The area where the new Adobe Building is located near Thanksgiving Point is Utah’s newest unincorporated city. It’s a place where silicon valley has officially set up camp in Utah.

There are specially designated parking spots for electric and low-emission vehicles. And while the Adobe building isn’t so large to be called a “campus” it is an incredibly large sprawling building with a massive meeting area with views of the timpanogos mountains.

Tonight Mercato Partners is hosting an event honoring some of the most innovative and successful marketing professionals in silicon slopes. Mercato Partners is a private equity funding organization which offers money not to solely to start ups, but mostly to organizations which are in need of building marketing and sales teams to get their products into the marketplace. As Aaron Evans, Vice President of Finance explains. While Mercato serves the entire intermountain West, Evans says, “We have found that many of the best companies that we want to fund are right in our own backyard.”  Evans joined Mercato, from California and moved to Utah 18 months ago. He says there is no better place to recruit talent and fund great ideas than the silicone slopes of Utah County.

Mercato Partners was founded by Alan Hall and Greg Warnock. They have worked with Silicon Valley Bank to help fund Goal Zero, Skull Candy and Domo —three of the largest and most successful Utah County start-ups.

After dining on sushi and drinks while playing pinball and other video games the award ceremony began. It was brief and to the point. One of the award winners of the evening was Kristy Jo Hunt. She started Body Buddies 18 months ago with a facebook page. She wrote about how she overcame eating disorders to become a trainer and incorporate power foods and, “an eating strategy which shunned the diet mentality.” Now she has entered into the world of corporate wellness and she sees the sky as the limit. She currently has two employees. But she needs apps and websites. She is looking to hire ten people by the end of the year and have 100 employees by the end of next year.

Chris Hall explains as he honors sales and marketing professionals, “We make it rain. We know how to put lipstick on a pig and market it and sell it. We are the ones who make business happen.”