Much
has been written about Summit, their events and the people that attend
them. Summit, as a whole, now includes Powder Mountain and all of the
property, employees and outdoor opportunities that come along with these
terrific mountains of Northern Utah. They’ve been hosting events for
years in different locations around the US but are now permanently based
here with the PowMow purchase. As a result of that move, I live and
work near their new home. As
I’ve written previously, I think the future is brighter with Summit in town.
Many people, including those in the immediate area, throughout the
State of Utah and beyond wonder, as I did, what goes on at Summit? Who
attends? What do they do? How do you get invited? Being their new
neighbor and introduced a few years ago by mutual friend
Shervin Pishevar,
it was time for me to finally experience Summit for myself. This post
will share some play-by-play of what was going on, who was there, and my
overall impression of Summit as an event, a gathering, and a new and
important citizen of Northern Utah.
I’ll do my best to provide detail and opinions. I should note my
ticket to Summit was not free and I have no financial or other interest
related in any way to Summit. There is no doubt I want them to succeed,
so my comments and opinions are definitely from a positive place.
Having said that, I’ve been around the block a few times and don’t give
them a pass on reputation alone. My opinions are my own and are
unfiltered.
Pre-Arrival
An email arrived inviting me to attend Summit and took me to
Summit: Outside
to register and setup a profile. I uploaded a photo, answered some
questions they’d set up for all attendee profiles, linked my social
media accounts, and boom — I was now a part of ‘The Collective’, a
password protected site that showed me everyone else’s profile. Without
sharing personal details,
here are some of the 850 people that attended Summit — Outside:
CEO/Founder of many companies that you and I know and use every week. Trillions of dollars in value created from this group.
Authors/journalists that have written popular pieces and books or currently work for large, global news outlets (television, web and print).
Musicians, poets, fashion entrepreneurs, music executives,
directors and people related to the film, music and entertainment
industry. I met quite a few creative folks that are making
movies, music, fashion and art around the world. Some of them are big
names I’d heard of but many of them were new to me.
Founders and Partners at large VC and private equity funds.
Some of the biggest names in investing were there. Boutique family
funds with hundreds of millions under management, all the way up to the
biggest billion dollar firms in the world.
A lot of PhD’s. Educators and researchers educated
and working at the finest institutions in the World. Some are solving
huge problems (medicine, education reform and more), others were part of
a tech company or for-profit effort. Either way, this was a really
smart grouping of talent.
Those doing “social good” — working for non-profits
and helping with serious problems in tough places. A lot of people at
Summit really were out trying to help the world be a better place.
Hunger, disease, poverty, fighting inequality and other social
injustices were what some attendees do full time.
There is another group of people that fall into the “I don’t know
what they do” category. Some are just rich kids from rich families —
they know some people and they do these kinds of things a lot I’d guess.
Others are trying to break into one of the categories listed above,
and some I’m sure are just friends of Summit founders. Overall though,
the list of profiles in The Collective was the most impressive I’ve ever
seen.
I don’t think the State of Utah has had this much diversity and talent in one place since the Olympics of 2002.
After setting up my account and going thru the profiles, you were
asked to choose what type of accomodations you wanted to pay for. The
range was $3,000 up to $10,000 I believe. The cheapest being a large,
shared tent with others all the way up to private RV’s with air
conditioning and televisions. I opted for the lower end, a small tent
to myself. It had a bed, some carpet that was rolled down, a foot
locker with some towels, and that was it. Very sparse, but clean.
There was also a light out front with a solar powered charger plugged
into it. Here is a photo of my tent:
After selecting accommodations, there were a few emails between then
and the actual event. The emails were mostly just reminders to bring
things for being outside (boots, sunscreen, etc.) but also a reminder of
what not to bring (your laptop and lighters/cigarettes). They also
highly encouraged taking a Summit shuttle from the airport directly to
the event. Rental cars were discouraged as there really was no reason
to have a car.
Friday arrived and it was time to check in. Since I do live here, I
drove up to Wolf Creek, which is where check in was held. I waited in a
line of about 40 people or so. Everyone was really friendly and we all
started introducing ourselves as we waited. The people around me were
all so diverse. Different backgrounds, different interests, different
careers, different ethnicities, different sexes, different locations
that they came from. I met and talked to about 15 people in line that
were all very interesting.
Utah needs a lot more diversity in every sense of the word, and in the first 30 minutes I had experienced a lot of it.
After making it to the front of the line, I showed my ID, checked in
and moved to another station. We were then given a leather bracelet,
locked on with a rivet, to wear as entrance for the weekend. The girl
putting the bracelets on told me that some people still had theirs on
from last year.
