If you want to know why having a six-term U.S. senator representing your state is important, look no further than Butte next week when Max Baucus hosts some of the biggest names in U.S. business at the Montana Economic Development Summit.

One after another, titans of the Internet and other industries have signed on to join Baucus for the sole purpose of encouraging Montana to keep pace with the exciting changes in the world economy.

Keynote speakers include Meg Whitman, CEO of Hewlett-Packard; Eric Schmidt, executive chairman of Google; Elon Musk, CEO of Spacex and Tesla Motors; Sheryl Sandberg, chief operating officer of Facebook; Jim McNerney, CEO of Boeing; Ryan Lance, ConocoPhillips chairman; Safra Catz, president and CFO of Oracle; Fred Smith, founder of Fedex; Richard Anderson, CEO of Delta; Jon Huntsman, former U.S. ambassador to China and Republican primary presidential candidate; and Alan Mulally, president and CEO of Ford Motor Co.

If you don’t make it to Montana Tech in Butte for the summit, you can still access the keynote speeches live online at montanajobssummit.com.

In addition, Flathead Valley Community College’s Entrepreneurship Center is hosting a live simulcast of many of the speakers at the summit. The simulcast will run from 8 to 11:30 a.m. Monday and from 8:15 a.m. to noon Tuesday in the Arts and Technology Building on the FVCC campus. There is no charge to attend.

After Sandberg’s speech from 11-11:30 a.m. on Monday, FVCC will host an hourlong community discussion about the opportunities and challenges facing girls and women who aspire to leadership roles. Sandberg is the author of the best-selling book “Lean In” and challenges women to aspire to more leadership roles globally.

Baucus is also using his economic clout closer to home. On Friday, the senator will visit Applied Materials in Kalispell with ambassadors from five important trading partners — China, Japan, Canada, Germany and Peru.

Applied Materials manufactures technology and parts used in making semiconductors, flat-panel displays and smartphones. Although Applied Materials already has a booming market overseas, the ability to grow that market is key to producing new jobs here at home.

Sen. Baucus is to be commended for his efforts both in Butte and here in Kalispell to work with business leaders to improve Montana’s economy and create jobs.

Registration to the event at Montana Tech is free and open to the first 3,000 people who sign up. Go to montanajobssummit.com to register or for more information.

Editorials represent the majority opinion of the Daily Inter Lake’s editorial board.