Good afternoon. My name is Diego Rodriguez Palenzuela. I'm head of division here at the European Central Bank. I'm very, very pleased to welcome you to the ECB, to the start of our conference on fostering innovation and entrepreneurship in the euro

area. I'm also very thankful, very grateful to MIT. This is a conference which is co-organized with MIT, in particular with the MIT Lab for Innovation and Policy. The director of which is Kathy Faysal. Let me introduce Kathy. Thank you. And we are so grateful for the opportunity to partner with the European Central Bank

to call attention to the key role that technology-based innovation can play in fostering total productivity growth and to explore the topics of our panels today, new measures, ecosystem approaches, and ways to partner and collaborate. So we have in front of us a very intense and I hope very interesting conference.

We have four sessions. We'll be guiding you in the role of the different sessions as they come in. We have also a number of keynote speeches and also a dinner with a dinner conference. Let me express already my gratitude to everyone who has made this conference possible, including all of you. We also want to make this conference very interactive

as much as possible. So it's not only about people talking to you, but it's also about the audience being active and proactive and intervening. We have a number of, let's say, devices or means to do that, to achieve that. Some are conventional and analogic, so it's basically you standing up and getting the micro and asking questions and making issues. Also the coffee breaks to mingle, to bring ideas,

to propose topics for the closing panel at the end of the conference. We also have a more digital way to achieve that, which is something called Mentimeter, which is sort of an audience-pooling device. You will be asked to reach your handies and answer questions in real time and then see your own reflections

and use that as part of food for thought for the conference. So without further ado, let me express my deep gratitude. We are honored to have two speakers to start our conference. Do you want to introduce them? Yes, it's our great pleasure to launch the conference by having opening addresses by President Mario Draghi

and Provost Martin Schmidt. Please join me in welcoming President Draghi.