We are now officially in the holiday season, and depending on your business, it can be one of the busiest times of the year. It is also one of the most charitable times of the year and we’d like to focus on that this month. Al welcomes his featured interview Helen Seibel, Head of Community and Employee Giving at BMO to talk about why it’s important for businesses to give back to their communities. He also welcomes Kat Hamilton and Wayne Henshall from the Canadian National Institute for the Blind (CNIB) who bring some helpful tips on how you can make your small business more accessible.
We are now officially in the holiday season, and depending on your business, it can be one of the busiest times of the year. It is also one of the most charitable times of the year and we’d like to focus on that this month.
Al welcomes his featured interview Helen Seibel, Head of Community and Employee Giving at BMO to talk about why it’s important for businesses to give back to their communities. He also welcomes Kat Hamilton and Wayne Henshall from the Canadian National Institute for the Blind (CNIB) who bring some helpful tips on how you can make your small business more accessible.
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Chapters:
Al Grego:
Here we are officially in the holiday season. Now depending on your business, you're either winding things down for a quiet spell, maybe a bit of a rest, or more than likely, it's one of the busiest times of the year for you. Now more than ever, there's a call to shop local, shop small, especially this time of year, but there's also an opportunity for those local small businesses to make a big impact in their own communities, an opportunity to give back, and that giving doesn't always have to mean money. There are many other ways a business can give back, but why give back, you might ask? Because it's just good business. I had like to welcome my co-host for this month, David Litwin. David, thank you for coming back on the podcast.
David Litwin:
Thanks for having me, Al. How's it going, by the way? Are you feeling a bit better?
Al Grego:
Better than what?
David Litwin:
Well, last month it sounded like you weren't really in the holiday spirit.
Al Grego:
Well, I'm over that now. I'm 100% in now. I got the tree up, I hung the lights outside. I took the kids to the parade. I'm listening to a lot of Mariah Carey, but you know what my favorite part of the season is?
David Litwin:
What's that?
Al Grego:
How charitable people feel this time of year. Did you know that according to givingtuesday.ca, $50 million was donated by Canadians in that 24 hour period?
David Litwin:
Yeah, it is the season of giving, but I've got some great data that shows donations are actually up throughout the year.
Al Grego:
Really?
David Litwin:
Yes. And you know what kind of donations are trending upwards?
Al Grego:
Let me guess, contactless.
David Litwin:
That's right. How did you know?
Al Grego:
Well, you sent me the report prior to this recording, but also I remember this time last year I had Mark Jordan on from Tiptap and I loved what they were doing in that space.
David Litwin:
Our partners at Tiptap have definitely contributed to the growth of contactless donations by making it easier to give with just the tap of your card or digital wallet and based on total dollars, contactless transactions make up roughly 10 to 15% of donation volume.
Al Grego:
So those smaller amounts they can add up pretty quickly.
David Litwin:
Absolutely, and to illustrate that, we see the share of contactless transactions getting closer to 50%, so
Al Grego:
Many more transactions just for smaller amounts.
David Litwin:
As you said it all adds up.
Al Grego:
And you say this is true throughout the year?
David Litwin:
Yes. And the busiest time of the year, other than December-
Al Grego:
What is it?
David Litwin:
Summer. In July, contactless volume peaks at 15% and share of transaction count peaks at almost 50%, 48% to be exact.
Al Grego:
Wow. So this is true across the country?
David Litwin:
Yes, year over year. In Canada, contactless volume is up about 22% while transaction share is up 18%. And the two provinces that saw the most growth Quebec followed by Manitoba.
Al Grego:
Amazing. I can't wait to see what December brings.
David Litwin:
So what do you have lined up this week?
Al Grego:
Well, we're going to continue the charity theme in our featured interview with Helen Seibel. She's the head of community and employee giving at BMO. We're going to talk about why it's important to give back to the community and how small businesses are best suited to do just that.
David Litwin:
That sounds like a great topic.
Al Grego:
It is. And we'll have our regular visit from our resident data expert, Sean McCormick. Sean has some very early consumer spending data from this year's Black Friday. You're not going to want to miss.
David Litwin:
I saw the report on LinkedIn. It was interesting to see what segments showed the biggest increases this year.
Al Grego:
Yes, and we'll definitely talk about those. Then I'm going to switch gears and talk to Kat Hamilton and Wayne Henshall from the Canadian Institute for the Blind about accessibility. They've got some great advice for small business owners on how to be more accessible to those with disabilities.
