On June 8, Alexi Madon, CompTIA Director of State Government Affairs for the Midwest spoke at the State of Regulation in Silicon Valley sponsored by Fiscal Note. The event hosted two panel discussions – one focusing on the interaction of startups and government and the other on data privacy. Madon, staff lead for the CompTIA State Privacy Committee participated on the data privacy panel, articulating how privacy laws impact everyday functions of tech companies and how important it is for companies to work with regulators to educate them on privacy initiatives within the industry.
Several startup companies attended to gain a better understanding on tech advocacy and how they can work for better public policy in the tech space. The data privacy panel - which also included members from VMWare, law firm Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe, and ExcelinEd – spoke to how education can be the key to success. Helping legislators understand the product, how it works, how it helps consumers and other like information de-mythicizes the product and can lead to a great working relationship with officials. Additionally, by advocating for uniform positions throughout the states, the tech industry can work to avoid a wide swath of varying public policies on the same issue.
All in all, panel members were very informative and great participation from the audience led to a quality event. Want to know more? Email Alexi Madon at amadon@comptia.org.
