Silicon Slopes opened its new headquarters in Lehi on Wednesday. The Utah technology advocacy organization hopes to bring a unified voice to the state’s tech industry.
CEO’s from several Utah tech companies joined Governor Gary Herbert and Lieutenant Governor Spencer Cox for a ribbon cutting ceremony at the new Silicon Slopes headquarters in Lehi’s Thanksgiving Point.
The new headquarters has a minimalist feel. There’s a classroom, a meeting room, and a several offices.
Clint Betts is the Executive Director of Silicon Slopes. He says the facility will largely be used for community events.
"We’ll do a lot of workshops, a lot of town halls on all sorts of subjects. Some of them general like how do we grow the community and solve the recruiting and diversity problems. Some like how do we code in Python? Or JavaScript?" Betts says.
He says two of the biggest issues facing Utah’s tech sector right now are recruiting and diversity. These are two topics they’ll try to address in the 80 events he says they plan to have over the next year.
Dan Burton is the CEO of Salt Lake City-based Health Catalyst. He says the new headquarters will help create a unified voice in the local tech sector to advocate policy-makers for infrastructure like better transportation for employees.
"The Governor and the Lieutenant Governor, several mayors were here. We had an opportunity to share that perspective on those topics and other topics, and they listened. We will likely through Silicon Slopes have a regular forum where we can share our perspective of what’s working, where we need some help and hopefully see some real traction," Burton says.
The new headquarters marks the relocation of Silicon Slopes, the organization, from Provo to Lehi, an area that has become a hub of tech companies located centrally between Provo and Salt Lake City.