STEAMBOAT SPRINGS — Ben Carson may not win the Republican presidential nomination, but it won’t be because he ignored Colorado.

The soft-spoken Carson made a splash over the weekend at the Steamboat Institute’s Freedom Conference & Festival, posing for photos, playing a round of pool and drawing a standing ovation even before he began his remarks at Friday’s kickoff luncheon.

Asked about recent Republican presidential primary polls showing him trailing only businessman Donald Trump, neither of whom has ever held public office, the retired neurosurgeon said, “I think it means the American people are waking up and they’re starting to realize that political experience is not the answer.”

“If you take all the political experience of everyone in Congress right now, it comes out to just under 9,000 years. Where has it gotten us?” Carson said to laughter. “What really is important is, do you know how to solve problems? Are you a problem-solver? And do you know how to work with other people?”

Carson’s appearance was his fourth campaign stop in Colorado this summer alone, more than any other presidential candidate. It also represented a milestone for the Steamboat Institute, which boasted for the first time a top-tier presidential primary candidate at its annual conference, now in its seventh year.

There were other firsts: The two-day conference drew its largest crowd to date, about 400, and more speakers than ever before at 24. Organizers set up a tent outside to accommodate the overflow crowd from the Steamboat Grand.

“It’s really been a breakout year for the Steamboat Institute,” said board member Allen Fuller.

Steamboat Springs might be too far off the beaten path for most candidates, but the festival has steadily increased its appeal as a summer destination spot for conservatives. Given the limited size of venues in Steamboat Springs, the conference is unlikely to rival the Centennial Institute’s Western Conservative Summit in terms of sheer numbers.

At the same time, Steamboat offers several perks unavailable in Denver, starting with the conference’s Friday night dinner atop Thunderhead Summit at 9,000 feet, a venue accessible to guests by gondola.

Carson was the only presidential candidate to attend in person, but another up-and-coming contender, former Hewlett Packard CEO Carly Fiorina, sent in a video message filmed for the occasion, said institute chairman Jennifer Schubert-Akin.

Fiorina called for energizing the economy, cutting the federal government and “lead[ing] in the world again.”

“That doesn’t mean rushing off to war, but it does mean investing in our military so that it’s the strongest on the planet and everyone knows it,” said Fiorina.

A theme that ran throughout the conference was how to attract more people to the conservative movement, especially hard-to-reach minority and millennial voters.

Robert Woodson, president of the National Center for Neighborhood Enterprise, urged conservatives to invest in black neighborhoods as liberals have.

“George Soros has a ground game. What he’s doing is sowing seeds of dissension, but he is investing. We as conservatives must invest, not just money,” said Woodson. “What they also need is training, they need assistance, they need guidance, they need your experience.”

Guy Benson, political editor of Townhall.com, said the left is pushing social issues such as gay and transgender rights in order to draw millennials and called on conservatives to respond by emphasizing their desire for everyone to achieve success.

“The left is very invested in showcasing our intolerance whenever possible,” Benson said. “And I think it’s important for conservatives, who can have differences of opinion on a number of different issues, to always come back to affirming the dignity of people, and show that we love people, that we want people to succeed and we’re not constantly on our high horse. There’s a way to do that without giving up your principles or your values.”

A panel of business leaders, including MillerCoors’ Pete Coors, discussed the challenges facing companies amid growing regulations, particularly those promulgated by the Environmental Protection Agency in the last few years.

One business that’s booming in Colorado is recreational marijuana, but Wayne Laugesen, editorial page editor of the Colorado Springs Gazette, said the state has paid a price in terms of public health and safety.

Pot legalization has driven increases in hospitalizations and accidental poisonings from marijuana products, especially edibles; workplace accidents and absenteeism, homelessness and teen entering treatment for addiction, he said.

“Whether or not we should have legalized recreational marijuana is one discussion point,” Laugesen said. “The other is, ‘Are we adequately regulating it as was promised by proponents of Amendment 64,’ and I believe the answer to that is no, because marijuana is very much more available to children — young children — and teenagers than it ever was before.”

Interviews with construction executives show that “they don’t even want to hire in Colorado any more. There’s too much liability,” Laugesen said. “They’re hiring a talented, clean work force in Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, Utah. That’s hurting our state.”

Mason Tvert, who led the successful 2012 ballot legalization campaign, had a dramatically different view, saying “it seems to be going quite well” and pointing to recent polling that shows increased support for legalization in Colorado.

“What it comes down to is this: Marijuana is out there. We didn’t vote to have marijuana in Colorado,” said Tvert. “We voted to start controlling marijuana in Colorado, and right now Colorado is doing more to control marijuana more than any other state in the country.”

He cited state figures showing the percentage of high schoolers who said they have used marijuana has declined since 2009 from 24.8 to 20 percent, adding, “The fact is, it’s not skyrocketing.”

Tvert also argued that overall crime is down in Colorado, and that cases of accidental poisonings from marijuana are relatively rare and dwarfed by those from items such as household cleaners, vitamins and even cosmetics.

In his remarks, Carson recounted how hard his mother worked to avoid going on welfare, despite the family’s poverty.

“She recognized that most of the people she saw go on welfare never came off of it. Therefore she never wanted to go on it to begin with,” he said. “She never wanted to be a victim. And for the most part, she was successful. She occasionally accepted some aid, but for the most part was able to stay off of it, because he was very thrifty.”

“I’m certain that if my mother were Secretary of Treasury,” he quipped, “we would be not in a deficit situation.”

Carson said his political opponents have tried to turn his rags-to-riches story against him.

“I find it interesting that the left enjoys saying, ‘Carson grew up very poor and he must have had some aid, and now he wants to withdraw all aid from everybody.’ Which of course is a total lie,” he said. “But this is the way they exist. They take things, they distort them, they exaggerate them.”

“I have no desire, as I’m sure no one here has any desire, to remove the safety net from people who really need it,” Carson continued. “What I have a desire to do is create a mechanism for people to move up the ladder out of a state of dependency and become part of the fabric of America. That’s what we have to start thinking about.”

— valrichardson17@gmail.com