#SEC2SV European Innovation Day Agenda Unveiled Today

Alberto OnettiNews, Scaleup, SEC2SV, Startup Europe, Startup Europe Partnership

Are you interested in honest, direct policy and business dialogue between both sides of the Atlantic? Do you want to hear how the most iconic Silicon Valley companies went public? Do you want to know what European Unicorns are planning and take a firsthand look at the fastest growing scaleups from all over Europe? Do you want to hear what’s shaking in Silicon Valley and how the world’s hotspot of innovation is reshaping itself?

Then mark September 21st to be at the Computer History Museum, Mountain View, Calif.

Marking the opening day of SEC2SV Week, Startup Europe Comes to Silicon Valley, Sept 21-25, — the European Innovation Day (EID) conference launches a week of activities that brings together EU Member State representatives under one EU flag to meet with Silicon Valley stakeholders. An EU delegation will land in the Bay Area, including policy makers —European Commissioner of Digital Economy & Society Guenther Oettinger, Italian Digital Champion Riccardo Luna, UK Minister for the Cabinet Office/Paymaster General Matthew Hancock (TBC*), UK CTO Liam Maxwell (TBC*), Estonia president Toomas Hendrik Ilves, the new EU Unicorns, and leading corporations and investors. A key part of the conference will be the Demo area and presentation pitches from the Scaleups, top EU fast-growing startups (2-20M euros in revenues, 30-250 employees) that have the possibility to become to next EU unicorns. The full list will be announced beginning of next week. Silicon Valley counterparts will include government officials, senior execs from Google, Yelp, Airbnb, Apple, … and representatives from the investor and academic communities.

The goal of the conference is to stimulate the discussion and create a direct policy and business dialogue between both sides of the Atlantic.

Among the keynote speakers are Julie Hanna – serial entrepreneur who has helped build five consumer internet and software companies (OpenWave, Portola, Scalix, and Healtheon, WebMD) and was recently appointed as US Entrepreneurship Ambassador by President Obama – and Larry Sonsini, chairman of Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati. Larry will tell the lessons learned from 30+ years of supporting the historic IPOs of Apple, Google, Tesla, among others). Michael Hager, Head of Cabinet of European Commissioner of Digital Economy & Society, will provide the European Commission’s viewpoint on digital and innovation.

Several panel discussions with top-notch speakers are scheduled along the day to discuss a wide range of topics, including:

  • Meet the European Unicorns: panel discussion with Nicolas Brusson (BlaBlaCar), Giles Andrews (Zopa), Ignacio Pérez Dolset (U-Tad), Tom Thompson (Klarna), Alexis Giles (SoundCloud), Marc Lamik (Zalando).
  • Europe: There Is Life on Planet Startup. Data from European Startup Landscape: Data about the European startup and scaleup ecosystems and investments between EU and Silicon Valley will be presented and discussed by Robin Wauters (Tech.eu), Alberto Onetti (Startup Europe Partnership); Sean Randolph (Bay Area Council Economic Institute) – moderated by Burton Lee (Stanford University).
  • How is Silicon Valley Reshaping Itself, with Dave McClure*, founding partner of 500 Startups
  • Digital Single Market and Privacy. The EU Dilemma, with speakers from Google, Salesforce, Yelp
  • European Digital Market: How to Implement It: a policy panel involving Government representatives from EU member state such as Liam Maxwell* (CTO UK), Riccardo Luna (Italy Digital Champion)
  • Making EU & US M&A Market More Fluid, with speakers Scarlett Sieber (BBVA), Alex M. Lehmann (London Stock Exchange Group), Nerio Alessandri (Technogym)
  • Startups and Universities. Would that ever work?, involving Stewart McTavish (Cambridge), Tom Byers (Stanford), Willem Jonker (EIT Digital)
  • Meet the New Women Entrepreneurs from EU, discussing the gender gap with Asa Nordgren (Trice Imaging), Ebba Blitz (Alertsec), Valentina Morigi (Tensive), Jutta Weigh (Appthetable) – Moderated by Adiba Barney (SVForum, Women in Tech).

During the conference SEC2SV Sounding Board will be launched, a group of selected EU born/SV residents entrepreneurs and investors interested in supporting EU policy makers on policies re: Digital Single Market and Scale-up of EU Startup Ecosystem. Among the others, Peter Arvai (Prezi), Fabrizio Capobianco (Tok.tv, Funambol), Andrew J.Scott (Urban Life), Adeyemi Ajao (Workday, Tuenti), Ouriel Ohayon (Appsfire, BlaBlaCar).

With more than 500+ attendees expected at EID, and a DEMO area for the selected EU Scaleups (names will be announced early next week), we recommend you mark your calendar for what promises to be the premier event for connecting Silicon Valley with the growing European startup ecosystem.

We expect other big surprises, so stay tuned.

*TBC