on YouTube is now gonna talk about this new screaming IPO, that's the next 10X stock. Just remember where you heard it first, okay? From your boy. All right guys, if you're not winning, you're not watching, we bring you the winners and we bring them to you first. Your boy Rich from Rich to be live and I'll vote. You wanna get access to these picks first? Everyone in our club knew. Months and events, you wanna access to these picks first, join our trading club at richpicksdaily.com where you too can get access to picks first. Thank you guys for watching. Have a great day. Have a great trading week. Your boy Rich from Rich to be live and I'm out. Peace.


Thank you, everybody. My name is Simran and I'm very, very excited to be here today.  So I promise you I'm not going to take too much time. A lot of my presentation is actually data that you may have already seen. But what we've tried to do is, you know, probably give you a little bit of insight into what the cause for some of the data could be and what, more importantly, the effect of that is right and how as planners, marketers, we can actually use some of these insights and data in a more actionable fashion. So with that, the main focus of my presentation and what we want to talk about today is really the rise and rise of digital India. And I know a lot has been discussed today in terms of, you know, how we should approach this collectively as advertisers, as media owners, et cetera. But just bringing focus back a little bit into, you know, what we want to talk about. So this is a quote that, you know, we've actually been mentioning a fair bit in some of our presentations. And especially when you put it in the context of technology, I think this quote becomes a lot more relevant. All of us have seen, you know, the growth of technology in our own lives, right? And I think we have also seen, you know, how technology grows at a certain rate and then reaches an inflection point and that rate of change becomes much faster and adoption becomes much faster, especially for us as GeoCinema as a digital platform. This is a far more relevant statement. Reason for that is I think a lot of us would, you know, agree until even, you know, early 2022 GeoCinema really was not known as a sports platform. I think all of us probably consume content on GeoCinema maybe because some new movie released on it, et cetera, right? But just with, you know, acquiring rights to FIFA and then, of course, following up with acquiring rights for the IPL in a short span of about 18 months and of course, full credit to, you know, our partnerships team and our corporate strategy team to actually go ahead and acquire a really, really robust roster of, you know, sports rights. GeoCinema today is the largest sports consumption OTT platform in the country, right? So this tells you that, you know, there could have been a way in which a consumer is behaving, but change can happen really, really fast.  UPI, of course, is deeply penetrated in the country. In fact, I think in terms of, you know, most of us, I'm sure, in the room are travellers. I think we would know, you know, even compared to international locations, the kind of penetration that UPI has in India, probably second only to probably WeChat and China, right? Where everybody in China is using WeChat to make payments. I think in India, you know, everybody, you literally can walk out of your home with just your mobile and don't need anything, right? You don't need your card. I forgot in the last time I had cash on me, you know, because really the penetration has been so deep. And one would instinctively think that this is only probably happening, you know, in super urban centres or top six, you know, metros. But I'm sure, you know, once you look at the data that some of the UPI platforms openly share, it will tell you that this penetration actually has gone fairly deep, right? So all of these aspects basically are bringing alive just how much Indians have embraced technology and digital connectivity. And a few pointers you have to notice as well, right? So while we say that, you know, we are seeing unprecedented growth, of course, as per TRI, you know, the mobile internet user base in the country is set to grow to about 900 million users. Of course, you know, a large chunk of this is going to be, you know, is the large growth of this is going to come from the 4G feature phone penetration in the market. And of course, I think a lot of conversation has happened today about connected TV rise. And, you know, I think all of us are seeing that change towards connected TV in our own lives as well, right? I think four years ago, my parents still had a set-top box. And, you know, I think Covid also sort of, you know, made some of this change happen faster and acted as a catalyst. And, you know, it's been a few years now that even someone like my parents, my parents don't feel the need to have a set-top box at home and, you know, can now consume whatever they want on their large screen without needing, you know, a DTH connection. Interestingly, actually, I was reading this report that TRI, you know, TRI shared, I think about a couple of three days ago, wherein, you know, the data that TRI said is that DTH operators have seen about a 1.3 million drop in subscriber base just between July and September last year. So going back to my point that I was talking about is that, you know, technology changes your lives at a certain rate to a certain point. And after a certain inflection point that rate of change happens much faster. I'm sure all of you recollect, you know, getting on to Facebook because your friend said so and then suddenly finding everybody on Facebook and then suddenly leaving Facebook as well because all of your moms and aunts and uncles were on Facebook, right? So that change also happened very, very fast. Again, a few growth drivers. I think rising device penetration. I already spoke about this, you know, rising access to high-speed internet. In fact, I