U.S.-China Policy Hackathon

Regional-Level Policies to Promote Business Innovation Collaboration

On October 29, 2019, as part of the George H. W. Bush Conference on U.S.-China Relations, the Foundation convened a U.S.-China Policy Hackathon on “Regional-Level Policies to Promote Business Innovation Collaboration.” Three competing teams were given five hours to develop solution sets to the following question: Given the current tensions in the U.S.-China relationship, particularly at the federal level, what policies can local officials and regional stakeholders in the United States adopt to encourage Americans and Chinese to work together to generate new, value-adding and mutually beneficial innovation in business, trade and investment?

A team presents its proposal on business innovation to judges

Sunny Zhang introduces the policy hackathon at the 2019 Bush China Conference

The three teams presented the following proposals in front of a panel of judges and all conference attendees:

Proposal One
Focusing on connecting the U.S. heartland and China, match local resources to international investors’ needs by establishing strategic local-level non-governmental organizations to facilitate matchmaking between investors and communities via a nation-wide platform akin to the dating website, match.com.

PRESENTED BY:
Maiyue CHENG
Trustee, Wuzhen Institute

Min FAN
Founder, USChinaNOW

Mark LaVALLE
Partner, KPMG

Ryan RAY
Managing Director, R-Squared Global

Proposal Two
Retool and reframe existing people-to-people exchanges facilitated by sister city relationships to create local bilateral business trade and investment exchanges via targeted investment parks, representative offices and city-to-city business delegations.

PRESENTED BY:
Rosana ELLIS
Chief Operating Officer, PhDsoft Technology Inc.

Jordan FRISBY
Economist, Port Houston

Michelle LI
Assistant President, Coway International TechTrans Co., Ltd.

Stone ZHANG
Managing Director, InnovationMap Inc.

Proposal Three
Offer targeted training for local U.S. businesses that entail sending employees on extended-stay business immersion programs (6 months or longer in duration) to work in Chinese organizations in order to build cultural awareness, international business competency and connections with Chinese partners.

PRESENTED BY:
Haoyi CHEN
Phd, JD, Partner, Arch & Lake LLP, Houston Office

Scott HUTCHESON
Continuing Lecturer, Purdue University

Alan MORGAN
President and CEO, Innovaum, LLC

Yiping SHEN
CEO, WE Innovation Group

Neil Bush (center) presents an award to the winners of the 2019 U.S.-China Policy Hackathon

Policy hackathon judges: (from L to R) Chris Olson, Ying McGuire, Angelos Angelou

Special thanks to our U.S.-China Policy Hackathon mentors:

Charles KNOBLOCH
Attorney, Patents, Trademarks, Copyright

Scott SHEMWELL
Managing Director, Rapid Response Institute 

Mark WINCHESTER
Deputy District Director, U.S. Small Business Administration