David Litwin:
This is a pretty jam packed episode.
Al Grego:
Yes, it is. So let's begin with my chat with Helen Seibel from BMO. I'm joined by Helen Seibel. She's the head of community and employee giving at BMO. Helen, thank you so much for joining me today.
Helen Seibel:
Thank you for having me. I'm happy to be here.
Al Grego:
It's December and it's the festive season. It's also a charitable season, so a lot of people are looking to give back to the community. There's a lot more giving happening to charity. Let's start with maybe what you do at BMO as the head of community and employee giving. What do exactly do you do?
Helen Seibel:
So I look after all of our community giving efforts across the bank. So in Canada and the United States. And these are not just our philanthropic activities. So with our corporate dollars, but also building programming that recognizes and rewards and encourages giving and volunteerism from our employees. So I look at it from both sides.
Al Grego:
Can you maybe give some examples of some of the programs that you guys run at BMO?
Helen Seibel:
So we are definitely in the giving season. You are right with that in your introduction. Tuesday, November the 28th was Giving Tuesday, and that is a day that really encourages giving behavior around the world. It's internationally recognized. On Giving Tuesday we typically launch our annual employee giving campaign here at BMO. And last year our employees donated more than 31 million to a thousands of charities across North America. We enjoyed an 88% participation rate. So this was in 2022. So we've kicked off our campaign for this year. It'll run for two weeks, and we expect a similar level of generosity from our employees in 2023. And this is just one example of the kinds of programs that I manage through and with my team that are available to employees across BMO.
Al Grego:
Now, why is it important for a company like BMO to give back to the community like this?
Helen Seibel:
Generally speaking, I think the public has an expectation that companies will give back and address issues that are present in the communities where they operate and where their employees and their customers live. We have a responsibility that goes beyond our bottom line. Some people call it corporate social responsibility. You may have heard that term or being a good corporate citizen. There are also increased expectations from prospective employees, young people or people who are looking to change jobs increasingly want to work for a company that has principles and values that align with their own. So engaging, making programs available that are socially focused that help people get engaged in the community, that's something that top talent great employees are looking for in a company. And that's something that we offer here at BMO.
Al Grego:
Your participation rate is 88%. That's pretty impressive. Can you talk maybe a bit about how you got it that high?
Helen Seibel:
I do think that this is the campaign, the way we approach it is really part of the culture at BMO. We have been running this campaign for many years, so over time the awareness levels of the campaign and what it means are really present for employees. So I think that's part of it. But I would also say we have really visible and active senior leadership and engagement in the campaign. So the example is that from the top down, this is our most senior executives walking the talk and explaining why. And there's lots of different ways that we bring the information to our employees. So this isn't a pressure game by any stretch. This is an opportunity to help our employees understand what the needs are in the communities.
And we do find that people are generous just by nature. So they are giving and over time they're giving through and during our campaign, which makes it easier for them to give. We have a platform that offers all different kinds of charities they can choose from, causes that they might be interested in, and then we bring the need to the forefront so that they can make an informed decision.
Al Grego:
What you're talking about here is on a corporate and global scale, but a lot of our listeners are entrepreneurs of small businesses. Can you think of any ways where a smaller business might be able to give back to the community?
Helen Seibel:
Absolutely. I actually think small businesses have such a great opportunity to give back because they tend to be very localized. They know their community, they're embedded in their community. And it doesn't have to be a major formal program. It could be something as simple as do you have a space you could offer to someone? Is there a committee that you want to sit on at a charity that is in your neighborhood? Is there something that you can offer that is going to meet a need that you see immediately around you? And even something like maybe if you have a small employee base, perhaps you could go together to a food bank for an afternoon once a year and just volunteer your time doing something that addresses an immediate need that you see in your community.
Al Grego:
So I think it's important to note, it doesn't always have to be a financial giving, but it could be just giving of your time or a product or service. I love the idea if you're a smaller company, taking an afternoon, for example, last year with my team, we went to Second Harvest and we sorted food items from grocery stores for food banks. And that was a fun afternoon spent with our team, very gratifying. And I forget how much food we sorted. It was in the hundreds of pounds.
