Technology
Billings Tech Meetups Teach 3 Essential Skills for Digital Safety
Events focused on information security, AI development and cloud tools are helping locals handle online banking, remote work and data protection more effectively.
How we reported this
The INTERFACE conference for IT leadership on Information Security and Business Continuity is scheduled for Thursday, August 11th at the Northern Hotel Grand Ballroom in Billings.
These recurring gatherings matter now because Billings maintains a growing tech scene with monthly Billings Tech Meetup and Billings Tech Enthusiasts sessions that let developers and residents test new frameworks together. Montana High Tech Business Alliance supports the events, which cover topics already shaping how people manage finances, health records and home networks.
Regular AI sessions at Rock31 build local capacity
Bigskynet, Montana's AI Development Consortium, meets every Tuesday from 11:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. at the Rock31 Entrepreneurship Center. Participants explore tools that later appear in local services such as patient scheduling at health-tech firms and inventory tracking for agricultural businesses. Tech Cafe events with the Billings Bike Library run on alternating Fridays, including the July 25th session at 105 Brewing, where attendees learn library technology that extends to everyday digital navigation.
Montana High Tech Business Alliance also lists quarterly Happy Hours and Behind the Build networking at the same venues. These sessions connect residents directly with companies working on cybersecurity and cloud computing, sectors that now influence routine tasks like secure video calls with doctors and online payments at area stores.
Scale of the local tech sector supplies the evidence
Citable records show Billings hosts over 2,000 high-paying tech jobs and generates an estimated $500 million annually in sector output. The same records note the industry has grown 78 percent over the past decade and currently expands seven times faster than Montana's overall economy. Montana Code Conference and Big Sky DevCon, both held in the region, focus on the same cloud, AI and gaming topics that residents encounter when using apps for transit, weather alerts or remote learning.
Residents interested in attending can review schedules on mthightech.org or the Meetup.com Montana Programmers page to select sessions that match their schedules and interests.