Economic & tech summits set to usher in new year

Brice Wallace

The new year was heralded with fireworks, and January is offering the business community a pair of bang-up events.

The Utah Economic Outlook & Policy Summit takes place Jan. 16 and will feature a keynote presentation by former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney. That will be followed up by the Silicon Slopes Tech Summit, set for Jan. 18-19 at the Salt Palace Convention Center. Last year’s inaugural summit attracted 5,000 attendees, and organizers are expecting that figure to double this year.

{mprestriction ids="1,3"}More than 700 people are expected at the Jan. 16 summit, which takes place 7:30 a.m.-noon at the Salt Lake City Marriott Downtown at City Creek, 75 S. West Temple, Salt Lake City. It is hosted by the Salt Lake Chamber, in collaboration with the Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute at the University of Utah.

Activities include a 2018 economic outlook by prominent economists, release of the initial Salt Lake Chamber CEOutlook Confidence Index, presentation of the “2018 Economic Report to the Governor,” Gov. Gary Herbert’s economic vision for 2018, a 2018 legislative session preview by legislative leadership, and release of the Salt Lake Chamber’s 2018 legislative agenda. The Utah Legislature’s general session begins Jan. 22.

Romney was the 2012 Republican candidate for president. He also was a candidate for the 2008 GOP presidential nomination and served as the governor of Massachusetts from 2003 through 2007.

Prior to his time as governor, he was president and chief executive officer of the 2002 Winter Olympic Games in Salt Lake City. His career in business started in 1978 as a vice president of Bain & Co. Inc., a management consulting firm based in Boston. He left the company in 1984 to co-found a spin-off private equity investment company, Bain Capital, where he worked until 1998.

General admission to the summit is $85. Details are at slchamber.com.

Last year’s first-ever Silicon Slopes Tech Summit take place after only a month of planning. With more time this year, Silicon Slopes is hoping for turnout of 10,000 or more.

This year’s summit features more than 50 speakers, breakout sessions on five tracks (creators, marketing, product and development, leadership, and blockchain), a Neon Trees concert Jan. 18 at 7 p.m., and VIP networking and parties.

The keynote speaker is Shantanu Narayen, president and chief executive officer of Adobe.

Other speakers are Sukhinder Singh Cassidy, theBoardlist founder and chairman; Caryn Marooney, Facebook vice president of global communications; Liz Wiseman, the Wiseman Group president and best-selling author; Joel Spolsky, Stack Overflow chief executive officer and co-founder; Kim Scott, best-selling author of Radical Candor; Stewart Butterfield, Slack chief executive officer; Caitlin Kalinowski, Facebook/Oculus product design engineering director; Whitney Johnson, author of Disrupt Yourself; author J.D. Vance; Ruzwana Bashir, Peek chief executive officer; Jim Swartz, Accel Partners founder; Omar Johnson, former Beats by Dre chief marketing officer; Alice Steinglass, Code.org president; and Joey Zwillinger, Allbirds co-founder and chief executive officer.

An all-access pass for the summit costs $95. Details are at siliconslopessummit.com.{/mprestriction}