Building the future of public affairs
After a few years working on tech policy in Brussels, I've decided it was time to use my engineering skills to make the job of public affairs professionals a breeze
When I moved to Brussels to work in public affairs, one of the first tasks I was asked to do is to evaluate the evolution of trends within the European Parliament. To get a sense of what was happening, I had to go through the European Parliament's website, download the data, sort it in a spreadsheet, and then produce a report that would be outdated by the time it was finished. Half a day later, I had written a few lines of Google Apps Script to automate the process, cutting the time by two thirds.
Public affairs and law in general are filled with legal experts, but not necessarily data experts and engineers. A few years later, experimenting on my own, I decided that it was time to finally make the job of public affairs professionals a breeze so they can focus on what they do best: understanding the law and influencing the decision-making process.
And oh boy, I can tell you that there is a lot of work ahead! But I am more than happy to take on the challenge. Earlier this month, I decided to quit my job to focus on building the future of public affairs, and I am not doing it alone. Euratechnologies, France's number-one startup incubator, has agreed to support me in this journey.
From now on, I will (almost*) exclusively focus on PolicyMate and will share my journey with you. I will write about the challenges I face, the solutions I find, and the lessons I learn. I hope you will find this journey as exciting as I do! If interested, you can follow me on Twitter and LinkedIn and join the waiting list on PolicyMate's website.
* I am starting my own freelance consulting business with a strong focus on cyber and data policies. Please do not hesitate to reach out if you need help in these areas.
Reflecting on my Brussels experience
I moved to Brussels hoping to have an impact on EU tech policy, and I can confidently say it's been an amazing experience! Dozens of legislative proposals, some of them far removed from technical reality, kept me very busy.
As a public affairs consultant with a technical background, I tried my best to bridge the gap between worlds that rarely interact enough. Engineers find solutions but can miss the bigger-picture implications; officials focus on the big picture but sometimes overlook how the internet actually works.
And I can tell you that the best progress happens when these worlds collaborate! The Open Source Community's impact on the Cyber Resilience Act is a perfect example of this.
I truly hope that my work on PolicyMate will make government relations easier to access and understand for everyone by lowering the barrier to entry.