Helen Seibel:
Yeah. And I should add, this is the giving season. Absolutely. I think right before the holidays, the weather's getting colder. There is a push for charity whether it is giving your time or your talent or your dollars, but you can do it year round. And I think this is a time where charities often are approached a lot for things like volunteer activities and things and it can be pressing and taxing on the charities and nonprofits themselves. So you can also consider spreading that type of activity out through the course of a whole year. Do a nice summer paint, an outdoor tennis court or plant a garden for a local charity in the summer. Those kinds of things are really great fun team building activities and often really needed.
Al Grego:
Yeah. You make a good point there too. Around this time of year, many companies are trying to do these charity team events and sometimes it's more pressure on the charity to schedule these because they have so much demand at that point. So you mentioned committees and stuff throughout the year, so it's not just about giving up money, but time and expertise. Can you provide some examples?
Helen Seibel:
Another great way to get involved with charities in your community that doesn't involve giving dollars would be to consider whether they have a committee that you could sit on or even if they have open board positions. As a small business owner or an entrepreneur, you have a specific skillset and actually a really great knowledge base. You're probably a very innovative and creative thinker to address all the challenges that you face day to day. Imagine how much those might benefit a nonprofit in your immediate community. It doesn't have to be a massive organization. The smaller grassroots organizations often will benefit even more from the kinds of knowledge, skills and expertise that a small business owner has to offer. And it doesn't have to be a huge time commitment either. So that's another way to get involved.
Al Grego:
All right. So we've been talking a lot about how employees and at the grassroots level can give of their time and money. As a corporation, what's BMO doing?
Helen Seibel:
So we actually have a 206 year legacy in the community of giving back. And in fact, one of the very first corporate donations that was ever recorded in Canada was a donation that the Bank of Montreal or Montreal Bank made to the Montreal Hospital back in 1835. Super interesting. Banks have been the cornerstone of their communities for many years and often bank management, they were the philanthropists in their community. So it's really embedded in our culture, super interesting history there.
But last year, for instance, as a large and a leading company, we made more than $69 million worth of donations to charities and nonprofits across North America. And these donations were used to support a number of different areas from education and skills building to health and social services, including increasing the accessibility to the arts and culture, supporting emerging talent. And there is a good variety of things that we support across the country, across the continent and back.
Al Grego:
Sounds amazing. So if anyone wanted to learn more about what BMO's doing in this space, where could they go?
Helen Seibel:
They could go to our website to bmo.com or you could also take a look at our sustainability report, which is where we outline more examples about the work we do. We also cover other areas around our environmental, social and governance investments, but that's where our community giving is outlined and that's available on bmo.com. Yeah.
Al Grego:
Thank you so much for your time today, Helen.
Helen Seibel:
No, it's a pleasure. Thank you very much.
Al Grego:
And now it's time for our By The Numbers segment where we take a look at some real consumer spending data and see what story it tells. I'm joined once again by Sean McCormick, director of business development at Moneris. Sean, thank you for joining me once again.
Sean McCormick:
My pleasure. All exciting type of year for the spending industry.
Al Grego:
Absolutely. And I saw the post you posted on LinkedIn today. Early for us to be able to get these Black Friday numbers, but some interesting results.
Sean McCormick:
Yeah. They're generally the first ones to market here in Canada, so we're pretty proud of being able to get them out and to help inform the policies and decision making process of Canadian businesses. So hopefully this kind of thing supports them. So there's two ways to look at Black Friday data. You can look at year over year, this Black Friday in 2023 versus last year's Black Friday in 2022. And that measures how much more spending was happening this Friday versus last Black Friday. And not a huge increase, like just over 1.01%. And when you think about that in relation to Canada's inflation rate at being 3.1% year over year, that points in a direction of a step backwards in terms of Canadians fervor to spend money on Black Friday.
Now the other measure for Black Friday is versus the previous calendar Friday, so seven days prior. So how did Black Friday perform versus the previous Friday on the calendar in terms of spending and spending was up 17.5% across the mines network. Put that in perspective last year, Black Friday versus the previous calendar Friday was only 14 point a half percent. So Canadians were a bit more compelled to be attracted to the shopping event that was Black Friday this year versus last year. However, if you look at the two spending events themselves, it was not gangbusters again, only of 1% in an inflationary environment.
Al Grego:
Yeah. Some obvious reasons there could be inflation and looming recession that we're always hearing about?
Sean McCormick:
Looming recession and looming mortgages coming up for renewal. If it's paying any attention to the mortgage industry, there's a lot of five-year mortgages, the first wave that are going to be coming up for renewal in Q1 next year. So I think a lot of people are maybe just thinking about how they're spending the money right now.
