Startup Village producer, Alina Suslova speaks about the conference preparation and agenda.
― Startup Village is an event of unprecedented scale in Russia. Some of the biggest events of the past featured 500 members. We are setting a new record of 1000 startups participating at our event. To realize this rather complex task we have launched a big campaign to promote the event. Additionally, Pekka Viljakainen and his Commercialization project office announced Startup Village during the Russian Startup Tour, a road show of development Institutes touring 15 Russian towns.
Everyone is weary of a traditional business forum format lacking interactivity. Startup Village’s approach is different as it emphasizes master-classes, discussions, success stories presentations, and startup pitch-sessions for the investors. Startup Village goal is to create a community of experts with interesting ideas and investors with venture capital. Our event is a great opportunity of mutually beneficial interaction between them.
One of the events at the Startup Village is a panel discussion dedicated to the Russian startup community. This should motivate those interested in innovation to create their own startup. Our primary target is young people as they are open to innovation. Startup Village participants should get an impression: “Yes, this is great! We should launch something similar in our own region.”
Registration for the Startup Village is free and available on our web site. An applicant must choose one of the 4 fields of interest: IT, Life Sciences, Clean Technologies or Industrial. The event is open to startup companies and other interested parties.
Submissions will be judged based on the following criteria: idea, team, the level of detail and planning, project’s market potential and relevancy. Our experts will evaluate each proposal before accepting it. The main criterion is project’s appeal for investors.
Projects that were rejected at the preliminary screening may still take part in the event and interact with investors in an informal setting.
Projects accepted at the preliminary screening will present their ideas at the event. For each of the 4 fields, except for IT, presentation time is limited to 5 minutes. IT presentations will be limited to 2 minutes. We are firm in our belief that each businessman should have a 1-sentence pitch of his idea – that is the key to success.
On the first day of the Startup Village a jury of investors and experts will select 20 projects. On the second day these 20 authors will give a 10-minute presentation on the main stage. Three winners will receive monetary rewards and gifts from our partners.
The dress code for the event is casual. This “no-tie” approach is aimed at establishing an atmosphere of closer collaboration between investors and startups.
On May 27 once the presentation part of the event is over we plan a quality evening program. We have a great reason for celebration – the Foundations’ third anniversary. We have planned a musical mini-festival featuring famous groups and DJ’s.