The Silicon Slopes Summit 2025, hosted at Utah Valley University, highlighted Utah’s tech industry growth, featuring venture capital trends, business pitch strategies, and health tech innovation. Key announcements included a new Vineyard cancer center and AI advancements in cancer care.
Orem, Utah, January 16, 2026
Attracting companies from all over Utah, the Silicon Slopes Summit presented by Zions Bank, showcased the state’s thriving tech start up industry. The Utah County Credit Union Arena at UVU housed the event's first two days' sessions with main sessions filled with speakers from numerous businesses and organizations. Attendees came from all over to gain insight on the future of Utah’s tech ecosystem.
The majority of the first focused on diverse topics including the following:
In one panel discussion focused on VC, a panelist declared, “In order for us to reach our potential, we need to have every sector of this ecosystem be successful from investors to entrepreneurs to service providers.” In order to maintain and grow Utah’s economic potential, each sector will need to execute substantial efforts in their respective areas.
Another panelist addressed the topic about VCs' current interest in health and wellness companies. “From a health and wellness perspective, there is definitely an area of interest for us. We’ve raised investment in health and wellness companies explicitly, and I think part of the reason we’re doing that is we historically invested in a lot of direct consumer brands that are disrupting the way retail was operating.” With these new trends, they expect to see more innovation coming out of health tech and are looking to collaborate with them to grow their companies.
In connection to health and wellness, Dr. Corneila Ulrich in another segment of the conference, announced the building of a “comprehensive cancer center in Vineyard.” Dr. Ulrich is the Executive Director of the Comprehensive Cancer Center at Huntsman Cancer Institute (HCI). The institute plans to help meet the needs of the Utah County community. They will be doing collaborations with UVU, BYU, and are seeking further partnerships.
Dr. Ulrich stated, “About 40,000 patients sent to Salt Lake City are people who come from Utah County. With the new cancer center here in Vineyard, about 80% of them get to stay here and get their care closer to home.”
As far as research goes, the center will be focusing on three main topics.
Dr. Ulrich explained their use of AI as it relates to medical work. She noted that AI has helped identify specific treatments for patients in addition to the potential side effects. “AI can help with computerized treatment plans to make x-rays that perfectly target the tumor while minimizing the dose to the normal tissue, again reducing the side effects.” To hear more information about their transforming cancer care, they will be hosting a new conference, “Frontiers Symposium on Transformation in Cancer Care Delivery” February 17-19th in Salt Lake City.
In another segment, Julia Gudish Krieger, Managing Partner of Pari Passu Venture Partners, discussed the best tips for perfecting business pitches. She highlighted, “The purpose of a pitch deck is to get the meeting. The pitch deck should not answer every single question. It should be much more focused on dealing with the visuals.” She also recounted other ways of improving pitches:
According to Krieger, as businesses make these changes in their pitches, they will have greater potential in securing investments.
Overall, the Silicon Slopes Summit 2025 gave attendees insight about how to prepare for future business as well as what to look forward to in the future. The event gave local businesses opportunities to share their recent developments and observations for what this upcoming year will look like for the Utah Tech Industry.
See more about remaining Silicon Slopes Summit 2025 sessions taking place at the Salt Palace, including Startup Alley and Silicon Slopes Serves, here.