Al Grego:
Sure. Now the other interesting thing about this report though, some positive news here is some of the winners, some of the market segments that actually came out with big gains this year.
Sean McCormick:
Yeah, big gains. So week over week numbers, looking at apparel was the biggest winner. Apparel sales were up 122% on Black Friday versus the previous Friday. And that does serve to reason. Apparel has been a favorite for online purchasing for a long time. It generally indexes above most of the rest of the e-com market. So it's not entirely surprising that it was up 122% over the previous Friday, but it did lead the way. And that's great news for all the apparel merchants out there.
Another one that did well was Luggage, up 113% versus previous Friday. Lots to dig into there. Again, we report the results, we don't necessarily know the reasons for it, but we can surmise on a couple of things. Travel's been on fire this year. Everybody and their dog's been taking a trip somewhere and Luggage would seem to be a beneficiary of that. So either people have worn out the luggage because they've been doing so much traveling or they're planning to travel again next year. Maybe a bit of a leading indicator there.
Al Grego:
I know I'm in the market for a new suitcase. I didn't get one on Black Friday, it looks like I should have.
Sean McCormick:
There's always Christmas.
Al Grego:
And in third place here we have a cosmetics up 101%. I guess we can guess about that one too.
Sean McCormick:
Yeah, you have an idea. I don't want to feel your thunder. We were talking about this.
Al Grego:
Yeah. People are getting out of the house more and so they need to be done up again.
Sean McCormick:
Absolutely. They're taking care of themselves. Maybe we're starting to turn a corner, but people are going to start combing their hair and brushing their teeth before they leave the house.
Al Grego:
Yeah. I don't have that issue, but for sure, I think some people may have that one. Let's see here, department stores, pet shops and furniture is still quite up there.
Sean McCormick:
Yeah. So department stores at 55% gain over the previous Friday. Furniture up 47% versus the previous Friday and pet shops up 24% versus the previous Friday. So good gains across all of those segments. And again, generally spending across the mines network, we got over 300,000 merchant locations, 800 transactions a second, and all of that volume was up 17.5% versus the previous Friday, seven days prior.
Al Grego:
That is crazy. Sean, I just want to take a moment to thank you so much for all the appearances you've done on the podcast this year. You've been bringing the data and the logic behind the data. I appreciate it and looking forward to 2024.
Sean McCormick:
Thanks, Al. Have a good holiday. See you.
Al Grego:
You too.
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Al Grego:
I'm joined by Kat Hamilton, she's a director of advocacy and campaigns and Wayne Henshall, who's the agent of a change at CNIB. Kat and Wayne, thank you so much for joining me today.
Kat Hamilton:
Thanks for having us, Al.
Wayne Henshall:
Thanks very much for having us.
Al Grego:
I can't imagine anybody wouldn't know what CNIB does, but could you maybe just give me a quick overview of CNIB?
Wayne Henshall:
The CNIB is the Canadian National Institute of the Blinds. We are an organization a not-for-profit that is oriented all around engaging individuals from the site loss community. And that term we use to be inclusive because there is intersectionality out there there of individuals living with both blindness, partial sight or from the deaf blind community. So as a national organization, that is our mission and our goal and objectives is to knock down those barriers, try to change the assumptions that are made about engaging an individual like myself. I am a member of the site loss community who just happens to also work for CNIB.
Al Grego:
Now today you're going to talk about how small businesses can make their business a little more accessible to folks from the site loss community, from hearing loss community. I imagine also from mobility challenged folks as well. Correct?
Wayne Henshall:
Yes. As you look at it is intersectionality because there's not just an individual, they have many different things that are going on within their life. So I've identified as part of our conversation here as a member of the site loss community, but I'm so much more and there may be those instances I am gently experienced in life, which means I'm just past 50 years of age.
Al Grego:
Absolutely. Great way to put that. I love it. Gently experienced.
Wayne Henshall:
But as you look at that, I have a bit of a hip problem. So there may be a mobility challenge. So when you look at stairs or access into your business, you want to think about how can people effectively engage. So those individuals that may be from the site loss community or from the hearing loss community may also be dealing with mobility challenges.
Kat Hamilton:
I just add to that as well. I'm not someone who currently has a disability, but I think it's really important to remember that if you design things for accessibility in mind, you are often benefiting everyone. No one loves to go on a website that's super clunky and has things whizzing around and you try and click on something and it disappears and it's really complicated. So I think even outside of the disability community, if you are designing your businesses and services with accessibility, you're probably going to benefit everyone in doing so.
