40+ Startup Ceos And Entrepreneurs Come To D.C. For Annual Advocacy Conference

(MENAFN- GlobeNewsWire - Nasdaq) From May 3-6, ACT members will hold meetings with Members of Congress, Senators, Administration officials and staff

Washington, DC, May 04, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- On Sunday, May 3, the Association for Competitive Technology (ACT) welcomed more than 40 startup founders, small technology leaders, and entrepreneurs to Washington, D.C., for their 2026 Global App Economy Conference (GAEC).

The United States has the most vibrant and innovative digital economy in the world, and startups and small technology companies are the engine that drives more than $1.8 trillion annually in economic output and supports more than 1.6 million jobs in communities across the country.

ACT members will meet with Members of Congress, Administration officials, and staff to discuss U.S. policy priorities for 2026. Members will advocate on crucial topics ranging from artificial intelligence to competition policy, including curated online marketplace (COM) regulation, to age verification and privacy to standard-essential patent licensing and digital health.

During last year's GAEC: U.S. our members held more than 80 meetings across Capitol Hill and the executive branch, successfully shifting the focus of policy debates toward the real-world needs of small tech innovators.

“We've been hosting a fly-in for ACT members for more than two decades, and every year is more consequential than the last. While ACT is active year-round supporting the voices of tech entrepreneurs, our spring fly-in provides the best opportunity for legislators and regulators to hear directly from the startups and entrepreneurs who are keeping the United States on the forefront of innovation,” said Morgan Reed, president of ACT.“There is a unique power in looking a policymaker in the eye to explain how a specific regulation affects your business's bottom line. These face-to-face meetings transform abstract policy debates into real-world impacts.”

ACT and its member companies will focus on six key policy priorities:

• Privacy, Age Assurance, and Data Security
• Artificial Intelligence
• Competition, Antitrust, and Marketplace Policies
• Standard-Essential Patents
• Federal Tax Incentives and Small Business Innovation Research Funding
• Digital Health Policy Essentials and Wearable Devices

For more information on ACT's U.S. Policy Priorities: #us_policy

ACT Member Companies Attending 2026 Global App Economy Conference: U.S.

365. Training	BadVR	Blue Badge Insights, Inc
Bufaga	Canned Spinach	Cabra Dynamics, LLC
Cadet Affect	Devscale	Epic Reach
Health Recovery Solutions (HRS)	KissUX	Lazy Moose Co
TimHuckaby	Altvia	AI Skill Studio
Fortified	Fresco Capital	FMS, Inc.
LunarLab	Menopausey	Metric Mate
NeuEon, Inc.	OrangePro Technologies Corp.	Pills2Me Inc.
PRIVO	Protopia AI	Quanthym
Sigao Studios	Quokka	Aperture Advisory
Southern DNA	Tahubu	TechNeed
Traceless	Wasilewski Holdings	Vēmos

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About the Association for Competitive Technology (ACT):
ACT is a global technology trade association representing startups and small technology businesses. We work directly with our members worldwide to advocate for a policy environment that takes into account their real-world challenges and supports innovation, access to capital, job creation, and the ability of small technology companies to grow and compete globally.

About ACT's Global App Economy Conference
For nearly two decades, ACT's Global App Economy Conferences (GAEC) have brought our startup and small tech members together for three days of founder-to-founder networking and direct engagement with policymakers on the rules shaping the digital economy. By giving startups, scaleups, and tech-driven small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) access and resources to share their stories directly with policymakers, our members can advocate for clear, streamlined rules that allow innovative companies to build and scale across borders. Read more about our GAEC: UK 2026 policy priorities.

CONTACT: Jack Fleming Association for Competitive Technology (ACT) 3108467789...

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