That’s kind of cool and kind of crazy.
In case you are wondering, I took mine off the day I got home. Nothing
against Summit, but I am not wearing a smelly leather bracelet for a
year. We were also given a cool Nike backpack with some swag in it that
was related to the event (headlamp, t-shirt, Nike Fuel Band to track
our activities and more). After that it was time to head up to the main
event location.
I drove my car up to the top of Powder Mountain’s main parking lot
and got into a shuttle with about eight people in it. I rode up with my
friend,
Jessica from Founder Dating,
along with a newly graduated Berkeley student here to work for Summit
and a few other locals employed by Summit for the event. I would guess
that hundreds of local people were hired for weeks and months to prepare
for this event. I should note right out of the gates that I asked a
lot of people working how they were treated, what they thought of the
Summit team and so forth. I got genuine answers from all of them that
were 100% positive. That they were treated great. That the founders
spent time really talking to and getting to know them. They they were
fed the same gourmet meals that the rest of the folks were eating. That
they felt respected.
All of them said versions of this and that made me really happy.
I want locals to be treated well! And from the 20+ that I spoke with,
it sounds like they definitely are. I’m sure that won’t always be the
case, but overall, it was clear to me that Summit walks the talk.
Anyhow, back to the details…
We were shuttled past a few security checkpoints (all of us had to
show our bracelets) and then dropped off at the main entrance at the top
of Powder Mountain. The very top. There were people there to take our
bags to our tent (or they were already delivered there, much like a
hotel). I opted to carry mine down. When registering, there was an
option to stay in the “quiet zone”, which meant the furthest away from
the main stage. As a Dad that is old, married and Mormon, I opted for
this area. Little did I know, I’d have the best location of anyone, the
last row of tents meant my view was not of other tents, but rather the
beautiful Utah mountains I love so much. I dumped off my single
suitcase and new Nike backpack and immediately headed out for a walk to
explore.
Summit was setup into six different areas. They were the
tent city, main stage and pond, dining, adventure outpost, various
discussion locations, and the electric forrest/stage. I’ll go
thru my experience with each, but basically each day and night was spent
floating between all of these venues. There were almost too many
things to choose from (first world problems for sure). I found that
most people enjoyed an early morning discussion or activity, a healthy
breakfast (more on the food later), and then spent the day going back
and forth between intellectually stimulating discussions, outdoor
adventures and meals. The night was spent going to more discussions,
having dinner and then enjoying music until as early, or as late, as
you’d like.
Tent City
As you can see from the photo, 850 people in tents take up a bit of
space. This is where we slept, showered and used the restroom really.
That was about it. The tents were nice and the showers/bathrooms were
private (in portable trucks driven to the site), but it was minimalist,
which was just fine with me. No power outlets anywhere either! I liked
that, too. There were four different kinds of recycling bins at every
turn, so there was a real effort to keep the mess to a minimum. Surely
the pure outdoor enthusiasts will be unhappy that there were tons of
trucks, power cords, and other things that will leave a mark on the
area. Some trails were cut in for walking travel and some roads were
made for vehicle travel. That will make many locals unhappy as they
want every foot of land untouched, forever.
What I saw was a sensitivity to the land, a focus on recycling, and
many things that were temporary that will leave next to no mark on the
area whatsoever. Some things will though, and for that, I’m not sure
what to say. Summit paid $40 million to own this land. They can do
what they want with it. I really truly believe though that they will
not try to harm it, nor will they ignore the beauty in their efforts to
improve it. I think Summit will make more improvements (by far) than
problems, and that the overall area will be much nicer because of the
investments they are making. Again, some things will leave a mark, but
more things will be improved. No matter what, there will always be a
group of environmentalists that will not be happy though.
After exploring Tent City for a bit, I walked up to the Main Stage
area. Near the main stage, and on your way to it, were four things. A
place to grab free snacks (Clif Bars and so forth), a barbershop (no
kidding – a place to get your haircut), a puppy adoption area (people
adopted about 10 puppies from a local shelter that weekend) and an
outdoor bar for drinks. This is a video I shot of the stage with a cool
group called The League of Extraordinary Dancers (beat box with ballet,
violin and breakdancing — it was killer). You can see the pond/swimming
area to the right of the stage as well:
Each night there were a variety of musical performances and talks given on this stage. Here is a small list of some of those:
Jonathan Batiste
Esther Perel
Andrew McAfee
The White Buffalo
Chase Iron Eyes
Jon Young
Thievery Corporation
Big Gigantic
Gramatik
Gabe Liedman
Sneaky Sound System
LP
Arty
And a whole bunch more. This is a backstage video I shot of Big Boi performing on the main stage during the final evening:
There was also a stage out in the middle of the forrest, what was
called the Electric Forrest in fact. This was were a DJ would spin music
until the wee hours of the morning. It was an amazing site to see all
of these LED’s floating from the trees. Here is a photo of what was a
beautiful and creative way to light up the night:
During the day we had the opportunity to attend many interesting
discussions as well as have some fun outdoors. The choices were
difficult to make. Did you go to a discussion about the future of
medicine, or mountain biking? I did both (as did pretty much everyone
else). The days and nights were packed with activities and options. Here
is a very tiny, tiny list of some of the choices.