Al Grego:
For sure. I'm just off the top of my head, I'm thinking about one accessibility feature that came in handy during the pandemic and that's the buttons to open doors, the sensors where you can wave your hand in front of a door to open it. I use that and I have no reason to, but because I'm a germophobe, so that does make it accessible to everyone.
Wayne Henshall:
Take it one step further when you think about it as we came through COVID and we continue to evolve and go through the various ways, it's being mindful that there are multiple modes. So as you said, the buttons, if you can find the buttons. So that can often be a challenge if there's not some standard or consistency and where the buttons are. As a person from the site last community, it's often hard to find where those buttons are. But if you try it from another standpoint of what was going away, many people stopped using QR codes during COVID, it came right back into full play. And as you think about QR codes, our phones now and many Canadians don't leave home without it, so to speak, where they have their smartphone with them. But built into the camera function, whether you're on an Apple device or an Android device, built into the phone, built into the camera is the ability to scan the QR code.
So if you're a business owner and you're creating a flyer and it's all on text, why not think about incorporating in the QR code so that an individual like myself can scan that and use my assistive technology because maybe I can't see colors, maybe I can't see the font that you're using. Maybe I can't make the images that are there. I can't perceive that. But if the QR code allows me to go to a resource that gives me some alternative methods of getting that information. Okay, describing that picture or reading back the text that's on that flyer that you're doing or that menu that you're creating. I was just at Swiss Chalet with my partner a couple of days ago and on the table they had the QR code and I could actually read the menu, which was a first for me and I could actually pay.
Now, I wouldn't say I was necessarily wanting to pay, I was hoping my partner was going to pay, but think about the empowerment as a partner. Again, gently experienced where partners were out for an evening and now I as a consumer, as an enjoyer of the services being offered to me. So when we think about that, we think about how do we enable more things to be accessible? So being descriptive about the images, don't just put an image up on a flyer or on a menu and assume that everyone is going to know what that means.
Al Grego:
I love what you're saying there because I think a lot of people that maybe the misconception is, "Well, I've got a wheelchair ramp, I've got the buttons on my door, I'm accessible." But accessibility, it's not just a physical environment, but even if you have an online shop, there are things you can do like the alt tagging of your images so that the screen readers can take that. And also the beauty of it is yes, there are some things that do cost a bit of money, but most of the tips you guys are bringing today are either free or very cost effective.
Kat Hamilton:
Yeah. And I think the old text is an important one, but I'm thinking as well as small businesses are coming onto or already are on social media and advertising services that way, especially with TikTok and video content. As a sighted person, I really noticed, because I think a lot of people now who are sighted in general consuming information on the go and you might have your browser is minimized and you are listening to a TikTok and if it's just music with someone pointing to various text bubbles on their video-
Al Grego:
That's not very helpful.
Kat Hamilton:
... you're already missing out. Same with YouTube ads as well. Normally if I'm watching a video and the ad comes on, I walk away and I go and get a drink or I make a coffee, and if it's just like a luxury car, brands are any notorious for this. It's just music playing with a car, driving down a road, then you're missing out on getting your brand and your name out there. It's really important to have audio content within videos as well.
Wayne Henshall:
I think the added piece that we have to be mindful of is, and go back to my example. So I will remember now that I was able to read the menu and pay the bill at the restaurant that I went into so that the next time we're thinking about going somewhere, I'm likely going to choose that spot that enabled me versus the spot that didn't enable me where I had a real struggle. It was real frustration. Even though the food might've been great, the services might've been great, but if they made it harder... We do live in Canada where it is an aging population. There is one in five Canadians live with a visible or invisible disability. So just think about that combined buying power.
So if you are actively engaging, asking not assuming, you're doing more than just the ramp or the button. You are actively engaging in support of the community that you're looking to sell to and provide services to, then those are the folks that are going to come back. And it's not just the wees of the world that happen to be from the site loss community. They're going to be the cats of the world that are working with or colleagues or family members of such individuals.
Al Grego:
Not only are you excluding 20% basically of the population, but if I'm going to a restaurant with a friend who's got a disability, I'm definitely going to the restaurant that's more accessible to that friend. I'm not picking something without consulting them.
Wayne Henshall:
You got it.
