This Monday, a group of select innovation experts and mentors is starting a six-week-long road show through 15 Russian cities – from Rostov-upon-Don, to Astrakhan, to Tomsk, to Vladivostok in the Far East – aiming to meet thousands of local startup entrepreneurs, innovators, and representatives of technoparks.
In each city, the program consists of presentations, master classes and seminars, business games, and consultations, all in a bid to raise local innovators’ knowledge of international and domestic best practice as well as to improve their ability to develop projects and companies.
The road show involves ten government bodies, exemplifying the Russian state’s efforts to stimulate innovation activity in the country. Among these bodies are the Skolkovo Foundation, which is completing a giant tech hub project on the outskirts of Moscow, the fund of funds RVC, and Innovate Russia, a program of the Youth State Agency. Also partnering with the tour are VTB Capital, the venture arm of leading financial institution VTB, the Agency for Strategic Initiatives (ASI), President Putin’s brainchild, and three federal ministries, as well as Finland’s Startup Sauna.
