FVCC to simulcast economic summit

Flathead Valley Community College’s Entrepreneurship Center invites the public to view a live simulcast of the 2013 Montana Economic Development Summit Sept. 16 and 17 in Butte.

The simulcast will run from 8 to 11:30 a.m. Sept. 16 and from 8:15 a.m. to noon Sept. 17 in the Arts and Technology Building on the FVCC campus. There is no charge to attend.

Organized by Sen. Max Baucus, the Montana Economic Development Summit will feature keynote speakers such as Meg Whitman, CEO of Hewlett-Packard; Eric Schmidt, executive chairman of Google; Elon Musk, CEO of Spacex and Tesla Motors; Sheryl Sandberg, chief operating officer of Facebook; Jim McNerney, CEO of Boeing; Ryan Lance, ConocoPhillips chairman; Safra Catz, president and CFO of Oracle; Fred Smith, founder of Fedex; Richard Anderson, CEO of Delta; Jon Huntsman, former U.S. ambassador to China and Republican primary presidential candidate; and Alan Mulally, president and CEO of Ford Motor Co. 

The goal of the summit is to boost trade opportunities for Montana and create new jobs.

Sandberg is slated to speak from 11 to 11:30 a.m. Sept. 16. 

She is the author of the best-selling book “Lean In” and challenges women to aspire to more leadership roles globally. In her book, Sandberg cites these statistics:

Of the 195 independent countries in the world, only 17 are led by women; only 21 of the Fortune 500 companies’ chief operations officers are women; and in the United States, women constitute 18 percent of elected officials.  

Immediately following Sandberg’s presentation, FVCC will host an hourlong community discussion about the opportunities and challenges facing girls and women who aspire to leadership roles.  

Lori Marin will facilitate a panel discussion featuring three local business women: Jen Elden, founder of Amalgamated SOPE Co.; Karen Witt, director of strategic operations and business development for NxGEN Payment Solutions; and Callie Schieffer, process development engineer for Applied Materials.  

Marin has held several executive management positions including acting chief financial officer, chief operations officer and corporate treasurer/investor relations for large international food and chemical manufacturing companies, including Keebler.

The “Women in Business” community discussion is free and open to the public. Audience members are encouraged to bring their lunch and come prepared to ask questions of the panelists. 

For more information, contact FVCC entrepreneurship coordinator Jill Seigmund at 756-3834 or at jseigmund@fvcc.edu.