Goodbye Global Innovators? Understanding how America’s immigration and visa policies impact innovation, competitiveness and entrepreneurship

Wednesday, October 16, 2013    
9:30 am - 1:30 pm

The Global Innovation Forum of the National Foreign Trade Council and University of Colorado Boulder are organizing a discussion and lunch in partnership with Boulder Chamber, Boulder Economic Council, Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce, Denver South Economic Development Partnership, South Metro Denver Chamber of Commerce and the Partnership for a New American Economy to explore policy issues surrounding the ability of the United States to attract and retain top global talent.  The purpose is to convene students, faculty, entrepreneurs and business voices to understand how current policies affect business, startup and university communities to inform better the debate surrounding high-skilled immigration and global mobility policies in Washington.

The conference will engage business and education leaders in the region in a dialogue about the importance of public policy to innovation.  It is meant to elicit stories about how individual successes contribute to the U.S. economy, understand how current policies may prevent or impede foreign-born individuals from pursuing job-creating activities in the United States, and attempt to draw out a discussion of how the American Government and educational system can help enhance the ability of foreign-born individuals to contribute to the U.S. economy.

Roundtable agenda

9:30am          Registration and coffee                       

9:55am          Welcome and goals for the meeting 

Jake Colvin, Vice President, National Foreign Trade Council

Frances Draper, Vice Chancellor, Strategic Relations, University of Colorado Boulder 

10:00am        The impact of U.S. visa and immigration policies on American businesses and entrepreneurs

Discussants:

Brad Hendrick, Member, Caplan and Earnest

Ray Hutchins, Chief Information Officer, iDesDa

Hanna Siegel, Strategy & Communications, Partnership for a New

American Economy

Norman Stucker, General Manager, PADT-Denver

11:00am        The impact of visa and immigration policies on innovation, research and life in university communities

Discussants:

Waleed Abdalati, Director, Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES), a joint institute of the University of Colorado Boulder and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

Larry Bell, Executive Director, International Education, Global CU

Mark Hallett, Senior Director, International Student & Scholar Services, International Student Program Development, Office of International Programs, Colorado State University

Alina M. Handorean, Ph.D, Post-Doctoral Student and Research Faculty, Hernández Environmental Engineering Labs, Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering Department, University of Colorado Boulder

Joanne White, Ph.D student ATLAS, RA Project EPIC Colorado, University of Colorado Boulder.

12:15pm        Luncheon and discussion

Featuring remarks by Philip P. DiStefano, Chancellor,

University of Colorado Boulder