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MISSOULA – At the University of Montana on Monday, high powered lawmakers and company executives took a hard look at how Montana can play a role in the future of rural America’s potential for growth in the high tech industry. At the Montana High Tech Jobs Summit, the president of Microsoft, Brad Smith, said that investing in digital and computer science education in rural schools is an investment in future job growth. Smith said that their efforts to promote high tech jobs begins with training their future job applicants. “I think the strategic plan starts with educating people, so that

MISSOULA – Some big names were under the Big Sky today. Senator Steve Daines hosted a tech summit that brought leaders from Microsoft, Facebook, and T-Mobile to the University of Montana. These big names could mean big opportunities for some local businesses. Brad Smith, President of Microsoft, is one of many big names to speak at the Montana High Tech Jobs Summit. “It’s an amazing experience to have that kind of access at an event like this,” said Chris Hamilton, Product Manager of onX. Onx is a Missoula-based mobile app used by hikers to create maps of the back-country. Hamilton

Back in the 1970s when Steve Daines was on a family trip to Disneyland, a woman asked him about life back home. Her impression of Montana was stereotypical at best – a third-world state far removed from economic prosperity. Kicking off the Montana High Tech Jobs Summit on Monday, Daines, now a U.S. senator representing the state, said times have changed. Technology has removed the barriers of geography, and Montana’s booming tech sector competes at the enterprise level with the world’s top firms. “A few decades ago, virtually all technology companies were based in the infamous Silicon Valley, but there’s

Decrying the lack of accessibility to high-speed internet in rural areas and calling for a more diversified economy, lawmakers and a long list of heavy hitters in the technology industry gathered at the University of Montana on Sunday and Monday for the Montana High Tech Jobs Summit. The event was co-sponsored by U.S. Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont., and a host of other businesses and government organizations. The focus, as the name implies, was on how to attract tech companies to this state, how to remove barriers to business and job creation, and how to improve broadband access in rural Montana,

Microsoft President Brad Smith’s thoughts on the value of high speed internet is as bold as it is brief: “Broadband has become a necessity of life.” Giants from the tech sector converged on Missoula this weekend to talk about getting rural Montana online, the future of agriculture, and job creation. Edward O’Brien brings us the highlights from the second biennial Montana High Tech Job Summit. Smith was the keynote speaker at the second and final day of the Montana High Tech Job Summit in Missoula. This is the second biennial summit hosted by Senator Steve Daines, which brings national tech

Like you, I’m grateful I get to call Montana home. I’ve always said one of the best decisions I ever made was picking my great-great grandmother, who homesteaded east of Conrad and got our family to Montana. Montana offers an unmatched quality of life — we offer a work force that is unmatched with a strong work ethic that is passed on from generation to generation in Montana. And now with technology, we can grow more good-paying jobs that allow Montanans to stay in the state we love. That’s because technology has removed geography as a constraint. We can build

In the wake of one of the worst fire seasons in Montana history, lawmakers in Washington, D.C., have called for more logging and thinning in forests as a way to “fireproof” the state and create more jobs at lumber mills. But several wildfire experts contend that fires will keep burning and sending smoke into valleys, especially during unusually hot and dry periods like this summer. While there isn’t a clear scientific consensus on the best approach to manage such fires, a common theme among experts who spoke to the Missoulian is that more forest management alone isn’t the answer. “Often