The University Is Dead, Long Live The University
Becoming Bulletproof: Six Biohacks To Supercharge Your Life
Black, Brown, Yellow, White: The Face of Future America
Our Struggle For The Internet
UNICEF — Revolutionizing Education
Love, Sex and Power: The Intricacies of Desire
Office hours with Loic Le’Meur, Ryan Sarver, Tony Hseih and other talented people
Each of these were generally in small groups and in the case of
office hours, one on one. The topical discussions felt like interactive
TED talks with small groups instead of audiences, and chats instead of
presentations. I loved the format. Here is a photo of the one I
attended about higher education:
The subjects covered a very wide variety of issues including race,
class, gender, equality, environment, business and more. It truly was a
smorgasborg of worldwide talent and you could pick and choose where to
learn for an hour before going somewhere else do to the same. I could
have spent a week just going to all of these options,
they were that good and that interesting.
The outdoor activities allowed everyone to really experience Utah and
the outdoor beauty it has to offer. I personally was really happy to
see this fully integrated into Summit. You went to the Adventure Outpost
(pictured) to check in and go to your activity.
Some of the choices we had included:
Mountain biking
Horseback riding
Fishing
Paintball
Trail running
Hiking
Archery
Yoga and Pilates
Survival Workshops
Nature Walks
Hammocks for naps in the woods
I saw and talked to a lot of people who live in big cities. They
just don’t get the opportunity to do a lot of these things like I do.
It was really fun to see the pure joy on their faces and in their
reactions as they got closer to nature. I heard dozens of times things
similar to “I can’t believe you live here and get to do this stuff all
the time.” Those comments made me smile, too.
I loved talking to people about Utah, Ogden, Weber State and all of
the things going on in the area. So many people were genuinely interest
in
Startup Ogden.
They wanted to know what was going on with startups, entrepreneurship
and other business related stuff in my immediate area and in Utah as a
whole. I hope I was a good ambassador for Utah and gave them the
answers they sought. It was fun to be able to be the local though.
The Food
Wow. Just wow. Summit knows how to do food! Having owned a few
restaurants myself over the years, I know how hard it is to serve 850
people anything, anytime, anywhere. This was 850 people on top of a
mountain, and the food was truly magnificent. One of the most
impressive, and coolest things they did was building a table to seat all
850 of us together in a meadow. Summit wanted all of us to break bread
together, and we literally did that on Saturday night. Here is a photo
of that 1/4 mile table — quite the site to behold!
Most of it was incredibly healthy, organic and whenever possible,
made using local Utah crops. Summit has a lot of world class chefs as
friends and they came to cook the meals for all of the attendees. Some
of the chef teams included:
Viet Pham
David Varley
Jesse Barber
Marcel Vigneron and Haru Kishi
I’ll be the first to admit, I have no idea who these people are.
What I do know? They can cook! I also met some terrific chefs from all
around the USA that were here to make their famous meals for all of us.
These talented folks allowed me to enjoy Korean BBQ wings prepared by a
great chef from New Orleans, Creminelli Salami and Beehive Cheese as a
snack, fresh homemade organic ice cream from an ice cream truck driving
around and other fun choices throughout the day. Lunch and Dinner
included the finest fresh ingredients from Utah to support lean cuts of
bison, fish and other terrific dishes that were both tasty and healthy. I
cannot even describe half of the meals, because the ingredients were
too varied and unique for me to recall.
What I Didn’t See
I’ve seen some locals talk about Summit and their fear that raging
parties are what Summit is really about. While I am sure there are and
will be Summit employees and/or attendees that will do inappropriate
things, have parties, and keep people up late, this is not what I saw
and I do not believe this is what Summit is about. The founders and
attendees of Summit cannot control every person for every minute. There
will indeed be growing pains for the Ogden Valley associated with people
related to Summit. This is a very conservative place, so even things
like drinking will cause problems for some residents. The first time
someone related to Summit gets in trouble or comes into a local
restaurant and is rude, or rents a home nearby and throws a wild party —
all of the locals will tell me “I told you so!” — so I’m preempting
that. It will happen. When you have hundreds and even thousands of
people working at and associated with an event or company (as is the
case with Summit), you will have problems. Count on it. Here is the key
though, in my opinion. I think it will be rare, I think Summit will take
care of it appropriately when it happens, and I think it is so far
outweighed by all of the other positive benefits that it’s almost a
non-issue altogether.
