On September 13, Mind the Bridge hosted a policy hackathon sponsored by Dell at the MTB Innovation Center in San Francisco. The Dell PolicyHack™ brought together entrepreneurs and U.S./EU policy experts to solve policy challenges. 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.
My team was formed by:
Sara R. Klucking (Section Chief, Innovation & Programs, Office of Science and Technology Cooperation, US Department of State) Bogdan Ceobanu (Policy Officer, Startups & Innovation, European Commission) David Hodgson (CEO, Hummingbird Labs) me The five teams had 75 minutes to come up with a policy solution to issue areas that impact entrepreneurs.
During my flight to Boston I read “Regenesis”, the interesting genomic science book by Professor George Church, which was a gift from my friend Dr. Raminderpal Singh.
On Wednesday evening I had a very interesting conversation in Boston with both of them. Neither of them needs an introduction in the genomics world, but for those of you outside the field:
Raminder is Vice-president at Eagle Genomics and Advisor at Kanteron Systems.
The weekend of February 27 and 28 I set up my first art exhibition as Independent International Art Curator.
In collaboration with the Internet Freedom Festival, held in Las Naves (Valencia) from 2 to 6 March, Net Freedom Art Show is an international, itinerant, collective and multidisciplinary contemporary art show. After its debut in Valencia, it will be exhibited in galleries around the world (New York, London, Santiago de Chile, and Kaunas).
Tuesday March 1 I had a conversation with Dr. DJ Patil, the First White House Chief Data Scientist, at the Venetian Hotel in Las Vegas.
He was interested in discussing ways in which the White House can help healthcare technology companies like mine. The first issue I raised was my concern over the FBI’s request for Apple to decrypt a suspected criminal’s iPhone.
My position in this issue is well known: weak encryption means weak security for ALL of us, so nobody can request weak security for security’s sake.
On February 25 a group of medical imaging researchers from Microsoft came to our company’s headquarters in Valencia (Spain) for a day-long workshop on bleeding edge medical image software.
I must admit that just a few years ago I would have laughed at the idea of such an occurrence for many reasons. But things change, and now Microsoft is much more open (and convinced) about Open Source software, their researchers have demonstrated exceptional ability in advanced medical imaging analysis algorithms (unlike their failed business strategy around Amalga), and my company has grown and innovated to the point where it captures the interest and even enthusiasm of some of the largest technology companies in the world.
Yesterday, after spending the day at a tradeshow in Düsseldorf, on my way by train to the hotel in Mülheim, I stopped in the town of Duisburg, which was on my way, because I heard they were setting up a Christmas market. The market was indeed being set up, but it was still closed, so I decided to go back to the station. To avoid the sprinkling rain I took the 901 tram at König-Heinrich Platz.
On Friday, November 6th, I was invited by Marcus Stuttard, head of AIM (the London Stock Exchange’s growth market), to participate in the London Stock Exchange market opening ceremony, which takes place daily at 8:00 am.
The ceremony offers companies joining London Stock Exchange’s markets the opportunity to mark their success on the day of their admission. The event was followed by drinks and breakfast.
The reason why I was invited is because one of my companies (Kanteron Systems) had been selected as a member of the #ScaleUpClub 2015.