think, you know, GeoAir Fibre, ETL Extreme Fibre have done an immense effort into taking Wi-Fi penetration into, you know, a lot of a large part of the country. And of course, you know, making data really, really accessible to India at large. I think India is probably the number three or number four cheap data markets behind maybe just two or three countries, right? Making data so accessible and cheap has been one of the big reasons why I think Indians have managed to adopt to this entire change so wholeheartedly and in such large numbers. So what do these numbers mean, right? So I wanted to touch upon a little bit on the numbers, but then also speak from the context of demographics. Like, what does this really mean in terms of changing demographics? And then we'll speak a little bit about what does this mean in the context of changing behaviors, right? So I think some of these, you know, pieces all of us may instinctively know. For example, we know that we read everywhere that India is a young country, you know, compared to other countries, you know, very, very young population. The truth is actually about 30% of India's population is in the age of 18 to 34, right? And for a lot of marketers, for a lot of advertisers, this is the prime segment that, you know, we're going after. A vast part of India actually is moving into urbanization, right? People are moving from rural areas and coming into, you know, one lakh plus one million plus towns. So urbanization is happening at a faster pace. Of course, also fueled by a lot of things like the government's dedication to infrastructure, you know, emergence of, you know, the whole startup ecosystem, of course, connectivity, et cetera. So urban households actually are set to overtake rural households in India by the year 2060, which is amazing, right? Not just that. So why this is a change that's happening at a demographic level? Let's look at what is a change that's happening at a behavioral level, right? Because we are a young and urban population. The effect that we are seeing is that this population is actually now spending about one-third of their waking hours on their mobile phones. Actually, this is an India's over-index in most other markets. As far as this is concerned, I think Brazil, Vietnam are probably the other couple of markets which are ahead of India. As far as this is concerned, but Indians really are spending an inordinate amount of time on their mobile phones. Of course, one of the big reasons is cheap access to data and connectivity, but also that, you know, I think just being connected, consuming content on our mobile phones has become second nature to Indians. So that's one big piece. Of course, the second big adoption that's happening in the country is the connected TV adoption. This base is actually set to grow to about 60 million, you know, in the coming year, 60 million devices. In fact, I think a lot of the reports are also saying about 92 to 93 percent of new televisions sold in the country today are connected TV devices. So we all know that this change is not just coming, the change is here. So how can we kind of prepare ourselves to, you know, deal with this change a little bit better? I think a lot has been spoken about, you know, the ad-ex and, you know, how the ad-ex weightages, etc., are changing.  I spoke about my parents, and while that is an anecdotal piece of information, that also tells you that, you know, the change that's happening is also the change that you see in your own environment. I remember when OTTs entered the market, you know, it was probably something that was adopted by early adopters, and a lot of people would say that who's going to watch something on your phone, right? And today all of us are watching things on our phone. It's just become second nature to us, because this technology is solving for a real convenience problem in our lives. Similarly, I think connectivity on your connected television, the whole variety of content having, you know, your own agency to say that I will pick what I want to watch, when I want to watch it. I think all of these factors are really contributing to the massive adoption that we're seeing to connected TV. And of course, I think a lot of technological advancement is also helping establish this behavior. By way of, for example, if you take GeoCinema as a platform, we've really committed ourselves to, you know, showcasing some of the premium sports properties in 4k resolution, right? Which just is so much better as a consumer for you to consume, compared to your standard definition or even HD definition television. So, you know, in terms of growth, of course, you know, connected TV universe is growing. About 80% of connected television viewership has come from urban areas, out of which about 59% has come from 1 million plus towns. So you can see that this is something that's penetrating and is not just a top six metro kind of a phenomenon. And as you know, result of that, of course, where viewership goes at dollars or add rupees go, right? So viewership is moving in a certain direction. Of course, advertisers are going to want to reach out to that consumer, where the consumer is. And hence, we are seeing that shift in the ad-ex. And while, yes, a lot of the, you know, a lot of the spend that's happening on performance marketing is required because of the kind of businesses, you know, our advertisers are into. I think we all do need to, as planners and advertisers and platforms, think about how best to use this emerging consumer behavior for branding efforts as well, and not judge a branding campaign by the tenets of a performance campaign and vice versa, because then you're just setting the campaign up for failure. All right. So when it comes to ad-ex, of course, a large chunk of digital ad-ex is going into online video. Some part of this could be performance. And you know, the big thing about online video is, I think all of us in the room will also recognize, a big thing about online video