Startup Village – 2014
SV-2014: more villages, more innovations
The first "village" was visited by 5,000 people last year, this year on June 2-3, one and a half times more participants are expected, and preliminary accreditation is already underway. According to the organizer and producer of the event, Alina Suslova, the physical dimensions of the site will be one and a half times larger. The main stage will be enlarged accordingly. Taking into account the experience of last year, a canopy will be made over the platform in front of the main stage, designed for 2 thousand seats, so that the weather does not prevent startups and investors from interacting in any way.
In addition to the main stage, a smaller stage is also provided. It will host master classes and presentations of partner competitions - a more interactive format, says Alina Suslova.
These are not the only changes in the physical structure of SV-2014, which, according to the Vice-President of the Foundation Alexander Chernov, should even more embody the spirit of a real Russian village, welcoming innovators from all over the country and from abroad.
Ekaterina Inozemtseva, Strategy Director of the Skolkovo Foundation, emphasizes that this year not only Russian, but also, as the organizers expect, foreign startups will participate in the competition. "We collect them, including through partner technology parks in China and Finland," says Ms. Inozemtseva. – Maxim Mikhailov and Pekka Vilyakainen invite colleagues to send their startups here: not just to listen, but also to participate in the competition. We are counting on Finnish startups very much, the Chinese have not yet confirmed their participation.
But it would be great, because then we would have a more international status. It is clear that panel discussions and master classes will be held with the participation of Western speakers, but last year we did not have a single foreign startup. We really hope that there will be this year."
Speaking of foreign participants, the arrival of a large delegation of Finnish entrepreneurs led by one of the creators of the Angry Birds game Peter Vesterbaka and representatives of the Startup Sauna has been confirmed.
If we talk about the main essential innovations of Startup Village 2014, then, according to Ekaterina Inozemtseva, there are two of them. This is a separate tent that Skoltech is building, as well as a startup bazaar. Prototypes and innovative products of not only Skolkovo participants will be presented there. Last year, we recall, there was only an exhibition of Skolkovo participants.
Some details of what the Skoltech bazaar and pavilion will be like were told by Alina Suslova. "The startup bazaar area will look like a real market – with counters. 50 innovative projects on these shelves will be able to present their developments. Some of the startups will be Skolkovo, other projects will be on the topic of construction of Moscow, the urban environment – together with the Moscow Government, as well as RVC and the Bortnik Foundation. In addition, the top 20 innovative Skolkovo projects at advanced stages will be presented on the first floor of the Hypercube: our stars, our leaders, who have already achieved some success."
As for the Skoltech tent, it promises a very interesting program. "They will have a special platform for robot and drone competitions," says Alina Suslova. – This year we also made a partnership project together with the Association of Innovative Regions of Russia. Ivan Mikhailovich Bortnik offered us to bring the best children-inventors from the regions. Within two days they will have their own program, their own equipment, including 3D printers. The guys will create and show their creativity to visitors – they will have their own room on the second floor of the Hypercube."
As it happened at the first startup village, four tents will be given away for pitch sessions. In this sense, nothing has changed compared to last year, but the topics of the pitch sessions themselves have been slightly adjusted; here they are:
- The digital world
- Health On
- Energotech
- NidhProm
Pitch sessions (short five-minute presentations and five minutes of questions and answers) are a key element of the startup competition, which will be held at Startup Village 2014. Ekaterina Inozemtseva explains how startups will be able to take part in it and who will evaluate their performances. Ten to twenty companies will compete in each pitch session. The jury members are representatives of business angels, venture capital companies, and technical experts. The Fund's clusters will invite them to participate. And on the other hand, any investor who registers for the event will have a button when registering: I want to participate in the jury. That is, on some topics, it is quite possible that "self-nominees" will get into the jury.
In each direction, one winner will be selected, who will get to the final on June 3. A total of 200 startups are allowed to participate in pitch sessions. 20 finalists are selected from them. Three winners are selected from these finalists. 200 companies are formed from several sources. Firstly, it is a free registration. That is, people go to the Startup Village website and say: I want to participate.
The second source is the winners of our Startup Tour from each city – there will be 81 of them. Accordingly, there will be clearly more than two hundred of these companies in total. Cluster experts, after analyzing their presentations, will select the required 200 from them, who will make five-minute presentations on June 2. The jury votes. At the end of the day we summarize the results, the next day we announce 20 finalists."
As the experience of the previous innovation village has shown, everything is important for its participants: not only what, but also how it happens on a huge open area around the first Skolkovo building, the Hypercube. That's why the organizers pay such attention to details.
Says Alina Suslova: "We will use the concept of the village in the exterior design. Of course, we do not mean a village in the classical sense; it will be an innovative village: natural materials and Startup Village services that have already become traditional: baskets with vegetables, fruit carts. Everyone who visited the startup village last year remembered our cows, they became a kind of innovative symbol of Skolkovo. This year the cows will change their appearance somewhat.
Another innovation. Since the concept of the event is maximum openness, the meeting rooms will be located on the street: it will resemble a summer cafe – tables under large umbrellas. We strive for maximum communication on the site, where there should be no closed zones.
It is also important to note that this year we are doing a separate program for volunteers: 150 volunteers will work with us. We are doing it together with a special Mosvolonter program under the Government of Moscow. It will be attended by students from different metropolitan universities. In particular, among them will be volunteers who worked in Sochi. The main task is to help the guests navigate the site and create a festive atmosphere – just like in Sochi."
Details about the SV venue and how to get to Skolkovo are here.
Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru16.005.2014