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Speaker 1: Joining me on the line right now.

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Speaker 2: Hospitality NT CEO Alex Bruce, Good morning, Alex.

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Speaker 3: Good morning Katie.

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Speaker 1: Alex.

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Speaker 2: We know that a memorial service for twenty year old

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Speaker 2: Declan Lavity, who was killed while working at the Airport

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Speaker 2: Tavern bottle shop, is set to be held this weekend.

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Speaker 2: My understanding is that it has been organized by Hospitality

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Speaker 2: and with the support of Endeavor Group. Alex tell us

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Speaker 2: when is that service set to take place?

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Speaker 3: Yep, so ten am Saturday morning down at the Darwin

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Speaker 3: Convention Center. And this has come about the Endeavor Group,

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Speaker 3: that's the BWS stores and the ALH pubs. They've been

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Speaker 3: directly dealing with the family throughout and providing a lot

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Speaker 3: of support where they can and the family definitely, after

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Speaker 3: they went and did the funeral over in Cans, we're

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Speaker 3: quite keen to see if there was an opportunity to

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Speaker 3: have a memorial over here for any one family, friends

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Speaker 3: and anyone in the public that want to come along

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Speaker 3: and just remember deck one.

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Speaker 2: So Alex, it's by the sounds of it, anybody can

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Speaker 2: go along, because I've had people quite a few employees

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Speaker 2: actually from bottle shops and different venues around the top

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Speaker 2: end contacting me saying Katie, do you know exactly when

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Speaker 2: it's happening and can we all go?

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Speaker 3: Absolutely, so we put it up on our hospitality and

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Speaker 3: to Facebook page. Yeah, it's the top part of their

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Speaker 3: or anyone can go to event bright dot com dot

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Speaker 3: au and search for the Declan Memorial Service in Darwin

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Speaker 3: and it should pop up. It's a free ticketed event,

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Speaker 3: but we are asking if people can register it just

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Speaker 3: so we can keep a track of a number and

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Speaker 3: make sure that it's the best service possible and we

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Speaker 3: know what kind of crowd to expect on the day.

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Speaker 3: And already we did that a couple of days ago,

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Speaker 3: and we're getting, like you, a lot of bottle shop

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Speaker 3: attendants from different networks, not US BWS, but across the spectrum,

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Speaker 3: a lot of staff in our industry wanting to know

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Speaker 3: how they can link.

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Speaker 1: Through and tell me.

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Speaker 2: We know that obviously Declan's funeral was held in cans

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Speaker 2: How important is it do you think to hold something

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Speaker 2: for him locally in Darwin?

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Speaker 3: Yeah, look, I think it's important and it's the rallies

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Speaker 3: have definitely been important and a good way for those

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Speaker 3: that participated to express the views that they quite rightly

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Speaker 3: have at the moment, but the family understanding is and

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Speaker 3: we fully support this, wanted something dedicated just to the

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Speaker 3: memory of decland separate to that.

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Speaker 1: Yeah.

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Speaker 3: So yeah, that's why Saturdays come about, and we're hoping that,

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Speaker 3: you know, we can all get together and move forward

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Speaker 3: from that.

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Speaker 2: I think it's a really important thing to do, Alex.

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Speaker 2: Do we know if it's going to be live streamed

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Speaker 2: for those who can't attend.

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Speaker 3: I don't think that's happening at this age. I've seen

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Speaker 3: a couple of media outlets pop on and register themselves

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Speaker 3: to attend the events. I think it will be covered

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Speaker 3: in that way, and later in the day, I think

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Speaker 3: there's talk of the family and the BWS in Airport

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Speaker 3: Tavern revealing a plaque up that way in honor as well.

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Speaker 3: So there's a bit of activity on the day. Some

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Speaker 3: of the family that's can spased is flying back. My

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Speaker 3: understanding is tomorrow and Friday in the lead up to

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Speaker 3: hopefully what is a solumn but ultimately positive Saturday's events.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, Alex, tell us how are hospitality workers around the

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Speaker 2: Northern Territory going at this point. I know it's been

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Speaker 2: a really tough time. I think that it's safe to say.

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Speaker 2: And unfortunately, crime does seem to have taken a hold

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Speaker 2: around the territory. Whether you're in Alice Springs or whether

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Speaker 2: you're up here in Darwin. How are our hospitality workers tracking?

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Speaker 3: Yeah, look, unfortunately it probably was over a month ago

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Speaker 3: now or thereabouts. It feels a lot longer and also

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Speaker 3: a lot shorter, if you know what I mean. And

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Speaker 3: that really did send shop waves through our industry. Since then, unfortunately,

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Speaker 3: there have been other incidences. You know, we reached out

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Speaker 3: to the hotel property along the Esciplannade on Friday night

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Speaker 3: that unfortunately had to deal with what they did when

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Speaker 3: the Streetscape stumbled in needing attention unfortunately into their hotel reception.

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Speaker 3: So these incidences are still occurring, and not trying to

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Speaker 3: sugarcoat it. It's hard to maintain anger and rage the

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Speaker 3: whole time. I think there's a lot of fatigue actually

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Speaker 3: creeping in. People want change, They do want some of

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Speaker 3: the stories that seem to be leading in the last

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Speaker 3: week not to be where we are as a territory.

