The following is an excerpt from a blog post by the CEO of our conference platinum sponsor, Mythos.

CEO, Mythos

On August 25, 1768, a ship named Endeavour carrying 94 Royal Navy sailors left Plymouth, England with 18 months of provisions. Unbeknownst to the crew, the captain possessed a secret set of orders that would take his ship on a journey that would last over a thousand days and not only add new territories to the English Empire—but also add the word nostalgia to the popular lexicon. But the origin of the word nostalgia lies in a much earlier voyage and was a medical diagnosis. Most of us today don’t think of nostalgia as a disease. So how did the definition evolve from a medical diagnosis to an emotional state? Why the transformation from a condition caused by a distant place to a longing for a past period of time? To answer that question, we must recognize the changes that occurred during the period of the Endeavour expedition.