Just got out, something's wrong I waited out with wounds on my feet Where will you be? Flickering with memories, the Polaroids Yellowed in the sun, longing to be seen So come and hide


And it was across the board.  It's a good work. The story is terrible. Terrible That's not what you go, but the score it was the score, you know The Foley work I did afterwards. It was a lot of fun Foley work. Wow. I didn't know that was macaroni in a pot That's some wet Today we got a video. This is how India's modern-day Royals are Staying relevant. So something I didn't know we needed to know So well, obviously India how India's modern-day Royals are staying relevant India. I don't care I think it's just showing you It's more of just an informational videos about Royals because obviously I think Since obviously independence and I think they said the 70s. Yeah, they Independence was in the 40s. No, I'm saying for the Royals. Ah, they stripped away all Royals Anything whatever they had is that why they haven't done so well each year. Yes, major league baseball the Royals Kansas City Royals, okay Okay, so how India's here so I'm guessing I'm guessing we'll find out who who are the modern-day Royals we're gonna find out here we go Cuz I'm thinking modern-day Royals. I think about the Royals of like England job, okay How does it feel like to be a modern-day King in India? Exactly my question. What does that mean? Did you know that we're Kings in India? There used to be yeah, now I knew bloodlines were like that's probably safe Ali Khan Think about news events are ongoing controversies and yet it does But why and how are modern-day Royals making a living and staying relevant in India today? Groups spend the day at one of the oldest and wealthiest royal properties in India The city palace of Udaipur It's a big power Oh So this is it really intriguing You're driving on the wrong side of the road This palace is many centuries old once the bastion of the great warrior King Massive building Another part is still inhabited by the royal family had no idea the palace is called the Shiv new us now a luxury hotel property It is here that in 1961 the monarchs of Britain Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip spent two days They were visiting the then King of Udaipur and now she's dead Nuts We were accompanied by Laksharan Singh his website says he's a sign of 1500 year-old house of Miwar We had rain Damn The heritage industry the heritage hotels are coming back there are people who are not more passionate about it They want to be tied into it to experience it to come and to see it first-hand rather than just limiting themselves to films or books These days how it is hospitality is not an excuse for bad old bad hospitality When India Gandhi stripped the Royals of their privileges it dealt a blow to coffers of most of the royal families in India Faced with the challenge of sustainability many royal properties since then have converted into heritage hotels the greatest ideology thought process of interest has been To be able to get the money back and to put it back into the property and to make it, you know sustainable Keep it alive, and I think the important part of it is the fact that again something that my father believes in and has been doing It is living heritage. It's not a dead monument In 1971 the then king of Udaipur Maharanabhagwad Singh Miwar converted their summer home the Lake Palace into a heritage property Sandra check we've seen that from being the Royals to hoteliers was not easy for the Royal Family No, it's a different one. It's a different one They left professional skills to manage the business Hence Bhavad Singh approved the Taj Group of Tatars to operate the hotel on a lease basis Would you think there is still an obsession about Living like luxuriously like the royal life, which is also attracting It's not something that I don't like. It's just something that I want to put in perspective You know Madam, you can see this is a royal couple This is how much you can't meet So what is it that he's really describing That the end of the day is really describing the quality He's really describing an attribute or a trait or a personality or a character or an expectation That is there could be from a cloth or could be from a person, could be from a building, could be from a car An image of Sudhamu bowing down to a royal family sparked a debate Where the earlier forms of showing respect for symbols of hierarchy still exist in the world's largest democracy What of our cake protocols still in place in the royal families in India It's a general respect that I think is exceptionally important mutually It's not something that is a one-sided segment This is something that needs to be Being aware of both ends And I think giving and taking respect I think is a beautiful gesture for humanity Beyond philanthropy and hospitality The other ways that several royals across the country are striving to stay relevant Are heritage and environmental conservation The age or practice of joint politics Or diving into the entertainment industry Creation from their heritage to find relevance, revenue and respect Modern day royals fascinate me because I don't understand it Maybe it's just because America is very unique We specifically were like, I don't want this Our origins began with Royal? Yeah Don't fuck yourself Here's your tea American joke if you don't get it Anyway, it's just like British's royals Right Obviously they're only there because of tourism They've basically stripped of all their Basically actual power Right And they're symbolic Right And a tourist attraction Probably why they're still around Because they have no respect anymore with who's king right now And Netflix series that come out that make Piers Morgan really mad And I've talked to British people as well Nobody really gives a shit about them They're old people in funny hats Michael loved the queen He really did Since he was a little boy Michael had this fascination with the queen I'm glad that she passed away when he was older It would have broken his heart as a little boy Yeah, but I just, I've never Just obviously like this, obviously they're They're just trying to stay relevant by Selling out their palaces essentially too This is kind of a Encapsulation, the video itself Of the way, at least in my perception, royals Of any ilk from any place are When all is said and done I still don't know a thing about the royals Yeah Like that video I talked to a guy who oversees a palace That belongs to a royal family Maybe that's essentially it Yeah, it's like There's not really any There's not really anything behind it I was of the impression There's only one king in India And it's Shah Rukh Khan That's true And King Kohli Sorry, two Yeah, there's two There are two In fact, I don't know who was Was on Joe Rogan But was trying to open Rogan's eyes To how powerfully large The following is behind Kohli Because he had no idea He said, he said to him You think our American athletes have a lot of Followers on Instagram? He says, look at Shaq Look at LeBron He's like, okay, yeah, he's looking at LeBron He said, go to Instagram and look up Kohli Joe opened it up and he went Holy shit 250 million followers But anyway The I Like we know that Saif Ali Khan has royal bloodline I thought that was basically it I thought that the royals have this Just the story of the fact that I have the relation to the royals And the majority of the royal palaces That date back far have been turned into these things But that the actual families Didn't hold positions of power Other than maybe now they have money And they have used that money now To further entrepreneurial influences Philanthropic things Is there a In the same way that Britain has a royal society Does India still have royal society in segments The way that the Brits do Or any other place where you think of A society of royals who no longer Hold the political power of office Because it's a democracy But they hold power because of their influence And their money No idea And I thought this was going to teach us that You guys can let us know But very happy that most monarchs are gone No person should have all that power Well, they're gone figuratively Figuratively Because Ilan Musk is a monarch Yeah, unfortunately But anyways You guys can let us know Any other information that we need to know Down in the comments below And any other videos that could explain Anything more Teach us down below


This is start-up storefront change is constant. It's inevitable, but it doesn't always have to be bad Hentifiers aren't strangers to their neighborhood. They're from the community and they're trying to build up the community That's near and dear to their hearts from Hentification We get Hentify a development company founded by Barney Santos The goal is to act as a catalyst to stimulate economic growth through entrepreneurial activities Their first project is Boulevard Market a carefully curated food hall and beautiful downtown Monabello It's committed to serving up good food good drinks and good vibes in this video We talk with Barney Santos about the difference between gentrification and Hentification Keeping money local and being greater than the sum of the stereotypes as a community I thank you to cat footwear for sponsoring this episode They're a premier shoe company that empowers builders and doers to reframe the world to create something more meaningful This marks our final episode celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month. So let's go out with a bang All right, welcome to the podcast on today's show talking to Barney Santos from Hentify. We don't know. What does your company do? So Hentify is an investment firm We invest in people places and programs in Latino communities specifically for creatives to kind of build strong local economies Encourage people to invest back into their communities. You and I are like only two developers Hey, it's the first time. It's the first time. We're like the young developer crew of LA. Two developers in the same room Which is nice because most developers don't collab necessarily and so it's good to have like I think we're both young and we have the collab. What was your first thing that like got you into real estate or even just curious like even as a kid Maybe there was something maybe Legos and you're like, okay. Maybe there's something here. Yeah, you know interesting enough man I was never interested in real estate at all whatsoever and so like about about like 18 19 years old and it was funny because like I was essentially like I straight out of high school I've always been a hustler, you know like since forever. I mean high school used to sell like chocolate when to your classmates Yeah, I always laugh at this story because it's like I would find out when like this the other classes were doing like their fundraisers and selling Chocolates and so like I would buy chocolates at like a cheap price and then like flip them Like, you know fundraiser price But like after after graduating like I just wanted to see what I can get into so I was gonna go either work at the YMCA Which you know, I'm paying minimum wage at the time But then my homeboy Jerry was like a dude like like I'm working in real estate in a mortgage in the mortgage side Okay, okay, and he was like he saw me saw my like, you know my candor my my charismatic sort of like nature at the time When I was really young and he was like look here's my last check I can you can get paid this much or you can make this much per hour. Yeah Yeah, I want that check right there. So like that was kind of like the star. I got into mortgage No, it's totally And then he had me on the phones like the next day It's just like bang bang and carrying him out and I got I got a lead that first day We worked it together and so like within like two weeks like I got my first deal close And it was like a refinance and ever since then I was somewhat touching it I had my own mortgage thing and then fast forward got into like foreclosure management for asset for the banks on the on the east side and then on east coast I should say and then yeah, then eventually got into the real estate develop and not even buy it like Oh, that's what I want to do You know, I always whenever we're getting to ventures or projects It's always a byproduct of like what's the need and then I'm like, okay, how'd I learn it right like? I know you kind of like yeah Very similar. Yeah, and it just was the need at the time I'm like, okay, cool. Well, like I'll have to learn development.   