The truth and the mission that we have is we really want to serve the community where we live.
Utah Technology Magazine Launches at Sundance Film FestivalWhen Monica Barbour, founder and CEO of Utah Technology Magazine, moved to Utah from the Bay Area almost four years ago, she began to sense a familiar movement happening within the Beehive State’s tech community.
“Being from the Bay Area, it seems like the 1980s all over again here,” said Barbour.
Shortly after moving to Utah, Barbour, who had worked in radio and television in California, was invited to host “The Monica Hour” on Utah’s local 1480 AM station.
“On the radio station, I met so many wonderful people,” said Barbour. “I got the chance to sit by and interview people that are way smarter than I am: PhD’s, people with thoughts and ideas, and ways to think about things that I hadn’t. I was grateful to sit on a chair next to them and rub shoulders with them.”
About a year ago, the radio station was sold, which forced Barbour to start thinking about what she wanted to do next.
“After they sold the station, I thought, ‘What do I do now?’” said Barbour. “All of a sudden, I just woke up and it hit me: Utah Technology Magazine — no one is doing that. I knew some of the other publications were kind of touching on it, but none were dedicated to this new energy and synergy that’s going on within the state.”
Out of a small office in Downtown Provo, Barbour began to build a team of writers, thought leaders, professors, and people who had been guests on her radio show.
“I really wanted to shine a light on innovation within the state; stuff coming out of the universities, companies that are here and started here,” said Barbour. “I think there’s a lot of history that people don’t know about within the state.”
Barbour performed a soft launch of the online magazine late last year, but the publication’s real coming out party happened just recently while covering the Sundance Film Festival. The magazine released a Sundance Edition, which can be accessed on Newsstand or by downloading the Utah Technology Magazine app. You can also find several interesting interviews on their YouTube channel.
“We decided to go with a publication that was digital,” said Barbour. “There’s some research that says 70 percent of all magazines downloaded on the internet are downloaded on tablets. As a technology magazine, we thought, let’s launch there first.”
As the technology scene here in Utah continues to grow and gain momentum, so to will the need for great storytellers and journalists to help keep the public informed.
“We’re coming along. We want to be able to provide something for the community. I don’t really know where it will go,” said Barbour. “I hope it grows and that people will use us. We’re not out to be a New York Times or a TechCrunch, or anything like that. It would be nice, but in reality the truth and the mission that we have is we really want to serve the community where we live. There are lots of great things to say about Utah.”
We’re excited to see what the future holds for Utah Technology Magazine. As a publication also dedicated to covering Utah’s flourishing tech scene, Beehive Startups would like to offer our full support and best wishes to Barbour and her fantastic team. We firmly believe a community is strongest when every person and organization within the ecosystem is given a platform to allow their voices to be heard.
As much as we’re interested in building a first-rate, reliable resource to help keep our readers up-to-date on Utah’s unique startup and technology landscape, we’re even more interested in building a community we can be proud to call home. Utah Technology Magazine may be in our space, but we will never allow ourselves to shy away from highlighting leaders, mentors, and entrepreneurs who are willing to help build an inclusive, cooperative startup community. Monica Barbour is one of those leaders. After reading her most recent blog post, we couldn’t be more proud to call her a friend.
We want the world to know that we not only have the best snow, the best mountains, the best rivers, the geological eye candy; we also have the best thinkers, innovators, story makers, and universities. And, most importantly — hope. We are Utah, and we invite you to join us on this grand adventure.
– Monica Barbour
Published 1/24/2014
