Yevgeny Savchenko: «Belgorod region will become a startup factory»
All-Russian Conference Startup Tour «Open Innovations» was opened at the flagship regional university.
The event is held by Skolkovo Foundation with the support of the Government of the Russian Federation and the leading national development institutions.
The largest event in Russia to find promising innovative projects and develop the competencies of beginning startup teams implementing ideas in the sphere of high technologies has been held for the sixth consecutive year in various cities of Russia. The central theme of the Startup Tour of 2018 is «Digital Challenges of the Russian Economy».
At the opening of the conference, the participants were greeted by the Governor of the Belgorod Region Evgeny Savchenko.
«There are a lot of bright, talented, creative young people in the Belgorod region. It creates good conditions for the realization of their creative opportunities, creates a support infrastructure,» the governor said, and noted that this event will be an excellent incentive for implementing as many creative initiatives as possible.
In a welcoming speech, the rector of BSTU named after V.G. Shukhov Sergey Glagolev emphasized that the university today is one of the best universities in Russia. This became possible, thanks to the reform of the education system, the development of innovation and technology entrepreneurship. Thus, over the past few years, the number of projects - winners of innovation competitions of the Fund for Promoting Innovations «UMNIK», «Start» and «Commercialization» has grown 3 times.
«The main thing about Startup Tour is the knowledge and experience that young innovators will receive in the course of communication with colleagues, experts, representatives of companies that are present here today and will mark potentially interesting projects for investment, » said Sergey Nikolaevich.
Within two days of the conference, a rich program is waiting for young scientists and innovators to learn about the measures of state support for start-ups, the implementation of the AgroNTI federal project in Belgorod region, and the cooperation of large corporations with start-ups.
On the first day of the event, the leading businessmen, who achieved high results in the labor market and services, spoke in front of the audience. Also, some of them held master classes on the basics of the company's creation and development: from a business plan to product promotion in the markets.
The presentation of the Advisor to the President of the Skolkovo Foundation Pekka Villakainen on «Working with business angels» was particularly fascinating.
A legendary man who founded his company at the age of 13, he told the participants about working with «business angels» - private individuals, entrepreneurs who invest their money in promising projects at the initial stage of their development. The businessman is very accessible, emotionally and with humor told about how to learn start-up investment.
In the second half of the Startup-tour program, a mentor session was held, where leading experts evaluated innovative projects of young scientists, and the Startup MBA, during which speakers also advised on the implementation of projects.
The general director of the investment fund AAA TRUST, the founder of the educational platform Player & Coaches, the business coach Igor Dubinnikov shared his personal experience about his achievements and ideas.
Independent expert Anna Brusnitsyna in her speech «Marketing beyond the boundaries of templates» cited examples of successful commercial realizations in the consumption market.
On the second day of the event, a competition of projects will be held. The winners of the full-time stage will present their projects at the StartupVillage - a large platform for meeting young innovators with sponsors and interested people in order to promote their scientific innovation ideas and the opportunity to win five million rubles from the Skolkovo Foundation to implement their projects.