What'd you do like for me? I just got this audio book of like real estate terms.  I for me it was don't be scared Don't be scared 100% jump into it because you'll learn it was literally the real estate development for dummies I still have that book in my in my office But it was most about like the due diligence the first part of like the first six months of like real estate development So we're saying yeah, yeah, yeah, like what is a you know, like Environmental phase one study all that stuff right like had to learn all that and then as I was going I just kind of like I'm not a person afraid not to ask questions So like I just ask everybody who I know who's in real estate. Hey, what does this mean? What is this do like is this right? And so they would kind of give me guidance. So it was kind of cool that way Yeah, and then what made you want to zone in on like the Montebello project in particular. Yes So that particular project was a byproduct of the fact that so we were living in my wife And I were living in downtown Los Angeles for like a good. I don't know like a while like eight years We saw it developed from like before Ellie live before Rouse was in there. And so like got to saw the whole Lot of parking lots. Yeah, Joe's parking was just like Malcolm in the middle own parking lots Malcolm in the middle for us. Yeah, the actor like he Immunity has a story where it's like he didn't know where to put his money and he got a lot of advice But he just wanted to be like the cheap parking lot guy in LA Like that's what he wanted to be for no reason and so he ends up buying all these lots around like where you know It's all developed now And then he ended up obviously selling them for a ridiculous amount of money But he just wanted to be the cheap so he'd go look cross-free if it was 10 bucks.  Oh, yeah, I mean that stuff is real estate prime. I mean, yeah, I Yeah, I mean we was in that world And so I got to see y'all of downtown LA develop and become kind of like what it is today and saw it gentrified completely You know, I knew you right away.   It was nothing much to do like anything there Within it maybe like a handful of things that were just like traditional businesses legacy business have been there forever And so, you know in in their core downtown corridor, like I said that with air quotes, right? Like I was like, well, this is a downtown. I just came from downtown like where's the disconnect Why is it that our Latino communities don't have this kind of like economically developed place that we can label as a downtown? And so I noticed there's a lot of cities like that and that's but the cities wanted to have that Yeah, and so I saw this piece of land. It was a building right in the corner right in the heart of it Empty broken windows graffiti kind of like a lot of buildings in that downtown So I was like, all right. Well, let's look into it Like let's see who owns it. What can we do with it? You know just start that just that whole process And so and come to find out the city owned it Been empty for like I don't know 15 years or so City bought it with like redevelopment dollars that they weren't supposed to use And so like they were considering putting up for RFP, right with that property and then there was like an acre of land behind it But they wanted to partner with a larger developer. They weren't trying to I mean, you know, I always it's always the case Yeah, yeah, they're not trying to see like someone brand new and be like, oh, yeah Here's an acre and a half right take it over and I get it So I started bringing people to the table like I brought says our job is foundations the table to do affordable housing Behind us and we do the retail they could have penciled out Met some other developers and then finally eventually just kind of like Landed at a concept and some and met some good developers and jumped on to the RFP with them But it wasn't until after like I spoke to hundreds of people in the city found out what the real problem was Which essentially is a you know, like people our age kind of like, you know Uperly mobile millennials going to college traveling watching a lot of Anthony Bourdain Were wanting more out of life retail, you know, like shopping food and The cities that we live in just aren't supplying that and so, you know There was a disconnect between supplying demand and the legacy businesses are scared to change because it's just you know They've been there for 20 years 30 years immigrant on mostly and so they're not gonna it's a cash only business You know like and stuff like that So a lot of the talent was just leaving and so they were just leaving the Monabella area moving to West L.A Downtown Hollywood and so all that look talent was gone. No businesses to serve them And so I was like, all right. Well, let's let's definitely build something here See if we can do something cool that can activate the street, you know, you know revitalize downtown and yeah, that was the same It was the same thing. It's like they I think their biggest problem was how do we keep the young people here? Right, that was the whole thing like everyone was like 30s and there was nothing for them to do And so they realized like all the all the money leaves. I was I grew up in Springfield, Massachusetts And at the time there was an economic developer His name is John Judge great guy that I met and he had this like excellent flowchart of like what happens once kids become 24 to 30 and they would all move to Boston and even if they didn't move to Boston and Boston is 90 miles away There was like literally a graph of the money leaving Springfield because there was not much to do there was stuff to do Bring drain not too much and it would just like they would just drive to Boston for the weekend Yeah, like that's what kids did and they would spend all that money Yeah, his whole thing was like man, how do we get the money to stay? Like how do we build it? But it's hard. It's hard because it's like I think I think naturally people go Even if we build it, they won't come. That's the thing people get wrong. This is the myth The biggest myth is we're gonna do all this work and no one's gonna care and it's totally not the case That's what I love about development. That's what I learned I think with border X was it was just like a smashing success and then I'd get these like DMs on Instagram around how a Family would just be like look before I would uber first of all I get it I get a babysitter, right? So it's like 50 bucks then I'd uber downtown That's 40 bucks then I uber back that's another 40 bucks and then we spend whatever 50 bucks 60 bucks at a brewery Right, and so it's like a two three hundred dollar night And now they have the same experience for like 50 bucks Right in the backyard So once you know, I started getting some of that that was after but it was like oh wow This is it can be that simple. Yeah, you know what I mean? And so the fear of failure or whatever it is Doesn't need to be there and it was funny because talking to a lot of investors too Like even the investor community has that same sort of like mentality They're like, I don't know it's too much of a risk and you know I'd rather invest in like a West L. Air like a downtown or it's proven or whatever. Yeah, yeah Except you're competing with a hundred hundred percent.  Yeah, right?  Yeah, it's a pretty good odds Yeah, you know if this were in the desert, I'd say you have a point Mr. Investor, but you don't you have no point Yeah, right and LA is proven. I think of any other city LA's proven that you can create destinations in places that no one would ever go 100% and if the product's good, that's it or there's a vibe Yeah, you know, and I think that's my whole thing now if there's if there's one million people then five miles You win period. Yeah, I mean density is key man. Yeah diversity, too, right?  Yeah, yeah There's a lot of us in this community is just kind of like ready to spend money But just have no one really cool to go to and so like I think there's a whole market to be tapped into That's the thing you always talk about. It's like we deserve nice stuff. Yeah, that's the thing you say a lot Yeah, I believe it. Can you like that impact that though? Like what do that mean to you? Yeah, man? You know, I just you know, it's There's a lot of like stuff that people always have a conversation with me about in relation to like Latino communities And like what what is there and what's usually gets opened up in these places?  Like People want to pander to like the lowest common stereotype, right? But I think we're greater than the sum of our stereotypes as a community And so, you know, a lot of times what happens You'll see people open up concepts that have like all kinds of pictures of like Frida Kahlo or you know Conchas on the wall or whatever, right? And so I'm just like, well, you know, that's cool and there's a market for that totally I'm not just like discriminating against that either But I just feel like there is a community that wants nice stuff that you can get only like on the west side or downtown That still feels authentic that still feels like connected to who we are as people and all it is is little touches and nuances of design Aesthetic music, right? All that stuff like, you know, all that stuff you programming And so that's what I mean by like, okay Well, our community deserves nice stuff because not I'm saying that there isn't nice stuff there It's just that I think the elevated experience that people want from our community is it's hard to find and so I think that's a key That was always my thing like being from Peru There's a bunch of Peruvian restaurants here or in general like everywhere But every time I go to one it would just it would be like the design would be awful Be super rundown and it's a thing that like when you up when you peel back the onion being in Peru If you were in Peru like the 80s, even the architecture is really built around like safety first It's built around there's fences outside, you know There's spikes on the things and it's something you don't see in America Like that's not a thing you grow up with and so when you're a culture That's at some point was that war and all this stuff or whatever or like Civil War then it defines the architecture We just want a meal like we don't care how it looks, right? But then you move to America a different culture It's got it has to be both you have to and if you have a cocktail program That has to be good too all three of these things have to exist and I'm seeing more of that now Now there's like obviously some pretty good Peruvian restaurants around LA and with great design beautiful bar program the whole thing But it's like the migration of the cultural mindset Yeah, of like give yourself permission to be free kind of a thing Yeah, because it's stem it's like it stems back from you know oppression or just or just these like well the bare minimum Bare minimum yeah, I'm good with it just being like good food and that's it like and the common thing I always hear is like it's not it's got to be better than what I can make at home and the experience has to be better too Right, especially COVID COVID like through a hole. Oh, yeah, you know true. It's got to be wait because people start how to cook So it's