For Immediate Release

Idaho Technology Council Announces Second Annual WiTECH Summit, November 18–19 in Boise

Themed “Lead What’s Next,” the summit brings together the women shaping Idaho’s technology economy at Boise Centre East.

BOISE, Idaho — October 22, 2026 — The Idaho Technology Council (ITC) will host its second annual WiTECH Summit on Thursday, November 19, 2026, at Boise Centre East, opening with a VIP Fireside Chat and networking reception with the ITC Board of Trustees on Wednesday, November 18. The full-day summit brings together women across Idaho’s technology sector, from engineers and founders to executives, investors, and educators, for a day of keynotes, panels, and breakout sessions.

WiTECH launched in 2025 and drew more than 200 attendees in its first year. That response made clear the event would become one of ITC’s signature programs, and the 2026 summit expands on that foundation with a sharper theme and a broader lineup.

“When we launched WiTECH last year, we hoped to create a room for the women building Idaho’s technology economy. More than 200 people showed up, and we knew right away this would become a signature event for ITC,” said Diane Temple, President and CEO of the Idaho Technology Council. “This year’s theme, Lead What’s Next, is about moving from navigating change to shaping it. The speakers on this program show how much talent we have to draw on, here in Idaho and beyond.”

Lead What’s Next: The 2026 Theme

This year’s theme starts from a simple premise: technology is changing the future, and women are building what comes next. The program moves through five pillars across the day:

See What’s Next: what is changing in technology, work, business, and Idaho

Lead What’s Next: building influence, authority, and a strategic voice

Build What’s Next: the skills, relationships, and capital that create momentum

Protect What’s Next: using AI responsibly and protecting businesses, data, and reputations

Sustain What’s Next: leading ambitious lives without burning out

Featured Speakers

Jessica Rolph — Founder, Lovevery

Closes the day in a featured conversation with Sarah Marshall, Senior Director of Public Affairs at Microsoft.

Sarah Gerdes — Co-Founder and COO, Incluud

Delivers the lunch keynote, “Building What’s Next.”

Brittany Giudici — Director of Executive Communications, Microsoft; Founder, Treasure Valley Women in Tech

Featured talk: “Purpose Driven: Community, Clarity, and the Choice to Build Where You Are.”

Meaghan Nelson — Partner, Stoel Rives LLP

Featured talk: “Owning the Room: Executive Presence & Advocating for Yourself.”

Dr. Geri Gillespy — Director and Industry Advisor, Americas, Microsoft Elevate

Leads “The AI Advantage for Creating Time, Impact, and Opportunity.”

Panels and Breakout Sessions

Meet the Boss: Women Shaping Idaho’s Future

Opening panel with Jinju Beineke of Photronics, Boise Mayor Lauren McLean, Amy Gile of Silverdraft, and Christina Hardesty of Amalgamated Sugar.

From Expertise to Influence: Building the Leadership Advantage

Moderated by Laura Smith of ICCU, with Dr. Ashley Podhradsky of Dakota State University and Layne Lewis of Willowview Consulting.

Women & Capital: Funding, Investment & Access to Capital

With Marlene Myers of U.S. Bank, Denise Dunlap of Sage Growth Capital, and Sharon Poppell of Executive Allies.

The Mental Load of Leadership: Protecting Your Capacity Without Shrinking Your Ambition

Moderated by Eren Barker of St. Luke’s Health System, with Bhumika Chhabra of Micron, Melanie Rubocki of Ashurst Perkins Coie, Molly Zimmer of St. Luke’s Health System, and Leah Goede of Albertsons Companies.

Smart Enough to Question AI

Moderated by Jen Dempsey of Dempsey Foster, with Sharee English of WSP and Nikita Rubocki of R1 RCM.

Seen, Heard, and Promoted: Turning Presence into Opportunity

Moderated by Camille Montgomery of ICCU, with Carolyn Holly of Idaho Business for Education, Paola Eldrige of McAlvain Companies, and Liza Roeser of Fifty Flowers.

