Governor Schweitzer announced Montana Business Founder Michael FitzGerald as Keynote for Innovative Business Day and Awards Dinner

Registration open at http://www.innovatemontana.com

Governor Brian Schweitzer and Innovate Montana are proud to announce that Michael FitzGerald will be the keynote speaker for the first Governor’s Innovative Business Awards Dinner on Tuesday, August 28th on the MSU campus.

"We are excited to have a top Montana business leader as our keynote for the awards dinner. Michael FitzGerald has a really great story to tell and will be sharing his experience collaborating with other tech entrepreneurs at Y-Combinator, a value to all those in attendance," said Governor Schweitzer.

FitzGerald is the founder of Submittable, a software company that has made big waves in the tech world for its cutting-edge application that allows businesses and organizations of all sizes to accept and review digital files of all types.

A graduate of UM’s national-ranked Creative Writing program, FitzGerald originally got the idea for Submittable (formerly known as Submishmash) during the time consuming task of submitting his writing to multiple publishers – only to have it essentially disappear into space without so much as a thank you e-mail.

In March of 2010, Michael and his 2 partners launched Submittable, cloud-based Software as a Service (SaaS) that integrates seamlessly with websites to provide an organized system for submissions. Publishers pay a monthly fee for the service and can opt to charge a fee for each submission, which stops spam and generates additional revenue for the organization.

In less than two years later, the site has evolved to receive, store, and share any type of digital file from resumes to academic applications. 3,600 organizations such as MIT, Harvard, and 400,000 individuals in 23 countries are current users of Submittable. Submittable’s innovative software recently earned them accolades from The New York Times, Atlantic Monthly, and TechCrunch, a well known blog about web startups regarded as a primary source of information on "who’s who" in the industry.

"It is a great honor to be the keynote at the first annual Innovative Business Day and Awards Dinner. I hope my experience of starting and growing a business in Montana is enlightening to fellow entrepreneurs," said Michael FitzGerald.

FitzGerald will be fresh from his experience with Y-Combinator, considered to by many to be the most prestigious program for digital entrepreneurs. Since 2005, Y-Combinator has funded over 460 startups, including Reddit and Dropbox.

Seating at the Governor’s Innovative Business Awards Dinner is limited and pre-registration is required. Visit http://www.innovatemontana.com for more information on the full day’s events and registration links.