like it's got to be really how to drink a lot more Yeah, but yeah Salvadorian food too like I you know, I'm a Salvadorian and like same thing with like You know the getting purposes everywhere all over town same exact thing Like it's very few and far in between Salvadorian places that you find like whoa It's true dope like yeah location good spot. Which is like why I love Vicho so much, right? Yeah, it's kind of like it's great. Yeah. Yeah, so they kind of they know how to balance the two Which is it's just hard to do give people a sense of the program that you have at the location at Boulevard market Yeah, so Boulevard market essentially is you know indoor outdoor food hall has old 100 year old building that you know We repurpose and we got it Reinforced they kept the bones of it to make it look gorgeous and old and then we have the outdoor courtyard Which we kind of there was a building outside We tore down So we can open wide because we kind of looked at we studied architecture from like Europe and you did kind of like We saw it like how Europeans do food halls and how Mexico City does food halls and just in general architecture We liked how like in Spain how they have sort of like this general design where it's almost like enclosure And then they have like a community inside of that and it almost like you're talking about like the Barcelona Yeah, yeah, the square blocks. That's right the square blocks. Yeah, that's exactly right We kind of like that idea of like, okay, you can create this insulated experience you know still within this grand grander sort of conversation of the street and We landed at that because it was the most cohesive to creating like it's almost like inner density, right? It feels like a tight environment So we have a total of eight concepts in total at bull of our market, you know We have I think it's like Five outside and shipping containers and then three inside in the building. What's the mix of like food and drink or? Yes dessert stuff like that. It's mostly all food. The only thing that's not food was coffee, right? So we have coffee santo coffee santo that while how amazing what I can coffee Yeah, they're really really artisans when it comes to their coffee and then we have alchemy craft Which is the bar that my wife and I own but other than that it's all food everybody else What has been the hard part of this so whenever I tell people about development It's there's a lot more behind the scenes in terms of working with the tenant to help them understand business or their financials And I think I think like people like us know that but I think the world doesn't right and so like we have a publicist on our team It's the same. I'm like you wouldn't believe the level of like consulting that we end up doing for some of these companies Because it's like I can't make beer doesn't make me dumb They don't know how to create a deck doesn't make them dumb, but when we're doing this for these communities It's like very much a collaborative a lots more there than than I think people realize. It's an interesting dynamic I will say that that is probably the one surprising thing that if I were to tell people people would be like shocked about Because everyone thinks everything's got it's together. You know, it's totally not First of all like for us we're dealing with seven other Businesses right with a bar so I deal with myself, but like I said we're lying on Yeah, so and two of those is an incubator. So we have an incubator program at boulevard So we have one kitchen at art our restaurant. We own the permit. It's our kitchen We have two concepts working out of there. So we're really hands-on with them right like we're you know We meet with them Often talk about their P&L's and help them put together. Is that you or do you have a team? Myself and with Claudia so Claudia Morales shout out to Claudia. She is an amazing she I met her at USC She was in the social entrepreneurship program, but she is a background in like, you know a nonprofit world and case management and working with Organizations and since she got work started working with me. She's been she died deep into like the food space and food security But she runs out with me and so we both kind of like do our parts She helps with like more the organization the operation side of the program creating all the documents and like everything Formalities and metrics reporting and meeting with them also and then I do a lot of the business advising So like I help with giving the feedback of a marketing about their P&L's about their numbers Yeah, you know even but even yourself even as little as like menu design and like people don't understand the nuance of like Yeah, don't have 40 things on the menu. Well, yes Yes, but also like she's a factor The placement of what of what you want to sell like also like there's a lot of studies about like, you know Putting those stuff you really want to sell the high the most the best margin stuff in more in the eye line versus like above or below Like if you you know, there's little things like that You kind of like once you start implementing them you see like massive Yeah sales and signs matter signs matter border X we learned that they didn't have anything They had it like up there like in the rafters, which was cool. It looked cool Yeah, but no one would you know like this Behind the TV Benny boy just did it actually the Benny boy now has one lowered it so they have two They have one that is eye level, but then there's always a line like if it's busy There's a line of like 20 30 people and so if you're in that if you're like, let's say 10 people deep you now There's one for you So the whole idea there is you're right, you know as soon as you order you ready know to go Yeah, that's great. So but it's like little things like to your point that make the biggest difference Yeah, but you know all that hand-holding with with our groups, which is phenomenal That's the point what we did it like we love that It's been such a joy to see people develop in their career in their business But then there's also the inner dynamics of how to even communicate with different tenants Right because every tenant is so different and how they function and how they work and how their styles some are extremely assertive Some are really like I'll do anything it takes to make this work and some are a little more lax and sort of their marketing approach And some people have you know, like maybe they don't do any marketing Do you do all the programming for them or do you collaborate? I guess maybe we kind of collaborate I mean we kind of like set the precedent for like, okay Well, this is what we're gonna do.  Yeah a TV. Yeah. Yeah, some people like that I was dope with Netflix. So we did one last year around. I think it was November Which is pretty crazy because considering the fact that we were just open like for two months Yeah, we're in we partner with Netflix on the season two premiere of hentified the show hentified Which is funny because our name exactly name is hentified. So it's a perfect pair perfect Yeah, I really what they know about that ahead of time. I know one of my friends from grad school kind of connected us Jessica she connected me to Michael who was on the team at the time Netflix would built out some like a multi cultural marketing team Focus on community and they were gonna do some activation I think with like a food truck and go to like a film premiere. It was kind of like pretty standard Pretty standard. It's kind of not really interesting not it and she yeah, exactly So she was like no don't do that talk to Barney Boulevard. It was right. So this whole thing and so We had conversation initially what it could look like and then they just ran it up the chain of command And apparently America Ferrero, which was like the person who created the show. She was like, I love it. Let's do it And so yeah, we had two activations at Boulevard One was that like a private event where it was just like all the influencer people from the show America Ferrero was there able Longoria like all the creators They all kind of came out in part and we had a good time there But they also did like a lot of press that day So they had live, you know streaming interviews and then the second one which was my favorite part Which was like the public-facing event and that was a major activation.  It's like the culture of the downtown and We gave away like a hundred items for each vendor people had special menus that they created for that were like based on the show It was like a dope activation. I found like a paletero cart guy. I was giving away pop I mean, it was so cool. Yeah, it was really representation of the community, but it felt authentic It wasn't like pandering, you know, right? It was like an authentic and it was packed I mean, it was crazy packed. What has been the hard part like have you had tenant turnover? What has been the part that surprised you on the other side of it? Thankfully, we haven't had any tenant turnover like that is actually I'm really proud of fact that we've been open for a year That's amazing zero tenant turnover, which is actually from what I hear is kind of rare Yeah, I have a couple other friends because you give a shit a lot. That's that's a lot Like I tell people it can be that simple. Just care. Yeah It's it is true. It is true. Honestly, it is true Yeah, like, you know, like we care about so much the experience for the customer and we do a lot and we change We're constantly iterating changing lights like adding plans doing this changing the music I mean, we're learning as you go all do its constant iteration constant iteration but you know, I study entrepreneurship at Cal State and USC and a little bit other places and it was all about tech and like the whole iteration process of like customer discovery and Development and so, you know lean startup methodology and so like for me, it's like it's a I'd rather I opened in like All right, let's just constantly improve. We'll eventually it's a place where it's perfect, you know But right now it's constantly at at at so it's been good. That helps a lot. I mean, but the hardest thing I think for us has been You know, initially I didn't I didn't think about the dynamics of in order for everyone to be super successful We have to have an enormous amount of transactions that happened on a monthly basis We have to probably have like about 25 to 30,000 transactions that go through that place a month for everybody to be like we're good So that's a that's a pretty 50 grand 60 grand something like that 50 60,000 total transaction all the vendors like per month. Okay. Yeah Yeah, so that's Roughly buff. Yeah, it could be like about 40 to 60,000 per per vendor. Yeah. Yeah, that makes sense Yeah, so, you know, so that's a whole it's a lot of traffic, right? It's a whole lot of traffic. And how big is the whole space? It's about 8,500 square feet. So it's there's some outdoor space, too Yeah, that's that courtyard. So that's that's predominantly where people want to hang out. Yeah, it's Yeah, it was a premium for us the bars bar outside.  I did in the beginning. That's a lot. I would totally do. I did It was fun. That's totally my wife until I get pissed.  Yeah, I get by many as two items Peaceco Sour Margarita My wife was totally like get out of there. You shouldn't be there. You should be hiring people, but it was fun It's fun. It's also like the feedback, right? The thing you're the thing entrepreneurship thing you're talking about You know when it's broken like people tell you or like you can see the expression on their face And that's that's something that's how I look at I'd be like, I'm gonna make great drinks But also get the feedback and just talk just what's going on. What would you eat? Yeah, you like it So then when you do you know exactly what you're looking for you're also watching how like you like how humans Because the human being is funny where super funny, but you you'll see them enter. What do they do then? You'll take notes. Oh, they're going.  