The Skills Shift: Building a Career That Can Keep Evolving

With Dr. Melisa M. Valentín of WGU, Shobna Streng of Technology Credit Union, and Sunny Wallace of the University of Idaho.

Additional panelists will be announced in the coming weeks.

VIP Fireside Chat Featuring Dr. Ashley Podhradsky

WiTECH week opens Wednesday evening, November 18, with “Digital Forensics: Where Evidence Meets Intelligence,” a VIP Fireside Chat led by Dr. Ashley Podhradsky, Vice President for Research and Economic Development at Dakota State University and co-founder of CybHER. A nationally recognized leader in digital forensics, Dr. Podhradsky will be joined by Idaho leaders in digital forensics and cybersecurity.

Every new device, app, and online account adds to the digital footprint investigators can draw on. The hard part is no longer finding information but turning it into intelligence that holds up. Drawing on real cases, the panel will discuss how digital forensics and open-source intelligence (OSINT) strengthen each other, how AI and deepfakes are changing what investigators can trust, and what the field needs to prepare for next.

The evening begins with an hour of networking with the ITC Board of Trustees, followed by the fireside conversation. It is open to All Access pass holders, sponsors, and invited guests.

Title Sponsor Photronics

“The precision work behind every photomask we make depends on talented engineers, technicians, and leaders, and women are an essential part of that team,” said Jinju Beineke, Senior Director, Engineering Technology at Photronics. “Supporting WiTECH as title sponsor is one way we invest in the people who will shape Idaho’s technology future. We’re proud to help bring this community together and to show women across the state the opportunities waiting for them in technology and advanced manufacturing.”

Registration and Sponsorship Opportunities

The WiTECH Summit takes place Thursday, November 19, 2026, at Boise Centre East, with the VIP Fireside Chat and Board networking reception on the evening of Wednesday, November 18.

Register and view full event details: www.idahotechcouncil.org/witech-summit

For sponsorship assistance, contact the Idaho Technology Council at info@idahotechcouncil.org or 208-917-5700.

2026 Event Partners

WiTECH 2026 is presented by title sponsor Photronics. Event partners include Western Governors University (WGU), Meta, Ashurst Perkins Coie, Technology Credit Union, Idaho Central Credit Union (ICCU), and Dempsey Foster. A full list of sponsors and partners is available on the WiTECH Summit page.

About the Idaho Technology Council

The Idaho Technology Council is a member-driven organization committed to building a strong technology community by bringing people together, supporting technology education and advocating for policies that promote sustainable growth. Through statewide programs, signature events and strategic partnerships, ITC is helping make Idaho a leading destination for technology and innovation.

Media Contact: Idaho Technology Council | info@idahotechcouncil.org| 208-917-5700

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Meet Mel Pint

by Tim Munkres • 7 October 2026
Introducing: Mel Pint, Founder & CEO, OpulX Media LLC Describe the business/organization you work for: OpulX Media LLC is an Idaho-registered live events company and a sister company of OpulenceX Inc., the marketplace where artists sell their work and keep earning royalties when it resells. OpulX Media produces art, fashion and technology showcases built around augmented reality and digital collectibles. Our first production is The Digital Loom: Intersecting Realities at Boise Centre on November 14, 2026: an AR runway, an exhibition of international artists whose every work is registered as a digital twin, and a free afternoon built around The Loom Youth Prize, a statewide art competition for Idaho kids and teens. It is planned as an annual Boise event, with a Honolulu edition in April 2027. What inspired you to start your own business, or why did you decide to work for this specific organization? I watched artists sell a piece once and never see another dollar from it, while the technology that fixes that already existed and nobody was putting it in front of the people who make things. OpulenceX Inc built the tools. OpulX Media exists because tools alone do not change anything; a room full of people watching a garment come alive through their own phone, standing next to a painting a nine-year-old made, does. Boise has a technology community, an arts community and a fashion community, and they rarely stand in the same room. I wanted to build the night where they do. What sets this business apart from others in the industry? Most media companies build audiences and rent them to advertisers. We build a creator economy and stand inside it with the creators. What challenges have you faced as a business owner or employee, and how did you overcome them? Being new. A first-year event with a technology company behind it has to earn standing in the arts community before anyone will put their name next to it. We did that the slow way: a venue contract before any letter went out, a judged youth prize with real cash and real exhibition space, terms for artists that put 70% of every sale in their hands. Joining the Idaho Technology Council was part of the same answer: be inside the community before asking anything of it. What advice would you give to someone looking to join your industry? Decide what you will not do before you decide what you will. Then find the person in your community who has done the hard part for years and ask them how, before you tell them what you are building. About the Idaho Technology Council The Idaho Technology Council (ITC) is a member-based organization that champions innovation and collaboration to grow Idaho’s economy through technology. Representing a dynamic and growing community of entrepreneurs, industry leaders, and policymakers, ITC connects vision with action to position Idaho as a hub for innovation and opportunity. Learn more at www.idahotechcouncil.org .  Connect with Mel Pint on LinkedIn HERE Learn More about OpulX Media HERE

