1) Jim Ayson welcomes participants to the Readysaster Hackathon and introduces himself and his role at SMART Communications. 2) He discusses SMART DevNet, SMART's developer relations program, and some past and upcoming hackathon and tech events they have supported. 3) Ayson expresses SMART's support for the Readysaster Hackathon in that it encourages innovation, supports open data principles, and aims to develop solutions for disaster preparedness and relief efforts.