That was the constant I was always looking asking and then also on top of that the process for us The bar is like I always looked at it as like how do you make it like a vending machine in the sense of a soda? Like you just pick a button he comes out of product right like in the sense of efficiency and time So even the drinks and we mix mixed drinks like how do you cut the how do you cut the time? Like how do you make it faster, right? It's like a margarita is like we pre-make them and put them in kegs So it's like all drinks. Oh nice. Yeah, so like stuff It's so it moves quick quick quick so we could turn the customer over because people get pissed like it's weird Like at a bar in Hollywood you wait what like maybe 20 minutes sometimes 30 minutes for drinks They're going to boulevard markets. They don't have to have that experience.  So we kind of just burn it through fast But um, it was a lot of that in the beginning, but now I'm I'm no longer like behind the bar Yeah, my team's like, you know No one wants dad to be home. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. That's how it goes Now my team's awesome though. They're great. I love them. They're it's like a family man We just celebrate like I said a year and did you have them like on flexible leases just because you didn't know or was it all Are they all in long-term leases? Yeah, or maybe they even preferred that no That was the one thing that we because we didn't build out the tenant improvement spaces like they they invested in their own Improvements they we got we gave them like long-term leases to kind of help offset that because the typical food home models the developer develops Everything builds up the kitchens and then gives people like a one-year lease, right? Because food halls, you know, you never know something my hip might not and they ask people to leave or whatever We're like we're vested into all of us. And so like we want to make sure everyone's successful We're playing with the concept around like a startup to storefront building where it's like we do this similar thing But the people inside of just like fans and members of the podcast people that have been on like vitro Oh, yeah, X CJ all these different companies and then creating like a cool Immersive space where it's like what we have one empty space all the time for a company That might be new or like like that the lettuce grow in the back Yeah, they do pop up sometimes but that's new to them And so it could be a place for like let's just do a pop-up do a bunch of these cool farm stands in a really unique way And I was like but it's creating the the here We are serving entrepreneurs and trying to make more and now we have a space, right?  Yeah, but more of them. Yeah. Yeah. No, I like the idea But again, it's like I know nothing about that. Yeah, it's the same thing. It's like starting over like, okay Let me break it. Well, that's dope though, right? I mean, I personally if you're like me like I I love learning Yeah, the part of the start where you have to immerse yourself in something totally brand new That's I like that like I'm sure you guys did that when you started the podcast too, right?  I'm like, honestly, no like everything you see has just been a slow evolution and natural like Very organic, you know, we had like one follower on YouTube Yeah, but that's the game But it's Coming it's own yeah, which is great But also just talking to people right so it's also like to me this is therapy to me This is mind-share to me. This is making like deeper connections And so yeah, it also satisfies a lot of things that aren't on any financial statement, right? Yeah Yeah, it's worth it. It's like that's cool In fact, so somebody I remember like because I used to run the Center for Entrepreneurship at Cal Satellite and I remember it was like 2016-17 somebody I remember a kid asked me like if you can give me some advice So like what to do he was like an undergrad To like just learn more about different things and I was like dude start a podcast and just invite people like, you know Because I just think the idea of just getting that mind-share and like talking to some awesome people like it's just good Like intrinsically just for yourself a side of the business side of it just to personally learn, you know Yeah, and people like it too I mean if you were like we provide great content and so it's like your people aren't just coming on to waste time with us It's like ideally we're gonna put their their their tidbits out into the world and other people can You know, hopefully it grows there their little audience or whatever they're trying to do too. Yeah Yeah, I mean that's dope. Yeah, we were touching on exploring that idea like what do we want to do? Podcasts is one of those things not for us to do but to provide a space for the community to do it, you know Because I think that's the other component too. That's like a lot of people just don't have that access like this equipment They cost money, you know, and so there's a lot of creative people that just have the gap and they want to do and express themselves They just don't have a space to do that So there's there's ideas like that we've been exploring too about kind of how we can I mean the whole goal for us as a Company is like how do you empower people right the creatives in the community to kind of do their thing without getting in their way What are you working on now? So we're we're dialing then even more like boulevard, you know, as you know Like sometimes building something is great and you could pass it off and hands off a little bit But like, you know, we operationalize boulevard market operationalize the bar completely 100% so that I'm not it's not dependent I mean, oh whatsoever and we're pretty close to that now We have all our people in place and then the next project We're working on is we just want an RFP for this for those of you don't know it's like a request for proposal for a city For a development in the city of Whittier Whittier has this like downtown area. It's called uptown Whittier and Yeah, it's great location developed has a lot of businesses there, but it's not really cohesive There's nothing really connecting it all together And so the city had like six acres of land that they wanted to develop They wanted to do housing affordable housing market rate housing and then retail and so essentially the RFP that we applied for was To jump in with three with two other partners to do this collective six acre development So we're taking on the retail side of it. And so the next project will be, you know We're finalizing everything we the ENA agreement and all that stuff with the city But yeah, it's about 11,000 square feet right in the heart of their uptown like piece of land It's been there for like 30 40 years Just land not even there's nothing on it So it's like perfect and right behind it is this massive like five-story like Parking structure, which is like gold for us. That's awesome. Yeah, that's perfect 100% so it'll be like a similar concept similar in the sense that it will be Retail food community focus, but like I don't I don't think I'm gonna use containers You know for me the containers thing it was never I'm not like I've heard they don't last or they kind of get run down No, not even that I mean for sure. They're building material like anything, right? But like I think for me the the use of the the material was more of like I was inspired by like downtown project and like Tony Shae You know they were they were our advisors when we first started the development We actually reached out to Zappos and they showed us and you know, they were like Oh, you know, you can do this in your town and at the time nobody was doing it And then more people started doing it. Yeah community. So it's not as became a fad. Yeah Well, I would say it's like right at the border now, right of that like and so anything more than now I'm like, okay, it's not cool. It's not hip. It's not innovative anymore The thing that excites me is how can you do something different like how do you like change the landscape a little bit? And make people think differently and inspire them to kind of like invest in their communities in new ways And so we're trying to figure out how we can do that with this new space Like how do we still do the idea of Boulevard like in a different fashion? But like using different materials different design methods and see how we can approach it I'm I want to do something new with retail and change it a little bit. So we'll see how that works It's so we're still in the I excited do excited cliffhanger. Yeah, I mean too good stuff, but I'm sure it'll be great It's a bunch of creative people and like the one thing I like to do is I like to kind of let people do their thing I don't want to get in their way. I kind of like say like this is the prompt There's and then push and we kind of like let's push it a little bit more Let's push a little more and then we kind of fine-tune it But I think the creative abrasion part of it is my best in my favorite part Yeah This aspect of like the design and the elements the division like that's fun because it's like create It's all creative and it's 100 and then you figure out how to do it, right? That's the best part well in the vein of what's next last week I think you tweeted out something like if I don't build a business within the next year. I'm gonna buy one. Yeah, you saw that It's a really cool statement. We go deep. Yeah, but I wanted to like pick your brain on that and like What's in your mind for like what you would build or what you would buy and how that would factor into what you're already doing Yeah, I mean, so I think for me it's a byproduct of like, okay like I want to keep growing I want to keep investing in the community and so That's the that's where it comes from 100% holy like the more opportunities we get to invest the more jobs We can create the more opportunities we can give to entrepreneurs. So when I look at okay, like I'm starting to get anxious now a little bit like, you know building and Managing two different things all together, right? And so like I like managing a lot. It's great, but I love building I'm I love creating So I'm getting a little anxious now and so like I'm like now I want to okay Like how do we what's the next thing I want to sink my teeth into The Whittier project is gonna take a lot of time. We have another thing that we're working on right now I can't announce but it's if it goes through it'll be a big thing for next year for Boulevard extension of our brand But I think the next phase is like, okay, like either we're gonna do launch something new or acquire something I've always been fascinated with this idea of like private equity, right? But like for good first, you know, because a lot of private equity is all about like slashing costs and high firing people So like how do you leverage private equity an innovative model at the local level? Like can you do roll-ups? Can you acquire like legacy businesses that are like sort of the owners are want to retire and they have nobody to pass It on to like can you buy like ten of them and roll them into one concept and then scale You know like across the board, you know So things like that are kind of interesting me and then how do you leverage a layer of social impact on top of that? Like can you do workforce development programming? Can you do entrepreneurship training on those things? That's the layer that I every project we want to sink our teeth into has to have a layer of that It can't just be I mean There's gonna be probably some projects that are purely like a pure capitalistic endeavor to help create more like revenue for the other stuff But mostly everything has to have some sort of social impact and enterprise along along the line So to answer your question, yeah, I just I'm getting anxious and I need to take my teeth into something Let it drive you bro. Let that anxiety drive you.  