MT Economic Development Summit

I'm counting down the days till I leave, but in the mean time I’m in Butte at the 2007 version of the MT Economic Development Summit. We’ve heard some great speakers. The Summit is put together by Senator Baucus. The speakers have included a number of ambassadors, Augustus Busch, from Anheuser-Busch, Bill Gates via Satellite, Senator Tester, Gov. Sweitzer, Ben Bernanke, Chairman of the Federal Reserve among many others. They have a great website for the summit, so if you want to know more, I would suggest checking out that website.

I had a list of things I’ve learned at the Economic Summit.

Staying at the Copper King Mansion Bed and Breakfast is a “unique” experience. Much the same as Butte is a “unique” place. Montana is a unique place and Butte is a unique place in Montana. It is truly Butte, America.

Many of the people involved in Leadership Montana are at the Summit. The organization is growing and it is touching the right people.

I’m very bad at paying attention to speakers that are not very dynamic. I spend much of my time visiting with people while I should be listening. Alec Hanson from the Montana League of Cities and Towns says I could have a great career in lobbying because I would rather be outside visiting than inside listening to the speakers.

Anheuser-Busch has a very snazzy presentation and they buy a lot of barley from Montana. Someone in Marketing over there got an A+ for that presentation. I paid attention from start to finish.

A Montana Tech tie is $15.00 at the bookstore.

You have two choices in retail outlets for a pair of shoes in Butte on a Sunday after 5PM. Bully for you if you can name both.

Clean coal technology is of much interest in Montana. So much so, it was standing room only at the presentation at the summit. I didn’t get there early enough to get a seat. So I ended up BS’ing outside the presentation.

Things on campus change, but pretty slowly.

They have replaced the couch I got donated to the ASMT office with a nice leather couch. I wish it was there when I was in the office.

This is a very nice event. Well attended. Good Speakers. But I’m not sure how much it will do for the economy of Montana. The “undiscussables” of Montana will not be discussed at the summit. It will promote networking. Those networks thrive outside of where the speakers are speaking and the speakers will tell you the same thing. Many of them, at least the ones I paid attention to, said personal connections make for good economic development.

I'm sure I learned other things, but I didn't write them down, so they may be lost to history.