What Will You be Doing One Week from Today to Celebrate Utah's Unique Tech Ecosystem?
From Monday, February 2nd through Saturday, February 7th, people from around the globe will assemble to the Wasatch Front to participate in the converged technology lovefest that is now Utah Tech Week and Silicon Slopes SUMMIT, each birthed individually yet somewhat Vulcan-Mind-Meld-like by these three guys: Clint Betts, Josh James, and Trent Mano.
Read on to learn where I plan to be next week.
If you have anything to do with technology — and to be honest, technology permeates the lives of everyone these days — and you're not planning to set aside at least some time a week from now to participate in Utah Tech Week, Silicon Slopes' SUMMIT, or both, I have one question for you:
🤦♂️ 🤦♂️ 🤦♂️ Why the crap not?!?!?! 🤦♂️ 🤦♂️ 🤦♂️
Okay, apologies for the less than genteel language there, but seriously.
In five years time, Utah Tech Week has become one of the premier community-centered, technology-focused events in the state of Utah, let alone within Utah's tech ecosystem.
This annual gathering (or gatherings) was the brainchild of Trent Mano, General Partner of Convoi Ventures.
Under Mano's direction, Utah Tech Week has evolved to be an amalgamation of what, this year, is expected to feature over 200 separate tech-centric events produced by different entities held from Salt Lake City to Provo, Utah, the combination of which will likely attract over 15,000 attendees.
Its older cousin, the annual tech-confab known as Silicon Slopes SUMMIT, is officially nine-years-old this year from its start back in 2017, which is crazy for me to even begin to imagine.
But the birth of SUMMIT actually started two years earlier with the coming together of Clint Betts, CEO and Co-Founder of Silicon Slopes, and Josh James, its other Co-Founder, who (at the time) was CEO and Founder of DOMO, positions he holds today.
In contrast to Utah Tech Week, SUMMIT is a more traditional conference / trade show in that it will essentially be located at one venue — the Salt Palace in Salt Lake City.
Based on my research, SUMMIT's top year, attendance-wise, was 2019 (the year before the COVID-19 outbreak), when SUMMIT attracted over 24,000 attendees.
Unlike the past four years, however, the two events do overlap the week after this one, which (as I understand it), is intentional.
And from my perspective, doing so should generate even more visibility for the state's technology-focused economy and Utah's business community as a whole.
What Am I Focused on for the SUMMIT—Utah Tech Week Mashup?
TBH, there is SO MUCH going on a week from now for this first-ever mashup of Silicon Slopes SUMMIT and Utah Tech Week that it actually took me several hours of filtering through all of the individual events, speakers, presenters, and panel discussions to nail down
- Where I plan to be next week, and
- Which individual speakers, panelists, discussions I plan to watch/listen to.
So ... with the understanding of the "Follow The Money" mantra of Utah Money Watch (yet at the risk of coming across as an egocentric tech bro), here's my breakout of the Utah Tech Week events I look forward to attending starting next Monday.
Following that, I will also share the list of Silicon Slopes SUMMIT speakers and panelists I plan on catching later in the week.