So like they're opening up concepts and businesses and they do it in a responsible way That's in alignment with kind of like the fabric the social cultural fabric that's there And you know, hopefully creating interventions to help offset some of the negatives, right? At least that's what I think and so the company hentify We bill wanted to be the action verb of that and so like how do we? Initiate that more in the communities that are considered our communities with local people at driving it So for me, it's like, okay. Well knowing that every project we sink our teeth into There is a lot of research that goes in that we have to do like meeting the community having karma Like even before Montabello we met with probably over 200 people like just from the local community look organizations Chamber of Commerce Council members like leaders in the community We had town hall meetings not even to say this is what we're doing, but like hey, what do you want? Like what what is it you need? so my opinion like asking the community and Asking them what they're nervous about and afraid about like first and trying to figure out How do you create interventions to offset that stuff, right? So I think that's the key is being intentional as you possibly can so you're tapping into like their their fear of the is Of the unknown and so the more information that you can provide them the better off they'll be and the more supportive they'll be Yeah I mean I I think the easier it is for you to get an honest representation of what the needs of the community are Right so you can address them directly and build something that that will have a higher chance of being successful and also You know try to offset some of those negative externalities that you don't want look I mean gentrification is a real thing, right? Like it's a real thing, but by the time a restaurant pops up in the corner It's a byproduct of things that are already taking place, right? Like the community is already changing and so like Communities change on their own like they evolve over time. They just do The question is how do you create interventions and how do you be responsible about how you participate right in evolutions? Can you do it responsibly? Can you do it effectively? Can you lobby for more affordable housing? Can you leverage your your voice and like work with council members to create more policies to help offset some of those negative things? That's what my feelings are. It's like, how do you be responsible in the community? So like we generally haven't gotten much pushback because I think people see us as genuinely caring about those things I remember with with Benny boys the same as like we literally knocked on doors at the beginning of this Yeah, really the hypothesis is do you want me here or not and if not that's okay We can have the discussion I can move this project somewhere else And that's really it and I think if but it takes time I mean you got to be willing to knock on people's doors introduce yourself to the and yeah, I don't know It's a it's a relationship is the way I phrase it and that those things take time Well, I well we don't want to do is pretend like we know what the solutions are right, right? Like what I do know for sure is the community knows what the problems are And so the more we can hear the voice of the community understand what the problems are the better it is That we can sort of interpret that and say like okay Well, this is essentially the insight we're we're extracting from that And this is the solution that we can potentially create to address those things on Benny boy It was funny. So the the building or the lot was zone pf which means public facility which means it's meant for like a hospital or like Fire station something like that, but it's too small. It's too small to build anything like that on you couldn't park it and when we were going through like the approval process there was somebody that Put out into the news like the local news saying The government was spending money and instead of building something for the public. They were building a brewery And so we had this like weird. I mean it felt very like fake news Trump very like I don't even know how to combat this, you know, and so I'm like, I'm there at the neighborhood council Just explaining this and I have someone Like yelling because they firmly believe yeah, I'm like read the headline and they bought in Yeah, and it's like it's the moment where you realize logic doesn't matter, you know I'm like even saying something like why would the government pay for a brewery like that's dumb like that doesn't matter to them And so it was it was it was weird It was the first time I had literally dealt with that and someone on the neighborhood council was the one who leaked that and so they were they were pushing that narrative They had their agenda. They had an agenda and it was like super weird Sometimes it happens. Yeah, that was a good experience because I was like even even It's not that you can do in that situation. I can't undo the fact that this human believes. Yeah that thing and I was like, all right. Well, I mean and sometimes people might not even really believe it But they just have a thing also like I don't know there's lately We've been getting some a couple people like There is a crosswalk in front of our property that like that is dangerous as hell There's no lights. It's like or why I almost get hit all the time by And people are like, you should fix it Or like, well, dude, I don't I talked to city all the time and try to lobby on behalf I try to get signatures to get people to see, you know, next thing is we're trying to talk to the Council, I mean the congresswoman or like supervisors say they have funds for it We could do our part, but it's like it's difficult to kind of like Do civil type of like, you know improvements like that It's like I'm doing that with Benny boys right next to it. There's like this at the bottom of the street There's this beautiful view of downtown la uninterrupted cal trans is there union pacific is there And then because of the popularity of the brewery the people cross that super busy road And so I've been pitching this I made an instagram video about this People started like fighting each other on the video I had the street artists have my back because it was a dumping site This whole thing's like the like old couches get laid out here And so I'm like, why are people fighting me around like me trying to make this like an art walk or something Like a cool life everybody and even when we were filming there, there were tons of discarded needles all over the ground and so then like I've been pitching this for a long time to the council members and to I had gens are on board and then gens are pitched this project Unbeknownst to me internally and it got selected Which means now I have a staff of six people at gens are working on this And I like know the cal trans people the up people, but it's the same It's like this is going to take me to the probably the olympics for sure, but We're starting the discussion and we're going to crosswalks a big part of it Lighted crosswalks slowing down the street a bunch of art. Yeah, and so we'll start to have a lot of those community discussions You know probably in like two months time, but people always ask me. Oh, he's doing it because he's making money I'm like, there's no money to be made on this. I'm just doing this because I look at this neighborhood And it was a dumping site and that doesn't make any sense to me It's the most beautiful view of downtown l.a. And I think people deserve that Yeah, I think it's simple. I have the skill sets like right. I have the things that Like I'm the right chef for this particular situation. That's it. I think some people just aren't aware of the process either, right? Yeah, I think that's they're they're completely unaware. They think it's as simple as like, you know, like I don't know Pay five thousand bucks and like take care of it Or you know, like we're just bringing up to the council member and make sure you tell him It has to be done. Yeah, it's like so much more so much more involved. So it's a little different But yeah, I mean at the end of the day, like it's great. I mean the Investing in community is always going to pay off no matter what like the ROI just from a community standpoint is huge Like yeah, I truly believe that and impact massive massive. Yeah. Well, Barney. Thanks for coming on the podcast, man Thank people where they can find you how they can support boulevard market Yeah, so they can just follow us on instagram at blvd m r k t or they can follow me on instagram at barney santos b a r n y s a n t us Legend. Thank you, brother. Thank you. Appreciate it. Come on the show. Absolutely my pleasure Hey, yeah, you listening. Thank you so much for making it to the end of the episode Make sure to follow us on instagram subscribe on youtube and we cannot wait to see you next week for another great episode. Cheers


From Miami Beach, Florida, it's theCUBE, covering Acronis Global Cyber Summit 2019. Brought to you by Acronis. Okay, welcome back everyone. This is theCUBE's coverage here at Acronis's Global Cyber Summit 2019. It's their inaugural event of round cyber protection. I'm John Furrier, host of theCUBE. We're talking to all the thought leaders, experts, talking about the platforms. We've got a great guest here, security analyst, author and TED speaker, Karen Elzari, who runs the B-Sides Tel Aviv. She gave a keynote here. Welcome to theCUBE. Thanks for coming on. Oh, thanks for having me. It's a pleasure. Love to have you on security. Obviously, it's hot. You've been on that wave. You've been talking a lot about it. You gave a talk here at Acronis and Conference. Yes, right this morning. But Fours, before we get into that, I want to get in and explore what you've been doing at B-Sides Tel Aviv. This is a global community. Tel Aviv runs Cyber Week. You've got a big thing there. So that's something that's really important to me. So 10 years ago, hackers and security researchers started something called Security B-Sides, which was an alternative community event for hackers that couldn't find their voice in their space in the more mainstream events like RSA Conference or Black Hat, for example. That's when Security B-Sides was born, 10 years ago. Now it's a global movement and there's been more than 100 B-Sides events just this year alone, just in 2019. Anywhere from Sao Paulo to Cairo, Mexico City, Athens, Colorado, Zurich, London, and in my hometown of Tel Aviv, I was very proud to bring the B-Sides idea and the concept to Tel Aviv five years ago. This year, 2020 will be our fifth year and will be, I hope, our biggest year yet. Last summer we had more than 1200 participants. We take place during something called Tel Aviv Cyber Week, which, if you've never visited Tel Aviv, that's your opportunity next year. Tel Aviv Cyber Week brings 9,000 people to Israel. It's hosted by Tel Aviv University, where I'm also a researcher. And all of these events are free. They're in English. They're welcoming to people from all sorts of places and all walks of life. We bring people from more than 70 countries. And I think it's great that we can have that platform in Israel, in Tel Aviv, to share not just our knowledge, but also our points of view, our different opinions about the future of cybersecurity. And it's run by the Tel Aviv University. Yes, so Tel Aviv University hosts Tel Aviv Cyber Week and they're also the gracious hosts for B-Sides Tel Aviv, which runs as a nonprofit separate from the university. You know, I love these movements where you have organic, just organic growth and we saw that with the unconference wave a couple years ago where, you