The scent of Silicon Valley wafted in the air on Tuesday at the Russian Youth Innovation Convention in Moscow. In addition to gathering over 800 aspiring entrepreneurs from all over the country, the event attracted such international celebrities as Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, Gmail creator Paul Bucheit, Angry Birds founder Peter Vesterbacka and Virgin Galactic CEO George Whitesides.
Key Russian market players were well represented too with Igor Agamirzian of the Russian Venture Company, Gleb Davidyuk of iTech Capital, Sasha Galitsky of Almaz Capital, Kirill Macharinsky of Ostrovok.ru, Alexander Naumov of the Skolkovo Foundation, among many others.
The day long event hosted nearly thirty lectures, panel discussions and workshops offering insights into general themes like smart money or the globalization of innovation as well as more specific topics like innovation in warfare and security, Facebook’s success story and Skolkovo’s approach to commercializing technology.
In his lecture entitled ‘The Code of Success,’ Wozniak told young Russian entrepreneurs that knowledge, personal interest and passion were more important than big money to create innovation. “Money can kill creativity,” he said. Calling entrepreneurs to abandon their fears, he recalled the early days of Apple, “When Steve Jobs and I were in our early 20s, we had no college degrees, we had no business experience. We had never even taken a business course in college. We had no money, we had no savings accounts, no relatives or friends to loan us money. We had to do everything on our own.”
Displair on the rise
In the evening, an award ceremony for a nationwide contest organized by Innovate Russia, a government sponsored innovation program also known as the ‘Zvorykinskiy Proekt.’ Among the winners were Diana Tazetdinova from Kazan, developer of a microbial preparation for biofertilizers and biopesticides, Alexander Kostevich from Moscow, with his IRA wireless battery technology, and Maxim Kamanin from Astrakhan, the founder of Displair, developer of a vapor based visual display technology.
The three startups were each offered 1 million rubles in prize money – approximately $30,000 – as well as receiving resident status at Skolkovo, the state sponsored innovation hub under completion near Moscow.
Less than three weeks ago, Displair walked away with two awards at the Technovations Cup, another national innovation competition. The startup is now being courted by major Russian and international investors and industry players, East-West Digital News learnt.