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Introducing: RT Williams, Founder & Energy Engineer, Pathline Foundry Describe the business/organization you work for: Pathline Foundry is an independent energy consulting and software firm in Meridian, Idaho. I run the gamut from benchmarking and energy audits to custom software for energy strategy, management, and optimization. It's a niche offering that's widely applicable across many industries. One engineer, start to finish. See where your energy is going, so you can make a smarter decision about where it goes next. What inspired you to start your own business, or why did you decide to work for this specific organization? I want to be the person who stays and partners with those who need it most. I've been doing energy engineering since 2017, and I've kept seeing the same pattern. A building gets an audit report, the report goes on a shelf, and nothing changes. Pathline Foundry grew out of that pattern, and I build software for the same reason: the findings need somewhere to live once the engagement is over, or they end up back on the shelf. Energy gets treated as a fixed cost, a line on the bill you can't do anything about. It isn't. There's real money sitting in waste and inefficiency, and most of the people who could act on it have no spare bandwidth and limited technical staff. I wanted to make that easy to see and easy to act on. What sets this business apart from others in the industry? There's no sales team and no handoff to a junior analyst. You talk to the person doing the engineering, and that same person is still there when it comes time to implement. I build the software side myself too, so the analysis, the modeling, and the tools a client ends up using all come from one place. Where it fits, I take a share of the savings instead of a flat fee, so the work is built to pay for itself. I'm a PhD engineer and a Certified Energy Manager. I write the work so a decision-maker can understand it and an engineer can act on it. What challenges have you faced as a business owner or employee, and how did you overcome them? Starting a business in a state where nobody knows you is a slow problem, and there's no clever fix for it. My family and I moved here in 2025, and I spent a lot of that first year in rooms where I knew one person, or none. What surprised me is that it made the actual work better. I used to lead with what I found in a building. Now I ask what somebody is trying to decide first, because a room full of strangers teaches you quickly that nobody cares what you know until they know why it matters to them. That turns out to be most of the job. Idaho has been more welcoming than I expected. Almost everything I've built here started with someone making an introduction, and I look forward to growing my work to support the community that made room for me. What advice would you give to someone looking to join your industry? Go into the buildings. You can learn modeling and software anywhere, but you can't learn how a facility actually runs from a spreadsheet. Spend time with the people who operate it. They'll tell you things no data set contains, and more often than not, they already know where the waste is. About the Idaho Technology Council The Idaho Technology Council (ITC) is a member-based organization that champions innovation and collaboration to grow Idaho’s economy through technology. Representing a dynamic and growing community of entrepreneurs, industry leaders, and policymakers, ITC connects vision with action to position Idaho as a hub for innovation and opportunity. Learn more at www.idahotechcouncil.org . Connect with RT Williams on LinkedIn HERE Learn More about Pathline Foundry HERE

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