know, the fancy conferences got too stuffy, too sponsor-oriented, more marketing pitches. People weren't comfortable just going up there so they want to have more face-to-face income. More community-oriented conversations. Is that how B-Sides' work is more organic? Yeah, so B-Sides, actually, the first one was absolutely an unconference and to this day, we maintain some of that vibe, that important community aspect of providing a stage for people that really may not have the opportunity to speak at Black Hat or here or there. They may not feel comfortable in a huge stage with all those lights on them, so we really need to have that community aspect with them. And believe it or not, an unconference is how I got on the TED stage because a producer from TED actually came all the way to Israel to an unconference in the northern city of Nazareth in Israel and she was sitting in the room while I was giving a talk to 15 people in the lobby of a hotel. And it wasn't that, I didn't have a big projector, it wasn't a fancy production on any scale, but that's where that TED producer found me and my perspective and decided that this sort of point of view deserves to have a bigger stage. You know, now with digital technology is the lobby conference, we call it the lobby con. Lobby con. All the actions in the hallways, it's always kind of, because you have a program, it's not about learning anymore at these events because all you can learn online, it's a face-to-face communal activity. I think it's a difference between people talking at you to people talking with you. And that's why I'm very happy to give talks and I'm here focused on sharing my point of view, but I also want to focus on having conversations with people and that's what I've been doing this morning, sharing my point of view, teaching people about how I think the security world could look like, learning from them, listening to them, and it's really about creating that sort of an atmosphere. There's a lot of tension right now in the security space. I want to get your thoughts on this because my personal passion is I really believe that communities is where the action is and a lot of problems can be solved if tapped properly, if they're not used, or if the collective intelligence of a community can be harnessed. I think the security community right now has an imperative mandate which is there's a lot of good that could be happening. The adversaries are at scale, you're seeing zero day out there, you've got digital warfare going on, you've got all kinds of things on a national global scale happening and people are worried. You know, a malware injection. There's a lot of fear, there's a lot of panic going on these days.  And I agree with you, it's the responsibility of the security industry and the security community to come together and also harness the power and the potential of the many friendly hackers out there, friendly hackers such as myself, security researchers, and not all security researchers are working in a lab at a university or in a big company and they might want to be wherever they are in the world but still contribute. This is why I talk about the hackers' immune system, how hackers can actually contribute to an immune system, helping us identify vulnerabilities and fix them. And in many cases, I've found that it's not just the friendly hackers, even the unfriendly ones, even the criminals, have a lot to teach us and we can actually not afford not to pay attention, not to be really more immersed, more closely connected with what is happening in the hackers' world, whether it's the criminal hackers' underground or the friendly hackers who get together community events, who share their work, who participate on bug bounty platforms, which is a big part of my personal research work and my passion, bug bounty programs for the viewers who are not familiar with it, are frameworks that allow companies that you might rely on, like Google or Facebook, United Airlines or Starbucks or any company that you can imagine, so many big companies now have bug bounty programs in place, allowing them to actively reward individual hackers that are identifying vulnerabilities. Yeah, and they pay a lot of money too, up to millions of dollars. Yes, they do, but it's not just about the money, you know John, it's not just about the money. There's all kinds of other rewards in place as well, whether it's a fancy, you know, a t-shirt or a sticker, or in the case of Tesla, for example, they give out challenge coins, the challenge coins that only go out to the top hackers that work with them. Now you can't buy anything with these challenge coins, you can trade them in in the store for money, but what you can do is that you get a lot of reputational and, you know, unmonetary value out of that as well. Additionally, you know, another organization that's called the Pentagon has a similar program, so the Pentagon is giving out not just monetary rewards, but challenge coins for hackers that are working with them. This reputation kind of system is really cutting edge, and I think that's a great point. I personally believe that that will be a big movement in all community behavior, because when you start getting into having people arbitrate between who's reputable, that's an incentive beyond money. Well, what I've found- It's great, I guess, but like reputation also is important too. I can tell you this because I've really dissected and researched this in my academic work, and I've looked at the data from several bug bounty programs and the data that was available. There's all kinds of value on the table. Some of the value is money and you get paid.  But the value is not just in the money, it's also reputational value, it's also work value. So some hackers, some security researchers just want to build up their resume and then they get job offers and they start working for companies that may have never looked at them before because they're not graduates of this and that school, they didn't have this or that upbringing. We have to remember that from the global perspective, not everybody has access to, you know, the American school system or the Israeli school system. They can't just sign up for a college degree in cybersecurity or engineering if they live in parts of the world where that's not accessible to them. But through being a researcher on the bug bounty platform, they gain up their experience, they gain up their know-how and then companies want to work with them and want to hire them. So that's contributing to the- You've seen that in the research. You've seen this, you've seen this research. Yeah, we've seen this and the reports are showing this, the data is showing this, all of the bug bounty programs have reports that come out that show this information as well. You see that the hackers on bug bounty platforms are usually under 30, a lot of them under 30, they're young people, they're making their way into this industry. Now let me tell you something, when I was growing up in Israel, I was a young hacker. I didn't know any bug bounty programs, none of that stuff was around. Granted, we also didn't have a cyber crime law. So anything I did wasn't officially illegal because we didn't necessarily have- That's good, experimentation's good. It certainly was and I was very driven by curiosity. But the point I'm trying to make is that I didn't actually have a legal legitimate alternative to the type of hacking that I was doing. There wasn't any other option for me until it was time for me to serve in the Israeli military which is where I really got my chops. But for people living in parts of the world where they don't have any legitimate legal way to work in cybersecurity, previously they would have turned to criminal activities, to using their know-how to make money as a cyber criminal. Now that alternative of being part of a global immune system is available to them on a legitimate legal pathway and that's really important for our workforce as well. A lot of people will tell you that cybersecurity workforce needs all the help it can get. There's a shortage, there's a talent gap. A lot of people talk about the talent gap. I believe a big part of the solution is going to come from all of these hackers all over the world that are now accessing the legitimate legal world of cybersecurity. I think you're really onto something. I want to amplify that. Certainly after this interview, I'd love to follow up with you. Certainly we will come to Tel Aviv, it's on our list, where the Cube stock will be there. Fabulous, we'd love to host from Tel Aviv. I think reputation, what you're talking about is an unforeseen democratization, positive impact of the world. I want you to just take a minute to explain how this all came together with your view on this reputational thing and talk about the impact. Where does it go beyond just reputational for jobs? How does a community flex and organically grow from this impact? So one thing that I'm very happy to see, I think in the past couple of years, the reputations generally of hackers have become important and that the concept of a hacker is not what we used to think about in the past where we would automatically go to somebody who's a criminal or a bad guy. Did you know that the Girl Scouts Organization, the U.S. Girl Scouts, are now teaching Girl Scouts to be hackers. They're teaching them cybersecurity skills. Arguably, I would claim this is a more important skill than making cookies or selling cookies. Certainly a more important- You don't want to survive in the wilderness, why not the digital wilderness? Making a fire, counting out. More than that, it's about service. So the Girl Scouts Organization's always been very dedicated to values of service. Imagine these girls, they are now becoming very knowledgeable about cybersecurity. They can teach their peers, their families, so they can actually help spread a more, you know, build a more secure world. Certainly they could probably start a fire or track a rabbit in the forest or whatever it is that Girl Scouts used to do. Well, they can do that digitally too. That's called, you know, tracing. Yes, they could. So you're really a motivating person. I think that's aspiring to many young women. Thank you, that's very kind of you. I'm really passionate to have more voices out there. What can we do differently? What can I do as a guy in the industry? I have two daughters. Everyone has, as I get older, I have daughters because they care now, but most men want to help. What can we do as a group? So I think you're absolutely right that diversity and inclusivity within the technology workforce is not a problem that just the underrepresented groups need to solve, right? It's actually an issue for the entire group to solve, whether it's men or women or any underrepresented minority and overrepresented groups as well. Because diversity of the workforce will actually help build a more resilient, sustainable workforce that will help with that talent gap, that shortage of people, of skilled employees that we mentioned. There's a few things that you can do. I personally decided to do what I can, so I contributed to a book called Women in Tech, A Practical Guide. In that book, there's also a chapter for allies. So if you're a person that wants to help a woman or women in tech in your community, you're very welcome to check out the book. It's on Amazon, Women in Tech, A Practical Guide. I'm a contributor to that myself. I also started a group called Leading Cyber Ladies, which is a global meetup for women in cybersecurity. And we have chapters and events in Israel, in New York City, in Canada, and soon I believe in United Kingdom and Silicon Valley. And perhaps in your company or in your community, you could help start a similar group or maybe encourage some of the ladies that you know to start a group, help them by finding a space, creating a safe environment for them to create meetups like that, by providing resources, by sponsoring events, by mentoring, there's a few, a lot of things that- Just get started, do something. There's a lot of things that you can do and it's certainly most important to consider that diversity in the workforce is everybody's issue. It's not something just one gender or one group needs to take care of.  