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Speaker 3: But yeah, we just need to get back to doing

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Speaker 3: what we do and the basics, well, you.

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Speaker 1: Know, we're all over it, right, We just want to

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Speaker 1: feel safe.

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Speaker 3: That's it. And pleasingly we're seeing the worker shortage in

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Speaker 3: our industry that we've spoken about previously eating and that

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Speaker 3: could be cost of living driving people to get that

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Speaker 3: second job or seek extra shift. We've got more backpackers

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Speaker 3: than customers at the moment in and around Darwin. So

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Speaker 3: some of our other fundamentals are that we are still

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Speaker 3: hopeful that we can have a good season, but completely

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Speaker 3: appreciate and your listeners, no, you know, with crime if

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Speaker 3: we don't get off the national agenda is very much

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Speaker 3: going to impact our business this year.

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Speaker 1: Now tell me.

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Speaker 2: I know in the days after Declan's death and Northern

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Speaker 2: Territory government did obviously announce that it was going to

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Speaker 2: fund training for hospitality workers in de escalation tactics.

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Speaker 1: How is that going?

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Speaker 2: Because I know that some businesses have funded their own

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Speaker 2: training for staff off their own back saying that the

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Speaker 2: government's training was just going to sort of take too long.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, Look, it's a bit of a mixed bag. Some

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Speaker 3: of what the government put out very early on was

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Speaker 3: really well supported and taken up. Some of their digital

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Speaker 3: webinar style solutions. Understanding was that was more retailers in

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Speaker 3: the retail network could see value in that. Some of

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Speaker 3: our licensed venues that you know, as this has been

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Speaker 3: building over the last few years and those incidences have

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Speaker 3: just been getting aggressive and worse. Had even lined up

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Speaker 3: some of the escalation training in the week prior to

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Speaker 3: BEKLN and the tragic outcomes. So there are a range

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Speaker 3: of different options. We do support that. You know, it's

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Speaker 3: like that little Indian, that little Mexican girl on the

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Speaker 3: old El Paso ad Like, it's not a proposal A

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Speaker 3: or proposal B. Why can't we have both? Like, we

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Speaker 3: do support businesses coming up with the best training that

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Speaker 3: they think will help their staff and their customers. And

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Speaker 3: if the government compartment can assist in that regard, all

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Speaker 3: the better.

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Speaker 2: Now, just before I let you go, there was also

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Speaker 2: that extra crowd control funding.

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Speaker 1: And the venues we're going to be able to take

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Speaker 1: that up. Has that happened. Is it making much of

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Speaker 1: a difference.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, My understanding is that it's helping. There's no one

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Speaker 3: thing that we're hanging out hat on, as you know,

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Speaker 3: but you're definitely seeing a lot more of them out

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Speaker 3: and about when you get around in the community and

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Speaker 3: in our venues. Hopefully in it you know, it makes

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Speaker 3: the customers and the staff feel safe. So they did

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Speaker 3: tweak it this week and that was good news from

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Speaker 3: our perspective. It did appear that for a while you'd

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Speaker 3: have to employ the crowd control of the whole time

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Speaker 3: the bottle shop was open and training now that there

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Speaker 3: aren't enough crowd controls to start with if you were

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Speaker 3: to do that. But also we think business is a

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Speaker 3: probably the best place to assess when their peak demand,

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Speaker 3: peak risk, peak interface with itinerance, if that's one of

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Speaker 3: their challenges in the location they're in, is the better

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Speaker 3: way to go about it. And what you'll end up

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Speaker 3: finding is that, you know, the grocery store and some

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Speaker 3: of the suburbs might peak when they need support in

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Speaker 3: the mid afternoon, and then that crowd control can toddle

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Speaker 3: down to a pub with a bottle shop attached and

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Speaker 3: do a night evening shift with them there until their

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Speaker 3: bottle shop closes a bit later. So it's a way

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Speaker 3: to share the resources and still get some support for

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Speaker 3: all the businesses that are quite clearly and at the

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Speaker 3: moment and they're stuff doing it a bit tough well.

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Speaker 2: Alex Bruce, the CEO of Hospitality here in the Northern Territory.

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Speaker 2: Always appreciate your time, mate. Thank you very much for

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Speaker 2: having a chat with us, and we will make sure just.

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Speaker 1: On just before I let you go really quickly.

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Speaker 2: On the memorial that's happening on the weekend, do people

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Speaker 2: need to register that they are attending.

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Speaker 3: That looks actually our preference and we're asking people too

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Speaker 3: online either through our Hospitality and te Facebook page or

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Speaker 3: if they search event bright dot com yu, or if

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Speaker 3: you're going to post something on your networks. We will

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Speaker 3: have the opportunity for anyone that wants to come down

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Speaker 3: and register on the day to do that as well.

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Speaker 3: It is an open, respectful event. We're not going to

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Speaker 3: be turning anyone away that wants to participate respectfully in

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Speaker 3: support of Becklin and new family.

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Speaker 2: Well, Alex, thank you so much for your time, mate,

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Speaker 2: and all the best on the weekend.

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Speaker 1: We'll talk to you very soon.

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Speaker 3: Kis Katie, thank you,