YEES 2011, a collaborative Russian-US forum dedicated to modern entrepreneurship and innovation techniques took place in Moscow last week.
The forum gathered over 50 speakers from venture funds, scientific circles, government agencies as well as tech firms and Internet startups. Among them were high level representatives from Cambridge University, Google and Intel Capital as well as leading Russian Internet company Mail.ru Group, and Skolkovo, the state-sponsored innovation hub under construction near Moscow.
In a series of keynote addresses and panel discussions, participants discussed a variety of subjects from human-computer interaction and user interfaces to artificial intelligence to future trends.
During the forum, several important announcements were made. Intel Capital, in particular, announced its investments in two Russian startups, Sapato and AlterGeo.
Of note was an instructive section on innovation and entrepreneurship in the Northern Caucasus – the Southern Russian region known especially for recent bloody political and ethnic conflicts and international tensions. The participants, among which were representative of local business associations, online media and Internet companies, named regional stereotyping and the difficulty in obtaining credit as key obstacles to the development of local businesses.
YEES is a two-phase event, with the second part scheduled for September 30 in San-Francisco.