You can start with three people, two people. Absolutely. And just have an organic growth that could be small. Yes, certainly. And as men, if you don't want to start an event for women, because that may seem disingenuous, what you can do is certainly encourage the women that you find around you in your workforce to see if they want to maybe have a meetup and if they do what kind of help you can offer. Can you run the AV for them? Can you sponsor the cross-ons? Whatever kind of help that you can offer to create that sort of a space. The reason we started Cyber Ladies is because I didn't see enough women speaking at security events. So I wanted to create a meetup where the women in cybersecurity could share their work, network with one another and really build up also their speaking portfolio, their speaking powers so that they can really feel more comfortable speaking and sharing their work on other events as well. Good camaraderie there too, it's good community. It's very important. Awesome work that you're doing. What's exciting you now? What is on your professional and personal interest these days? What's getting you excited? What are some of the cool things you're looking at? That's a fantastic question. So one thing I'm super excited about is that I'm actually collaborating with my sister. So my sister, believe it or not, is a lawyer and she's a lawyer who's specializing in cyber law and intellectual property, privacy, security policy work, and I'm collaborating with her to create a new book which would be a guide to the future of cybersecurity from the hacker's perspective and the lawyer's perspective because we are seeing a lot of regulators, a lot of companies that are now really having to follow laws and guidelines and regulations around cybersecurity and we really want to bring these two points of view together. We've already collaborated in the past and in fact my sister has worked on the legal terms of many of the bug bounty programs that I mentioned earlier, including the Tesla program. So it's very exciting and very proud to be able to work with my younger sister who followed me into the cyber world. I'm the hacker, she's the lawyer and we're creating something together.  I'm excited to interview her. Yeah, so in my family we call her the Torbo version. Can you imagine that? Together it's really unstoppable. We didn't have a chance to speak together at the RSA conference earlier this year and that was really unique and we're going to follow up on that with the book. Well our platform is your platform. Anything we can do to help you get the word out. Super exciting work that you're doing. We think cyber community will be one of the big answers to some of the challenges out there. I absolutely agree. And we need more education, lawmakers and global politicians have to get more tech savvy. Yes, absolutely, everybody, it's everybody's issue. Like I said in this morning's speech, everybody's on the front lines. It's not the cyber generals or the hackers in the basements that are fighting. We are on that digital battle front and we all have to be safer together. Karen, thanks for your great insights here and energy, bug bounties are hot, the community is growing. This is the cyber conference here that Acronis Global Cyber Summit 2019. I'm John Furrier. Be back with more coverage after this short break.


The study found that attending a single lecture delivered by an expert on HPV vaccination improved medical students' attitudes and comfort with counseling, particularly among unvaccinated students and those under 30 years old. Additionally, Asian and Hispanic students showed the greatest improvement in comfort with counseling, as did students who reported not having received the HPV vaccine. The study suggests that including material on HPV vaccination in the standard medical student curriculum could increase physician recommendation for the HPV vaccine. This article was authored by Abby B. Berenson, Jacqueline M. Hough, Erica L. Fuchs, and others.


I wish to introduce the Minister of State of the Department of Education, Mary Mitchell O'Connor, TD. She is a TD in Dunleary. She had previously been Minister for Jobs and oversaw a huge expansion in employment in Ireland to a great credit. Without further ado, I'll hand over to the Minister. Thank you. Barry, thank you very much. I had the pleasure of sharing a constituency with Barry in the past. Barry, please stay in this job and don't come back to Dunleary if I can ask you for one favour. Ladies and gentlemen, I am delighted that I've been given this opportunity to address you on the critical issue of the future funding of our higher education system. I would like to acknowledge the contribution of today's speakers to higher education provision and reform, and I greatly welcome this forum which has engaged political and public perspectives on future funding approaches for the sector. Before I continue, I would like to remind us all of the most important person in the room, and that is the student. That's why we're all here. That is why we are fundamentally here discussing today the future of our higher education. The student is always top of my agenda. Their education, their welfare, their in-class experience constitutes everything that I consider when making any decisions within my portfolio of higher education. I want our education system to be accessible to students who want to attend a higher education institution, the socio-economically disadvantaged student, the student with a disability, the mature student, all accommodated and welcomed. I want our institutions to instill a love of lifelong learning in everyone who passes through its doors. We are here, all of us, both policy makers and professionals at the cold face aware of the challenges facing the higher education sector currently. However, the development of talent through higher education is a central part of our plan as a government to support a strong economy and to deliver a fair society. Each of the contributions and the broader discussions confirms the importance and the value of bringing together a diverse group of deeply experienced expert speakers. Each of the panel has communicated key insights in how we might work to put in place a long term sustainable model for higher education funding. I particularly value the contributions made today which identify both the challenges and the opportunities involved in doing so. We know to our cost that any significant and complex public policy issue, particularly one requiring increased investment cannot be addressed with a simple or a straightforward solution. The hard lesson we as a nation learned from the unsustainable boom in advance of the economic and fiscal bust from 2008 onwards is that increased resources alone are never the solution to securing world class public services. The case for increased investment in any sector for any purpose must be built up step by step in a strong evidence based way. It must demonstrate clearly at every point in the process the positive outcomes to be achieved and why they are worth pursuing or indeed essential to achieve. As far as investment in higher education is concerned this is the work commenced under the Peter Castle's wise stewardship culminating in the publication of the expert's group's report on future funding. In 2016 the castle's report and I see Peter here clearly outlined the funding challenges facing the higher education sector in light of projected demographic increases with student numbers expected to be almost 30% higher and the impact of the economic downturn. The report was clear in its conclusion that our current funding model is not sustainable. It called for the development of a clear funding strategy for the sector, a funding model that will deliver a robust and a steady base of funding to sustain the system into the future. My department and I have been working tirelessly since to achieve the goal of making progress on building the future funding model for higher education. It's important to be clear that this new model is already under construction. The reduction of approximately 20% in higher education expenditure during the crisis years from 2008 to 2014 has been followed by a cumulative 9% increase from 2014 to 2018. Now I wish to move on to the cornerstone topic of today's event and that is the increased funding for higher education. As I have indicated the government has already commenced a significant programme of investment in higher education. In total we have invested 100 million euro more in core and current funding in higher education since the CASEL's report was published. This additional funding has allowed for targeted initiatives in higher education including the technological university development, skills programmes, performance and innovation funding as part of the reform of the funding model, promoting access to higher education and a new apprenticeship funding stream. This funding or this extra funding will also allow for places to be provided for 2,100 additional full time students in 2018. As your minister at the cabinet table, I am your voice for higher education in the upcoming budget negotiations and I will be that voice ensuring that additional funding for the higher education comes on stream. But that work has begun in earnest. We are listening to employers, industry and higher education institutions. My department and that of minister Pascal Dunhoo are working to reform the national training fund in response to those issues raised by employers and indeed educational providers in last year's consultation process. The fund levy was increased by 0.1% to 0.8% in budget 2018 and it will be increased by a further 0.1% in both 2019 and another 0.1% in 2020. In return the national training fund will be more closely aligned to and responsive to the needs of the economy and the employers. Employers are contributors but they are also as was said earlier here recipients of a skilled pipeline of graduates. The NTF will allow for an additional expenditure of 47.5 million this year as part of the Exchequer Employer funding mechanism bringing the fund from 435 million in 2017 to 553 million in 2018. It is estimated that this fund will increase by a further 104 million in 2019 and 165 million in 2020. Our aim is to make the national training fund more transparent to better align it to employers needs and to develop a range of upskilling and reskilling initiatives which will respond to employers and to regional and national skills needs. With regards to apprenticeships the action plan to expand apprenticeship and traineeship will see 31,000 new enrolments on apprenticeship programmes representing more than doubling of the activity by 2020. Some of the new apprenticeship programmes including international finance, aircraft maintenance, commie chef and in 2019 we're going to roll out retail practice. Delegates as the title of the castles report clearly captures we are investing in the national ambition. It is important that we use the report as a springboard and expand our exploration on how we fund this essential sector and that is our higher education sector. And whilst I acknowledge the role of the castles report in identifying the need for capital investment in higher education I would like to reiterate some of the central teams of the expert groups report other than relating to funding. Teams which Peter has also referenced in his contribution here today and indeed consistently since the report was first published and that is the team of reform. Reform and the opportunities that reform point