Hello. My name's Paul Daugherty. I'm CEO and founder of TDG, the Digor Group, where we specialize in smart cities, smart spaces, smart buildings. This question how do we start to plan a path forward for our smart and sustainable spaces, especially in the workplace? I've been asked what sort of strategies and technologies could we start to prioritize to create a more resilient, efficient, and user centric environment. And then, of course, how do you implement these things to actually be measurable? Well, I'd like to break this into three main parts. Number one would be safe spaces. As we grapple also with going back to the office, after the pandemic, and how would you how are we utilizing space, especially in dense urban environments? We need to start to think about, well, what type of environments are people coming back to? Right? Two main areas that are actionable would be to measure and understand and communicate the idea of indoor air quality. One of the things that, was definitely a scary thing. Was actually building upon the Legionnaire's diseases of the past, you know, twenty, thirty years, was blowing things like COVID, through ventilation. So how do we start to, understand how does how to make that a safe space so that even psychologically, people say fine. I can go back there and I'll be safe. That means that we are looking at a decentralized way of how you can start to implement, meaning that air handler units, there is everything from ionization to other types of innovations that we're exploring that can help create the air that that is being blown through, be clean. Also, then at the ventilation layer, there's some wonderful technologies out of Europe that are taking an ionization and also a zapping type of way of saying everything within a certain amount of of of square meters or square feet, that is blown into that space will be neutralized. So that we can have fresh air and not have to worry about blowing around any sort of disease. The other area that I also find very interesting is water. Sometimes you don't think about the water because it comes out of a false state or comes out of a water fountain or or whatever it is inside of a space. But we're looking right now at at nuclear technology that actually breaks down, the, the water into two h's in an o, down to the molecular level. And what this does is that it creates what's called a free radical, and that can actually then zap anything within that water source from causing any sort of disease, any sort of sickness, any sort of anything. This is the same technology that's been used now for decades at International Space Station. So it's how when, the, when the astronauts, have waste. It actually goes into this process, and it creates fresh water. By doing that now, again, in a decentralized space, but in a decentralized way, you're creating smart spaces that actually are transparent to the process. In other words, the person's not gonna know, but it feels fresher. It knows it's fresher and communicate that. So that's number one. Number two would be, in addition to safe spaces, how about experience spaces? We're working right now with the number of customers about in different industries, by creating these spaces, sometimes rooms almost like a studio for a level of experience or a level of engagement using things like AR, VR, which is where immersive and XR. This means we have the opportunity to look inside of things like data in very different ways, being immersed inside of, like, in the case of MD Anderson, down in Houston, how they're using technologies to explore the data behind the science so that we can be inside of a cell structure that may be cancerous. So oncology is now being used, it's being explored in very unique ways that only a few years ago we couldn't have done because of the technical limitations what does that have to do with business and things like textiles and everything else? Think of that in the same way. It's not just the r and d. It's not just that type exploration, but it's about getting into a situation type of room and bringing in various people that physically may not be there, but you need the answer right away. This is like zoom on steroids. Three d zoom, if you wanna call it that, and then really exploring things that are tactical, right, being able to have haptic controls, those types of things. When you hear about the metaverse, it's not just about having a three d Facebook and social interaction. It's about using it in an industrial way, the industrial metaverse. How can we start to get into the data, into the situation, into the problem, and come out better the other side? That's an experience space. We're also looking at this idea of the experience of discovery, right, that you're not just going into a place that happens to be like a specialized place for x r or AR VR. But it's actually to communicate with others. That human centric approach, how do you now start to interact with people when you normally don't have any sort of, bias because it's about the business situation. It's about the work situations. It's about that learning environment. We, I'm part of a group called the Design Futures Council, that was started by, doctor Jonas Salk, who after the polio vaccine, went ahead in the last half of his career. It was all about trying to find spaces that heal. We can do the same thing for smart spaces, safe spaces, and experience spaces, where the design of it, of that particular space can be, can help people feel. In the case of health, Doctor. Salk was focused on things like light, color, spatial relations, you know, windows, being able to see nature in ways that would help the healing process. We can also do that to create other types of environments, and that's the manipulation as a designer as an architect as I am. That's our ever ending discovery phase. So understand that the experiences may have technological issues. Sorry, technological solutions, but also we have solutions for actual spaces to feel right. I'm sure you've been in offices that sometimes just feel awful. It was cubicle designed you know, Gilbert type of ways of working and other spaces that you just feel, wow, I feel inspired. So depending on what your business situation is and how you want these spaces to operate, remember design and technology together. Create the third point, which is this blurring of the lines. We're getting another a generation of people coming into our spaces. We have an immediate need, right, getting people back to work, but more importantly, we now have people that are coming into the workplace that are gamers. They grew up gaming. And it's a different type of mindset where they don't see a difference between the digital realm and the physical world. It's the cyber physical relationship that I'm just absolutely all over. Because now all of a sudden, I have a thirteen year old son. Right? He's he's living this with his friends. They they they learn their social interactions, how they make fun of their friends, or or make new friends. And that whole idea about taking gaming theory and gaming tools, things like non player characters. Right? NPCs are characters inside of like listed world of warcraft where you have a cast of thousands of show soldiers. They're all fighting with you. But you may only have three people that are really behind a controller. All the rest are play actors. Right, that are just going through the motions, but there's nothing behind it. It's like a mannequin. But now imagine with the newer types of tools like through web three, things like artificial intelligence, either through not chatbots like Chap sheepT, but I'm talking to agents that next level of AI where subject matter experts are now part of your environment where you can now say, like, as an architect, I've never done a library before. But I can go rent that NPC that is all about being the subject brand expert about libraries, everything I've been wanting to know, or maybe it's you're in a business situation, especially with your talking about textiles, be it, you know, you know, carpet, anything like that. You now have the ability to take those agents and start to help you and your team work through issues. So, you know, I feel bad for the management consulting groups out there because the subscribed experts that are now gonna be less than less than any one of their fees, are now gonna be able to help at the right time blurring the lines between the digital and and the physical world And that is where we're starting to see how these changes, or can be managed, and we can actually be inspired to look to a bright future. Thank you.