My 2026 Utah Tech Week Calendar
-
MONDAY, FEBRUARY 2
— 8:30am: Founders Fuel Reception produced by Mayer Brown and held at Mayer Brown
— 2pm: The Power Pipeline (Getting Women into VC, Board & C-Suite Positions) produced by Philo Ventures and held at Kiln Lehi
— 6pm: Utah Tech Week's Opening Party produced by Utah Tech Week and held at The Grid -
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 3
— 11:30am: Utah Tech Brunch: Visionaries + VCs, produced by Run Ventures and Silicon Valley Bank (waiting to hear if I get "formally" invited to learn where the event is being held)
— 11:30pm: February M&A Bridge: Journey to Billion Dollar Exits] produced by Bridge and held at Silicon Slopes
— 4pm: Utah Start-up All-Stars Pitch Night produced by Park City Angels, SLC Angels, Old Main Ventures, Nucleus, and Kinect Capital and held at Pelion Ventures -
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 4
— 12pm: AI in FinTech produced by Mayer Brown and held at Mayer Brown
— 4pm: The Podcaster Panel produced by Utah Business and held at Kiln Salt Lake -
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 5
— 11:30am: Lunch & Learn: Growth Investing in the Age of AI produced by Peterson Ventures and held at Kiln Salt Lake
— 3:30pm: From Breakthrough to Build produced by 47G and held at Torus
— 6pm: Utah Energy Summit (and Happy Hour) produced by the Beehive Energy Alliance and held at Edison House -
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 6
{Pretty "light" day, event-wise; not planning on attending anything.} -
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 7
— 6pm: Closing Party, Utah Tech Week produced by Utah Tech Week and held at Airborne (in Draper)
My 2026 Silicon Slopes SUMMIT "Calendar"
Although not a Calendar, per se, outlined below is my list of all the individual speakers and panelists I'm looking forward to watch/listen to during Silicon Slopes' SUMMIT during the first full week of February 2026. {It's alphabetized by last name.}
- Tanner Ainge, CEO, Banner Capital;
- Karey Barker, Founding Managing Director, Cross Creek;
- Michael P. Bennett, Managing Partner, Crewe Capital;
- Margaret Busse, Executive Director, Utah Department of Commerce;
- Sudhee Chilappagari, Principal, Battery Ventures;
- Ethan Choi, Partner, Khosla Ventures;
- Jenn Drummond, World Record-Holding Mountaineer;
- Dave Elkington, CEO/Founder of Atonom, and Signals;
- Jared & Jerusha Hess, Filmmakers, Directors and Producers, including Napoleon Dynamite, Nacho Libre, and more;
- Bronson Kaufusi, Former NFL Player, Founder, Investor;
- Kat Kennedy, General Partner, Kickstart Ventures;
- Lorraine K Lee, bestselling author;
- Dr. Susan Madsen, Inaugural Karen Haight Huntsman Endowed Professor of Leadership at Utah State University’s Jon M. Huntsman School of Business;
- Blake Modersitzki, Managing Partner, Pelion Venture Partners;
- Randal Quarles, Executive Chairman, The Cynosure Group and former Vice Chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve Bank;
- Dan Reynolds, lead singer of Imagine Dragons;
- Mac Reynolds, Producer/Manager, Imagine Dragons, Benson Boone, and other recording artists, plus CEO of Night Street Games;
- Mitch Rencher, Managing Director, Sepio Capital;
- Heidi Ruster, CEO, American Red Cross; and
- Dr. Sidni L. Shorter, President & CEO, Utah Black Chamber of Commerce.
Yeah, I know it's a massively long list, but what can I say?!?!?!
Oh, and Silicon Slopes released today the final Agenda for SUMMIT, which you can find here.
Last of All — A Multilingual Tidbit for SUMMIT
My sources tell me that Silicon Slopes has reached a "handshake" agreement with a global AI/tech leader to provide real-time, multilingual audio translation services during SUMMIT for attendees.
If so, this would be the first-time ever Silicon Slopes has been able to offer such a service.
Presuming this deal is finalized, this service will be available for free for anyone at SUMMIT watching / listening to any of the speakers, panelists, presenters, and will be available from a browser on any smartphone.
As I understand it, this would be the first time such a multilingual service has been provided during SUMMIT, although this Utah-based firm works with major organizations all over the world.
Hopefully, I'll be able to share more info about this in the near future.
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So, presuming that you're planning on hitting one or more events during Utah Tech Week, will be attending SUMMIT, or both, please say "Hi" if you see me out-and-about the week of February 2—7 during the state's tech-focused explosion of events and activities.
Personally, I think it's gonna be a blast!!!
Author's Note
As noted above, apologies to Trent Mano, Josh James, and Clint Betts if the image of you used in the Header Photo of this writeup is less than stellar as it's the best I could do to track down semi-current, royalty-free photos (or images) of you on the Web.
Publisher's Note
This writeup was originally published and distributed to our Subscribers at approximately 05:50pm MT on Monday, 26 January 2026.
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