Silicon Slopes Tech Summit

The Silicon Slopes Tech Summit is an annual event that takes place at the Salt Palace in Salt Lake City, UT every January. This summit brings together all of the tech companies in Utah to come and showcase their businesses as well as share insight into how they are successful. This event is mostly for business men and women, however, thousands of people come to this conference to learn and hear from CEO’s and management. The conference started on January 31 and went to February 1. Hundreds of companies were represented (mostly in Utah) but some outside of utah which impact companies in Utah.

The first day started out a general breakout session for everyone to attend. Then, the Silicon Slopes Startup competition. Then there were breakout sessions with various CEOs of tech companies. These breakout sessions lasted for a few hours and you could pick one or two to attend. They varied on subjects such as artificial intelligence, social good, business models, building new products, moderated fireside chats, and advice from successful management. When you register ahead of time online, you were able to select 1-2 tracks from the following list: entrepreneur, social good, technology, artificial intelligence, consumer products, and founder. These tracks would appear on your phone as you select them to let you know which breakout sessions match the topics you chose. Afterwards there was a networking lunch. This was a great opportunity to meet with business professionals from all over the world and eat a nice lunch together in the grand ballroom. More breakout sessions followed. These breakout sessions were often filled with hundreds of people and were very interesting as management of companies would lead discussions themselves. Then there was a snack break and more networking. During this whole time, the overflow room had booths of every sponsor that sponsored the Silicon Slopes Tech Summit. You could walk around the entire room and meet with various companies from all over Utah. Many companies gave away free stuff and lots of companies had snacks and food to try.

At the end of the day, there was the Slopes Fest which was cool to be a part of. The next day was very similar, except at the end of the day, there was a film played from the Sundance Film Festival which takes place up at Sundance in Provo. If you didn’t make it to the film festival, this was a great way to catch a glimpse of what the film festival was like.

I love attending conferences, and being a business marketing major, I have a real passion for learning about technology and how it intersects in the business world. Even if you are not a business person, this event is still super fun to attend. You get a goodie bag with books, discounts, information on companies, and free swag gear to wear around the conference. There was also really cool badges that allowed you to check into the conference and serve as an awesome souvenir of the conference. Students could get in for free with a code from their university. I would 100% recommend attending the summit next year!