A HACKATHON TACKLING POLICY CHALLENGES FOR ENTREPRENEURSHIP
Cross-border hacking in Silicon Valley of what future policy solutions should look like.

A new way of teaming up representatives from industry and government to develop and pitch innovative solutions to some of today’s most pressing policy issues for entrepreneurs.

On September 13, Mind the Bridge will host a policy hackathon powered by Dell  at the MTB Innovation Center in San Francisco as part of the 10-day long SEC2SV (Startup Europe Comes To Silicon Valley) mission kicking off the day before with the inaugural European Innovation Day in Mountain View, CA.

The event will be part of the two-day Scaleup Summit,  a series of workshops and meetings throughout the SEC2SV week, designed to cater to EU Scaleups looking to expand their operations in the US market.

The Dell PolicyHack™ will bring together entrepreneurs and U.S./EU policy experts to solve policy challenges in an effort to create an environment that would enable entrepreneurs to thrive.

Five teams will have 75 minutes to come up with a policy solution to issue areas that impact entrepreneurs.  Each team will then be given five minutes to pitch their solution to a panel of judges including Pēteris Zilgalvis, Head of Unit, Startups and Innovation @ European Commission; Richard Boly, Principal @ Beaurichly llp; Francisco de la Torre Prados, Mayor of Malaga, Spain; Marco Marinucci, CEO @ Mind The Bridge, and Alberto Onetti, Chairman @ Mind the Bridge and Startup Europe Partnership. Master of ceremony will be Kristen Mattern, Senior Government Affairs Manager at Dell while the  Richard Boly, Principal @ Beaurichly llp, will be the coordinator.

Dell PolicyHack™ issue areas: funding, standards, migration – everything’s on the table.

 

Entrepreneurs, investors, corporate executives and policy makers will be challenged to develop creative new ideas about:

Trade: How do we create a transatlantic trade relationship where Startups benefit from interoperable markets, simplified customs procedures and industry standards that apply globally.

Privacy: How to ensure that Startups doing transatlantic business are compliant with data protection rules and have legal certainty for their transatlantic data transfer arrangements.

IPR and copyright: How to make it easier for Startups to manage copyright laws on both sides of the Atlantic and to increase transparency of patents available to them so as to avoid copyright infringements and minimize licensing costs.

Access to capital: What financing tools do we need to ensure that Startups on the EU or US side have access to funds to expand into the respective markets on the other side of the Atlantic: do we need government-backed guarantees, and where should investments be directed?

Worker mobility: How to help Startups access the talent they need to scale, create diverse workforces; and allow entrepreneurs to be mobile when expanding and operating across borders and communities.

The goal is to productively brainstorm and to provide top-line thinking that can inspire and serve as basis to develop and implement full policies.

Join Dell and Mind the Bridge for an interactive policy hackathon and be part of the conversation on social media, using the hashtag #SEC2SV.