Build Montana’s Future, Together

Three days where founders, cooperative leaders, students, investors, civic partners, tribal leaders, and community builders advance real ventures and form partnerships rooted in Montana values.

CoBuild Montana Summit

October 20-22, 2026

University of Montana, Missoula

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A Founding Moment for Montana.

The CoBuild Summit is a cross-sector convening built to turn ideas into action — bringing together the people building, funding, and supporting community-rooted enterprises across our state.

It’s also the official launch of CoBuild Montana, a forming multistakeholder cooperative dedicated to a resilient, member-owned Montana economy. When you register, you don’t just reserve a seat. You become a founding member.

Featured Keynote: Elizabeth MacBride

We’re honored to welcome Elizabeth MacBride as our featured keynote speaker.

A respected journalist and co-author of Capital Evolution: The New American Economy, Elizabeth has spent her career exploring how capital, entrepreneurship, and community can work together to build a more inclusive, forward-looking economy. Her work speaks directly to what we’re building here in Montana: a model where wealth, ownership, and opportunity stay rooted in the communities that create them.

In her public evening keynote — open to the broader community — Elizabeth will share what a purpose-driven, people-first economy looks like in practice, and why this moment matters for places like ours.

This keynote is a highlight of the summit and a rare chance to hear a leading national voice right here at home.

Why This Summit, Why Now

Montana communities are facing mounting pressures: housing shortages and unaffordability, strain on rural health systems, soil loss, fire and forest management issues, workforce instability, and a growing need for locally based economic alternatives. At the same time, energy is building around cooperative ownership, values-aligned enterprise, and place-rooted investment.
The CoBuild Summit connects those dots. We bring the right people into the same room, ground them in models that genuinely work, and move the conversation from talk to commitment.

Who Should Attend

This Summit is for the people shaping the next chapter of Montana’s economy:

  • Cooperative leaders and members ready to connect, grow, and share capacity

  • Founders and entrepreneurs seeking partners, mentors, and community-aligned growth pathways

  • Impact investors and philanthropists deploying capital for regional resilience and shared prosperity

  • Civic and economic development leaders building stronger Montana communities

  • Rural health leaders exploring sustainable, member-owned care models

  • Tribal and Indigenous leaders advancing sovereign, community-rooted cooperative development

  • Students and emerging leaders stepping into Montana’s cooperative future

  • Sponsors and institutional partners investing in a values-aligned Montana platform

What You’ll Experience

Three days of focused, action-oriented programming across five signature tracks.

1. Cooperative Economy Foundation

The essentials of cooperative ownership, member governance, and shared-service models, accessible for first-timers and seasoned practitioners alike.

2. Community Ventures and Partnerships

Structured sessions connecting ventures to partners, capital, and resources, anchored by the Startup World Cup USA Regional event, where Montana founders pitch to investors and judges.

3. Venture Themes: Housing, Food and Biocarbon

Deep-dive working sessions on three of Montana’s most pressing opportunities: sustainable workforce housing, a market hall cooperative for Montana grown food, and a biocarbon cooperative for soil health and land resilience.

5. Tribal Cooperatives and Indigenous Economy

An invitation-based space for Indigenous-led cooperative development grounded in sovereignty, community ownership, and culturally rooted economic models.

4. Rural Health and Cooperative Care

A dedicated track for rural health leaders exploring RHTP funding pathways, share service operating models and sustainable community care.

Speaker Summary

Across three days, You’ll learn from founders, cooperative leaders, investors, educators, and community builders — people doing the real work of building a stronger, more self-reliant Montana. Our speakers and session leaders include:

Meet the Speakers

  • Sharing hands-on lessons in ownership, governance, and shared-service models.

  • Who’ve turned local ideas into thriving ventures.

  • Offering candid insight into capital for community enterprise.

  • Advancing sovereign, place-rooted development.

  • From the University of Montana and beyond

What You’ll Leave With

Every participant walks away with more than a conference badge:

  • New partnerships across sectors and communities

  • Practical tools and cooperative models ready to apply

  • Named next steps for ventures, partnerships and funding conversations

  • Founding membership in CoBuild Montana

Register Now 
About CoBuild Montana

CoBuild Montana is building a new era of cooperative, values-based businesses, community-driven ventures, and collaborative initiatives, while creating real-world learning experiences for our state’s next generation of leaders.

We’re back by partners at Ecocity Builders, VBX, and the University of Montana College of Business, and we’re forming throughout 2026. Together, we’re keeping wealth, jobs, and decision-making rooted right here in our communities

Connect With Us

Ready to learn more, partner with us, or request a sponsor or investor briefing? We’d love to hear from you.

Kirstin Miller, AICP: kirstin@ecocitybuilders.org

Dr. Erik Guzik: Erik.Guzik@mso.umt.edu