to that provides the bedrock for the investment case in higher education in the coming years. To be very clear the expert groups report stresses the case for investment in a reformed system of higher education. The report could not be clearer. Reform, innovation and change is essential to creating a virtuous circle of investment quality and verification. It seeks a higher education system which achieves significantly greater access participation and progression among all socio economic groups. It seeks a higher education system which builds the knowledge and capabilities of our graduates to meet the changing needs of business, the economy and our society. It seeks a higher education system with an enhanced focus on improving the quality of programs of engagement with students and of learning outcomes. It seeks a higher education system which is more responsive and flexible to the changing needs of learners across their lives and it seeks a higher education system that recognizes the need to work alongside the further education sector to reconfigure the post secondary school landscape. In my role as Minister for Higher Education and having visited all the country's HGI campuses I have seen best practice exemplars for all of these objectives and it is essential that we retain a sharp focus on the broad and the deep range of actions and initiatives that taken together will drive the higher education system forward to the achievement of the ambitious goals set out for it in the expert group report. This is a prerequisite of making continued progress on building the future funding model. Ladies and gentlemen, let me stress that in the environment of intense competition between competing sectors of the economy there will always be a level of fiscal resources falling well short of demands and with this within this difficult environment the higher education sector must make the strongest possible case for future investment meeting the ambition of the expert groups objectives. Since all sectors of society suffered hugely from the impact of the financial crisis no sector can expect to be successful in making the case for increased investment simply and exclusively on the basis of the reversal of previous funding reductions. The higher education sector has certainly demonstrated through the period of retrenchment its capacity to deliver significant productivity and efficiency games and at this juncture I want to publicly acknowledge the work and the dedication of all of the staff of our higher education institutions who unquestionably put their shoulder to the wheel in the challenging recessional times but the HE sector must now demonstrate in any era of increased investment how it will continue to deliver similar benefits in order to reach the high level of ambition set for it in the first instance in the expert groups report. The government and the department of education and the skills ambition for HE are reflected strongly in the action plan for education's objective to provide the best education and training system in Ireland over the next decade. Later this month minister Dunhu will be publishing the summer economic statement it will set out the fiscal parameters for budget 2019 it will identify the scope for expenditure increases consistent with the broader requirements of ensuring that the economy remains on a sustainable trajectory it will meet government priorities not only in education but in key strategic areas like housing social protection and health so let me be very clear the strength of the case made for spending in one department or one sector can never be assessed in its own terms it must and it will be set out against the cases made in all other areas within the framework of what can be accommodated within the overall budgetary fiscal space budgetary considerations will be consistent with what is considered appropriate given overall macroeconomic conditions and the risks facing our economy so let us remind ourselves that the recent fiscal assessment report published by the irish fiscal advisory council highlights that notwithstanding the very strong performance of the economy and the prudent approach that the government has adopted to spending and taxation Ireland's debt levels remain high and given the risks that the council identify from sources such as brexit such as a shift in international trade policy and such as a shift or a steep fall in Ireland's corporation tax regime we must prioritise the requirement to manage overall fiscal policy in a manner consistent with and continued and sustained reductions in our debt this approach is the best insurance policy against finding ourselves again in a situation where unexpected economic and fiscal developments lead to sharp unplanned reductions in spending in light of the impact on the higher education sector during the period of severe fiscal consolidation from 2008 to 2014 this is certainly an experience that we won't and can't let happen again with regard to capital expenditure we as a government are responding to the substantial need identified in the expert group report government recognises the pivotal role of the higher education sector to the realisation of key objectives of project Ireland 2040 in light of this the national development plan project 2040 allocated 2.2 billion euro in additional exchequer funding to support infrastructure priorities in the higher education sector i have recently written to the higher education institutions to highlight the importance of them working collaboratively with regional business and enterprise partners in order that the higher education sector will be able to draw down and benefit from the very substantial funds amounting to four billion the level of planned investment of 2.2 billion demonstrates the high level of the government's commitment to the development and to the growth of the higher education sector and to meeting the significant demographic growth in the next decade as a government we have responded very positively in increasing capital investment capital investment in higher education is certainly not a case of jam tomorrow the government has already initiated a significant public private partnership programme for the institutes of technology sector i recently announced key progress on the appointment of design teams for the government's public private partnership programme for the higher education sector a capital envelope of 200 million euro was provided in the 2016 to 2021 capital plan for this programme this ppp programme is being rolled out alongside 367 million in funding from the department of education and skills for investment in education over the period 2018 to 2021 eight of the 11 projects in the ppp capital programme are in the institutes of technology that are currently part of the technological university consortia in this regard the establishment and the development of t us is expected to play a crucial role in driving regional growth and developing under project Ireland 2040 thanks thank you so ladies and gentlemen i now want to address university rankings the press coverage attributed the entire fall in rankings for irish universities to the funding challenges notwithstanding that the results again reflected a strong performance overall by Ireland's higher education system as everyone here knows we do have to be cautious in how we interpret the results in light of the significant issues in terms of how the rankings are compiled in the case of the recent qs rankings let us understand that these league tables don't consider the quality of teaching and learning in our university lecture halls or in our higher education institute lecture halls these league tables don't consider how universities support access or tackle educational disadvantage a key national objective these league table tables rely on global surveys of academics and employers who may have had no interaction with the institution in question these league tables measure the impact of research by the number of times the paper is cited and doesn't and don't consider the quality of the journal in which the research appears and of course notwithstanding all of these weaknesses there is no avoiding the fact that rankings can impact both positively and negatively on international perceptions of our national university system for this reason i believe it is important that working together with the university sector that we develop a deeper understanding of the key drivers of Ireland's own higher education offering we need to be able to explain better the factors driving performance highlighting where we believe that there could be improvements indeed we must also seek to ensure that we do not miss opportunities through appropriate actions to improve our standing we currently set our own goals and objectives and we benchmark ourselves against against best international practice within the systems performance framework the second of which will be published soon at all times we must ensure that we avoid the risk where some other countries or universities may have been tempted of taking measures not for their own benefit or value but simply to try to gain the ranking system so finally ladies and gentlemen and in conclusion while this is a very exciting time for the sector and for higher education as a whole and whilst i'm very optimistic for the sector i do realise that reform is key the comprehensive and holistic approach taken at today's conference examining current and capital higher education funding and reform will contribute to the development of a long term sustainable funding model for the sector i look forward to working closely with the higher education sector and deepening collaborative approaches thus providing a quality higher education product for our students for our businesses for our society and indeed for our nation. Thank you very much minister and it just leaves it for me to by way of conclusion to thank a few people the institute was very anxious to bring up this issue it's been raised by our corporate members by our academic members by our civil society members constantly the institute method is to bring together disparate voices to allow those voices to be heard to tackle intractable and thorny issues in a very respectful and robust way based on logic and reasoning i think we've heard a lot of that today on this very very important issue i want to thank peter castles for all of his work previously and in preparing for today he presented the context very clearly in terms of the staff student ratios in terms of the capital requirements and all of the other demographic context that we're all very concerned about to thank all the panelists who contributed so actively today and i think there's one emerging issue that comes out i mean all of the underlying assumptions seem to be agreed in terms of financing in terms of numbers in terms of the demographic bubble that we're about to encounter but it seems to emerge this question of political will this question of whether or not there is a political appetite in the current political context to tackle the very difficult issues so we're delighted to have the minister here to conclude and we wish her well in her work at the cabinet table in the coming budgetary framework and it the minister asked me to promise that i wouldn't come back to politics and don liri i she was too polite to point out that she took my seat and so i promise i won't come back although that's a political promise but it might be it might be worth saying that all of us politicians previous and current know that we know what the right thing to do is sometimes you just don't know how to get reelected when we've done it so in that with those words may i also thank the higher education authority for their generous sponsorship and support for today to graham and all of his team for making today i think a very useful exchange of views thank you very much for attendance