The largest startups meeting of the Estonian presidency, the Startup Nations Summit is taking place on Tuesday and Wednesday 21/22 November. The Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications (MKM) together with the Global Entrepreneurship Network and EIT Digital bring together representatives of startup companies and policymakers from more than 60 countries to Tallinn. The main theme of the event is deepening collaboration between governments and companies via technological innovations.
Along with exciting discussions and talks, the Startup Nations Summit will host the policymakers hackathon, Policy Hack. Nine teams from eight governments around the world will participate in the hackathon.
The SNS Startup Track, organised in partnership with Startup Estonia and EIT Digital, will bring together key stakeholders and start-up entrepreneurs from all across the world to exchange experiences on scaling up internationally and the importance of collaboration between governments and start-ups, with guest speakers such as Timo Rein (Pipedrive), Victoria Lennox (Startup Canada), Sten Tamkivi (ex-Skype, Move Guides), Lorenz Hartung (TechFounders) and many others.
Representatives of each government will arrive in Estonia with an idea to create a new innovative policy, which will then be hacked in collaboration with startup companies on Wednesday at the Startup Nations Summit in Tallinn.
When leaving Estonia, governments go home with a proof of concept for new political initiatives that they can start implementing in their respective countries. The final stage of the Policy Hack will take place in the countries that have taken part in the hackathon when they begin to put the ideas developed in Estonia into their local legislation. The Startup Nations Summit Policy Hack is a first of its kind in the world and teams of policymakers from Germany, the Netherlands, Turkey, Mexico, Chile, Egypt, Guatemala and two from Estonia are taking part.
The event is organised by the Global Entrepreneurship Network and the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications together with the European Commission, Startup Estonia, EIT Digital, Dell and the Kauffman Foundation.
Each year, the Summit is the official closing of the Global Entrepreneurship Week, with 35,000 events, activities and competitions held in more than 170 countries around the world aimed at making it easier for anyone, anywhere to start and scale a business. This year, it will serve as a bridge to the 2017 SME Assembly, coordinated by the European Commission to promote entrepreneurship throughout the continent.
Watch an introductory video on the Policy Hack here: https://youtu.be/xRK4YW2bNkw