is also brand safety, right? Like, how do you really ensure that your ad is being visible on content, which is 100% brand safe or is meant for the user, you know, that you mean that ad for. And I think that's where OTT platforms sort of come in to solve the puzzle, because really, that's an opportunity for you to reach out to a 100% brand safe audience, engaged audience, who's looking for content where they don't just spend, you know, seven or eight minutes of casual snacking time, but longer time, you know, so really commit and dedicate themselves to, you know, consume this content, and hence we say that they are a more engaged audience. So when we talk about online video, you know, online video landscape, of course, as far as the publisher-generated content landscape is concerned, this is how it is stacked up, and I've not added Netflix or Amazon Prime here simply because none of us can advertise there, right? So for us, what is relevant is these platforms. GOSMA currently is about 300 million monthly active users. What's interesting for us is actually our watch time is much higher than all other platforms, and that's one area where we are sort of winning, and our hypothesis, of course, there is that, you know, the sticky nature of all of the cricket rights that we own combined with our vast roster of entertainment, you know, content that we have. Big Boss was a huge success for us, you know, as far as, you know, entertainment content was concerned. I think these few pieces put together and actually leading to the higher watch time on the platform. Talking a little bit more and giving you a little more color about what the user behavior is like, and why, again, you know, we believe that OTT is emerging as the platform for people to consume content. First, of course, is, you know, what we've seen on the platform is that one in every three cricket viewers is actually returning to the platform in the next one month to consume some entertainment content, right? So cricket is your large top of the funnel to collate a lot of the audiences, and that's a content strategy that we have adopted. But more interestingly, the peak streaming time for geocinema is actually 8 p.m. to 12 a.m., which was worthwhile called, you know, television prime time, and we are actually seeing this behavior where most number of users are actually logging on to our platform at the exact time to consume content. And the third piece, you know, the third piece of color that we can add over here is that users actually log on to geocinema on average about three times a day. Of course, the longest sessions are in the prime time sort of manner. So coming to, you know, what I'm here to talk to you about my favorite time of the year, which is not Christmas, but IPL, our ambition for IPL this year is we are estimating a platform reach of about 650 million users. And I just want to, you know, at a very high level touch upon some of the new big things that we have in the offering this year and something that you, you know, need to keep in mind and, in fact, one of the solutions actually will speak really well to, you know, I think Mr. Balkhi's presentation about the importance of creative when you're advertising on IPL. But the big thing that we want to do is, you know, the largest reach aggregation. So taking IPL to every corner of the country, so like I said, you know, feature phones, 4G-enabled feature phones are going to be a big part of our story here. We've launched Geo-Bharat 1 in every 3 4G feature phones is actually a Geo-Bharat phone now. We are launching our ui in multi-languages, so you don't really need to be only an English content reader to be able to, you know, consume content. Our app interface is actually going to change to multiple languages. So we're basically going deeper into our commitment of making, you know, content accessible across languages. The first step that we took in this direction was last year when we made IPL commentary available in 12 languages, languages like, you know, Punjabi, Bhojpuri, which had been so underserved in cricket commentary were actually, you know, served on IPL and Geo cinema last year. And the final piece of the puzzle for us on this is, you know, how do we go deeper into CTV penetration and really can commit ourselves to deeper distribution for our platform and connected TV devices as well. So I'll just do one quick drop-down into Geo-Bharat first. So essentially to give you a, you know, background because I'm sure a lot of you have not seen this phone. In fact, I think some of us may be carrying this phone in the current India-England series is streaming live on this phone. I've actually seen it myself. It's a pretty decent experience for a 4G-enabled small-screen device. You can, you know, you can hear the commentary really well. Currently, we have commentary available in two languages and we do have, we do plan to scale it up to about five languages during the IPL. These phones have UPI light on them. So you do know that these audiences have some capability for transacting. So perfect sort of device, you know, especially, perfect kind of a device if you want to, you know, do campaigns for products with, you know, the sashay products, right, where the audience itself is different. So Geo-Bharat really has been built for that and working with us, you know, on this could help you reach out to an audience which otherwise would have been very, very hard to address. Excuse me. And on Geo-Bharat we are estimating a reach of about 35 million users in the upcoming, by the upcoming season of IPL.  And this was a pleasant surprise for us. About 20% of the ctv audience actually consumed the tournament on 4k devices and one has to assume that 4k devices are actually your high end or your top end connected televisions and you need to have a stable wifi connection, broadband connection for you to be able to stream the entire match in 4k. So that's a real signal for affluence and but when we looked at a couple of other studies we saw that this audience was also over-indexed on a lot of discretionary spending.  