Every few years, Senator Max Baucus puts on an economic development conference. His national political prominence affords the opportunity to bring in some very high caliber guests. People like Jeff Immelt of GE, Steve Ballmer of Microsoft and even Warren Buffet. In a low population state like Montana, these are opportunities we would not otherwise get. This makes the conference very well attended by nearly all of our political and business leaders.

Lately, tourism's star has been shining brightly ...

It is the rare airport that provides any real insight into the personality of its city. Generic terminals and bad restaurants are common the world over. Managua, Nicaragua is no different, for one exception: its clocks.

In the main hall, it easy to miss the paintings (or even the importance) of revolutionary thinkers Augusto Sandino and Ruben Dario. But as you pass into security ...

As Expedition Denali team member Erica Wynn explains in anticipation of her trip, "Think about the story that mountaineering has been. Historically, it has been mainly white male. And if a little black girl were to look into mountaineering and hear that single white story, she would probably say I don't have much of a place there, or the odds are against me. I hope that being a part of Expedition Denali helps to change that story.”

Today, we ...

[This live streamed keynote presentation from the 2013 Montana Governor's Conference on Tourism happened at 8:30AM on Tuesday, March 26. You can watch a recording of the presentation below. NOTE: Due to some inconsistant wifi access, the livestream ends at 29 minutes. We are working to recapture the second half of the event and will update this post when it is live.]

Montana Governor's Conference on Tourism Keynote: The 5 Principals of Effective Geotraveler Marketing

A note ...

I don't know who actually approved this ad.

Or this one. Or this one. Or the endless array of other tourism ads with people in matching shirts on a beach or some other completely fake situation. But I'm guessing it was someone's Mom.

I know I'm wading into very deep water here by potentially insulting Moms (sorry Mom!). But only Moms like photos of people in matching shirts running down the beach. Everyone else—and by ...