I looked closely for crazy things to happen. I’m a conservative
person and an active Mormon living in Utah. I’m pretty sure I’m about as
boring as it gets in terms of drinking and drugs, too. In fact, I’ve
never tried either in my entire life. So I looked and listened intently
for many of the things I thought the locals of the Ogden Valley would
find offensive. Summit said several times in email, and at the event,
that there was a “zero spark” policy on the Mountain — meaning no
smoking of any kind. Regardless of the rules, that’s going to be
difficult to control in a setting like this. Heck on an average winter
day on the slopes of any ski resort in Utah it’s impossible to control.
There was wine at each dinner and two “saloons” that were near the two
stages. Mixed drinks were served at both along with various beers. As a
non-drinker myself, I watched as others enjoyed drinks to take with them
to listen to music and just hang out. I saw no one who was drunk,
although I am sure some did drink enough to get there. I just didn’t see
it. The reason I didn’t see it, or feel like it stuck out, is because
it felt like most other music events at night. A number of people
weren’t drinking at all, but some were. Some drank more than others. But
the nights were about music and fun — not alcohol. So again, no
craziness here. People danced until 2 and 3am in the morning each night.
Heck, I tried my best and made it until about 2am one night. It was a
lot of fun to dance. It was good, clean fun though. People were laughing
and smiling and dancing. I enjoyed myself and as a conservative Mormon
felt totally comfortable at all times.
Invite Only
As most of you probably know, Summit is an invite only event. A lot of
people don’t like that. I have no problem with it though. There are
many great events in the world that I cannot get into and will not be
invited to. I’ve tried to get into All Things D’s big tech event a few
times and no luck. I’ve never been invited to the main TED event in
California. I’m fine with that because that’s just the way it goes.
When
kids are little, I think it is great that all of them get a medal for
participating. But we are adults, not all of us need a medal, right?
Besides, if Summit were not in my backyard, giving me opportunities to
meet and work with the Summit team, I doubt I would have been invited
as well. No medal for Alex.
The reason that they are invite only though is very important to
note; the attendees are meant to be innovators from around the world.
Many are innovators in business and I met tons of technology
entrepreneurs. I met, heard from and read about attendees that are true
innovators in many other areas as well including science, health,
education, art and more. There is no doubt that not every single person
there was an innovator though. In fact, I don’t consider myself much
of an innovator or all that unique — so there were times I wondered if
I’d be invited back since I felt very unaccomplished compared to many of
the people I met. Having said that, some of the conversations I
overheard were quite shallow and some of the people definitely were
there to take more than to give. But much like the few other negatives I
mentioned, this was such a tiny minority that it didn’t really register
for me until I wrote this blog post.
Overall, I like that invitees are curated and that the number of
people that can come is capped. I don’t want an unlimited amount of
people coming. I like that it is small, special and unique. I’ll still
like it if I never get invited back. I think that is part of what
makes it special. There are tons of events every year that all of us
can go to.
Summing Up Summit
The people were amazing, talented, diverse and truly innovative.
The food was off the charts good.
The music was eclectic and had a nice variety of styles and flavors.
Quality was everywhere and a vibe that felt healthy and positive abounded.
The event was incredibly well organized and well thought out.
I’d take my wife and kids if I could.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, Utah is very lucky to have
Summit here. I predict it will add more to the Utah economy and the
Utah reputation than Sundance. I’d rather have Summit over Google Fiber
or Sundance. Truly, I think the benefit of having the worlds most
innovative people in your backyard one or more times a year trumps fast
Internet speeds or independent film making. Please note, both of those
things are awesome for Utah! Just comparing the impact I think each has
had or will have.
Many, many brilliant people will come to Northern Utah that otherwise
would never, ever visit here. Some of them will buy homes. Some will
buy timeshares. Some will come to vacation. Some will just come to
Summit once a year. If you live in Ogden Valley and never want it to
get bigger and never want anyone different than yourself to move in or
visit, than Summit is bad news for you I suppose. But for the rest of
us, that like controlled growth, diversity, new ideas and new people,
the addition of Summit to Northern Utah is terrifically exciting.
Thrilling in fact.
I welcome Summit visitors and hope more of them come more often. They
are a classy, talented, inspiring group of people. I hope they feel
welcome when they are here.
Because they will come again, AND THAT WILL BE AWESOME!
About Alex Lawrence