Tech gathering receives capital infusion from state Legislature

By Brice Wallace

A nascent gathering of tech junkies just got a financial boost.

The annual Silicon Slopes Tech Summit, in just its third year but expecting perhaps 20,000-25,000 attendees later this month, has received a commitment from the Governor’s Office of Economic Development (GOED) board to help Silicon Slopes offset the costs of putting on the show.{mprestriction ids="1,3"}

The board’s action was essentially a pass-through of funds approved in the 2018 by the Legislature and amounts to $250,000 annually through 2023 from the state’s Industrial Assistance Fund. SB146 requires Silicon Slopes to report on the conferences’ economic impact to the state, new tax revenue to the state, and attendance of out-of-state business prospects.

The first summit in 2017, organized with little preparation time, had more than 5,000 attendees. Last year’s total was more than 14,000. This year’s summit takes place Jan. 31-Feb. 1 at the Salt Palace Convention Center in Salt Lake City.

“They’ve got one great speaker after another — people that are well-known in the tech community, not just in Utah but throughout the United States and the world,” said Mel Lavitt, chairman of the GOED board’s incentives committee. “It certainly helps our tech sector, which I think of all of our sectors is the most booming right now and we want to keep it that way, and the idea of the Silicon Slopes summit is to make this a must-go-to conference that people throughout the country and overseas will come to every year. And they’re well on their way to doing that.”

This year’s summit will feature keynote presentations, breakout sessions, entertainment, parties, networking opportunities, and a screening of a film from the Sundance Film Festival. Among prominent speakers are Ben Silbermann, co-founder and CEO of Pinterest; Margo Georgiadis, CEO of Ancestry; John Warnock, founder of Adobe; John Foley, CEO of Peloton; Bill McDermott, CEO of SAP; Karl Sun, CEO of Lucidchart; Hewlett Packard President Enrique Lores; Damien Patton, CEO of Banjo; and Aicha Evans, CEO of Zoox.

Clint Betts, Silicon Slopes’ executive director, last year predicted the summit will be Utah’s replacement for the Outdoor Retailer trade shows and that attendance could reach 40,000-50,000 in the next three to five years.

“We appreciate your support,” Betts told the GOED board by phone following the grant approval. “I think Silicon Slopes Tech Summit 2019 is going to be, by far, the best event Silicon Slopes has ever organized. The way this thing is tracking is just unbelievable. The response we’ve received, not only from people within Utah in the tech community here within the state but the tech community around the world, has been phenomenal.

“I think this is the year, just like 2018, Utah’s tech community puts its flag in the ground as a global tech hub. I think this is the year that this thing becomes a global tech event, and your support, the support of the GOED board and everyone in that room, has helped make that possible.”

“You’re a true asset to the tech community,” Jerry Oldroyd, the GOED board’s chairman, told Betts. “This is a great opportunity for the state. I’d like to see this conference grow just exactly as you’ve outlined because it does bring people from out of state to Utah, it does give us an opportunity to showcase the tech community, and that wouldn’t have happened without your efforts.”

Board member Margaret “Margo” Jacobs said she was “really excited and thrilled” about the summit, saying it “has the ability to define our brand in ways that possibly go beyond even Sundance in terms of the state partnering with one of the top entities.”

The summit is not the first conference or event to get GOED board approval for an “economic opportunity” grant. For several years, the state partnered with Salt Lake County and Salt Lake City to provide large tent pavilions to accommodate attendee and exhibitor growth at the Outdoor Retailer trade shows — GOED’s portion of renting pavilions totaled $2.57 million from 2014-16, for example. In 2013, the Sundance Institute was approved for a grant of $300,000 ($100,000 for each of three years) for the Sundance Film Festival. In 2011, GOED provided $100,000, as did the Utah Office of Tourism and the Utah Sports Commission, to support the Tour of Utah bicycle race event.{/mprestriction}