Al Grego:
These are all really great. Are there any other tips, Kat, that you can bring up?
Kat Hamilton:
I think the one that Wayne raised was a really big one around asking and not assuming. And I think to build that out, there is so many people out there who maybe if you're a small business and you don't understand the law and you're worried, I think it's human nature, everyone's worried about doing something wrong or offending someone, and I think it's just really important to have it as an ongoing collaborative process. It's a two-way street and you are within your rights as well. If you're not able to meet that need in that exact way, then you're welcome to come back with solutions and say, "I can't offer you exactly what you're asking for, but how about X, Y and Z?"
And I know small business owners and entrepreneurs already have that solution mindset and that creativity built in. So I think it's just about expanding that out when you are working with your customer base and continually asking, because you might have one blind customer who wants X, but then when you have your second blind customer, don't think X is what works for blind people because that person's a unique customer and they might have a different way that they want to be served.
Wayne Henshall:
And just to go back to how we started off the conversation here today, Kat and I were on here as Ask the experts, but as we freely admit to everyone, we are just people that are embedded in this as members of the CNIB staff, but also members of the community. In my case, we're actively living this each and every day, but in many cases, as Kat just called out, if a small business or a business owner is not quite sure and they need to get some help, then reach out to those organizations, whether it's the CNIB, whether it's the Canadian Hearing Society, et cetera. There's many different organizations that serve those individuals from all different walks of life that you can engage and in some cases they will have free services. So one resource that we will share here today is called clearingourpath.ca, and that is around the built environment and helping businesses as they set up their spaces to be more accessible to individuals from the site loss community as well as others.
But there's also those social enterprises. So CNIB has a social enterprise called Access Labs. It was formerly known as Frontier Accessibility, where yes, it is a fee for service or where things may turn into a fee for service, but they will answer those questions with you initially and then help you towards that path. And the benefit of engaging those community members or those organizations is the dollars that you are investing are going back into engaging and cultivating individuals like myself from the site loss community in our programs and initiatives. So it goes full circle as we look at it, and many business owners or community members are looking for that. How does my dollars come back into the equation? How does it continue to improve the Canada that we all live, work, and play in?
Al Grego:
If somebody wanted to learn more about what CNIB is doing and I'm assuming that CNIB has links to these resources, where would they go?
Kat Hamilton:
I'm going to add a shameless plug as well for CNIB accessible communities resources. As I mentioned, we have our fee for service and different pieces, but we also have a comprehensive webpage with a ton of free resource guides around slighted guide accessible customer service materials, you name it, it's on there. I would say as a first step to access that, you can go to cnib.ca and go to Advocate and it's in our current campaigns. Or if you're lazy like me, you can just Google CNIB Accessible Communities and it'll take you right to the correct webpage to access those resources.
Al Grego:
Thank you so much, Kat and Wayne for your time today.
Wayne Henshall:
Thanks for having us.
Kat Hamilton:
Thank you.
Al Grego:
That's all we have for this month. David, did you learn anything new?
David Litwin:
Yeah. I really found it interesting to learn how small businesses are sometimes best positioned to give back to the communities and how it's not always about money, sometimes it's just about time and expertise.
Al Grego:
Well, it makes perfect sense.
David Litwin:
What about you?
Al Grego:
I couldn't believe that by ignoring accessibility, your business could be excluding one in five potential customers. That's 20%. That's huge.
David Litwin:
It really is an impactful data point. Accessibility is extremely important.
Al Grego:
Agreed.
David Litwin:
Now, what's going on next month?
Al Grego:
Great question. I'm really excited about a new segment. We're going to start in January called Merchant Journeys. We're going to follow an online merchant as they set up with the Moneris online account to see how that process works and what effect it has on their business.
David Litwin:
That's a great idea.
Al Grego:
Thanks. I had a lot of help from our summer intern, Sidney Lupin, for this one. I can't wait to share it with everyone.
David Litwin:
Something to look forward to in the new year.
Al Grego:
And speaking of which, that's all we have for this month and for 2023. If you're listening right now and you have any questions about contact list donations, accessibility, or anything else business related, you can email us at podcastatmoneris.com and we'll try to answer them in future episodes. Thank you so much for co-hosting, David.
David Litwin:
Thank you, Al. Anytime.
Al Grego:
On behalf of David, myself, and the rest of Moneris, it's just good business saying thank you for listening. Have a safe and happy holiday and see you in 2024.