Silicon Summit announces statewide expansion

SALT LAKE CITY — Silicon Slopes’s massive tech summit starts today at the Vivint Arena. The two-day business and technology-focused event is in its sixth year.

Silicon Slopes CEO Clint Betts said the summit is expanding and next year the event will boast a week’s worth of events spanning from Logan to St. George.

“We are taking this thing, starting next year, throughout the entire state of Utah,” said Betts. “It’s very important to me that Silicon Slopes means all of Utah, not just the Wasatch Front,”  Betts tells KSL NewsRadio that he plans to make the announcement Thursday morning while speaking at the Summit.

One goal of the summit is networking. 

“The amount of deals that get done here, the connections that get made, the amount of talent that gets absorbed into other companies or hired… there’s just nothing like it,” said Betts.

Gov. Spencer Cox is scheduled to speak on Saturday.  Other keynote speakers include former NFL player Steve Young and former NBA turned Shanghai Shark basketball player, Jimmer Fredette. Both hail from BYU. 

Silicon Summit serves SLC

The summit is also undertaking a service project to make a million meals over the two-day period. 

“A million meals for Utah families in need. [We are] partnering with various organizations in order to make that happen,” said Betts who noted that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is a big partner in the project. 

Betts said the organization has participated in this project for years and hope’s to continue it, “forever, because it’s important.”

Betts went on to say the need for meals is significant and the organization wants to shine a light on it. The project ends up being a highlight for many of the attendees.

“It always seems like the meals, the packaging of the meals and that service project, ends up being what a lot of us walk away from feeling like…we really did something.”

Related: Local program looks to help women break into tech industry