And finally, you know, just want to, I mentioned this earlier, just want to talk about a few of the big things that we are doing. You know, Super Bowl just happened this weekend, right? And I think all of us saw the Uber Eats commercial, all of us saw the Dunkin' Donuts commercial and every year, year on year, you know, advertisers do fabulous work with Super Bowl but I think the big role that happens here is also the platform that Super Bowl provides. You know that there are going to be millions of eyeballs tuning into, you know, the platform, although I mean, lesser in comparison to the number of people who watch IPL in India but very big still in the context of the US. You know, you know there are going to be millions of people, you know, watching the tournament and watching halftime, which is what makes it so special, right? So we wanted to actually recreate this kind of an experience for advertisers. So this season on IPL on Geo-Cinema, on the opening match the first five over breaks will actually be dedicated to five brands who want to debut their campaign on IPL and we're happy to work, you know, with the brands to see, you know, how we can place these ads but the idea is not simply giving you exposures and we all know that having a simultaneous exposure of course has its benefits, people start tweeting, there are so many conversations that, you know, come out of it and that also helps you drive that much more visibility but as a platform we want to kind of, you know, put the campaign on a pedestal so that it really has that, you know, sense that something really big has kind of opened on the platform. So whether it is nudges by saying that, okay, this season's Cadbury's ad is upcoming in the next over to get excitement going, we've got a lot of this plan plus we've got, you know, a lot of the behind the scenes or rather ancillary content around the main film can also reside in the platform for video on demand. Again, you know, I go back to my Dunkin Donuts example, I think the best piece of the work that came out of that was surround content that they did with Ben Affleck which is actually residing on YouTube and not, was not actually streamed on the live game, right? And audiences have grown now to consume video on demand on multiple platforms, right? So use this opportunity to not just have your hero creative but also create a bunch of smaller creatives to keep the audience going through the season and leverage the power of the reach that the platform has in those, you know, 54, 55 days to give legs to your campaign. So that's on the brand spotlight piece. And finally, you know, I think some of you may have seen this, we are unlocking about 100 cohorts this season. This is the largest number of cohorts ever. And, you know, of course, think of this as ways in which, you know, you could make your campaign a little more efficient but don't think of this in a way, don't think of this in a way where, you know, you're just adding more and more cuts because we don't really know how effective that is going to be, right? So the cohorts that we have are going to be across, there are going to be geo clusters, there will be age clusters, interest cohorts, et cetera. So a lot of, you know, targeting possible, add units across, you know, I will actually let me speak about this on the follow-up slide. Yeah, add units across objectives, right? So whether, you know, if you want to reach the dark market or rather the tough to reach market users, geo-bharat is your solution. For mass users, you know, you have a mass campaign, want to drive very, very high level of awareness. Handheld is the right device for you to go for unless and until if you're not a premium product, work with us on handheld. If you're looking for a premium product, maybe CTV is the right strategy for you, you know, and of course we have a new product for what we call early tech adopters. There are about 100 million of these that we've identified on the platform who've actually engaged with a lot of the new features that we have on the platform. So work with us to reach out to just this audience because obviously this audience has a different behavior that you could probably harness for your campaign. And as a funnel looks, you know, so whether it is using things like a masthead to drive impact, very, very high level of awareness, you know, just using video ads, right? Using mid-rolls to drive a very high level of awareness. Down to consideration, preference. In consideration, you know, work with us to, for a curated branded content series. We've done a few of this last year. And the good thing is that, you know, we're now capable of doing a complete turnkey piece on this. And then finally, of course, you know, we have a few new ad assets that we are launching this year, which are more driven towards driving users for action. The big thing here, of course, is the fact that, you know, this season on geosinema, even if a user clicks on something and goes into an outside ecosystem, the match still continues playing on picture and picture.  So we are fairly confident of, you know, adoption of that on the platform. And with that, I'm at the end of my presentation. And also, the time that was allotted to me, not just IPL. We also have a lot of other sport, you know, upcoming IPL is going to be followed by olympics. So don't forget, you know, start planning for olympics from now. In fact, our GTM is going to hit very soon. But, you know, start planning from now, because an olympics a lot can be done. And I think India is obviously gunning for the largest ever gold hall at the olympics.  So, you know, hopefully that will be good for all of us. And aside from that, a big slate of premium, you know, emerging sports on the platform as well.  I hope we can work with some of you on this. And if you have any questions, I'm happy to answer them over the drink outside. So, thank you.