Congressman Greg Gianforte in Missoula for High Tech Conference

You might think that Bozeman has the corner on high tech businesses in Montana, but Missoula had its own High Tech Roundtable Monday morning at the Mon-Tech building near Missoula College.

Congressman Greg Gianforte met with representatives of nine high-tech businesses to get a progress report on high tech in western Montana.

“There are 80 or so firms in Missoula alone,” said Gianforte. “The Montana High Tech Business Alliance which is a nonprofit, nonpartisan group now has 350 member firms. I fact, last year the University of Montana studied this sector and found out it’s the fastest growing sector in our economy with $1.7 billion dollars of revenue in Montana alone. This is creating better jobs and hopefully keeping more kids here.”

Gianforte said he was there to lend an ear to the business owners and see how the federal government can help them grow.

“I want to hear from those business owners so I can advocate on their behalf,” he said. “Talking about the ways the federal government can get out of the way. I’m very proud that I have a 100 percent voting record with both the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the National Federation of Independent Business. Since Montana is a small business state, this is an opportunity to hear directly from the people who are on the front lines. I’m a tech guy, so this is like birds of a feather gathering.”

Those high tech business owners attending the roundtable discussion included, Patrick Claytor, Big Sky Fulfillment/Quilty Box, Paul Bogumill, Data Smart Solutions, Jay Evans, Inimmune, Rob Smith, Prime Labs, B.D. Erickson, Satic USA, Evan Tipton, TOMIS, Brent Campbell, WGM Group, Tom Stergios, Advanced Technology Group, and Paul Martin, LMG Security.