11 September 2019
As part of the Innosocium Lab programme,
the Roscongress Foundation’s Building Trust platform hosted a discussion on
supporting youth entrepreneurship as a key factor of economic development. The
promotion of the youth business initiative is a priority for the Roscongress
Foundation’s social platform and the Innosocium Foundation for Social
Development. The discussion was joined by Svetlana Chupsheva, General Director
of the Agency for Strategic Initiatives; Vadim Zhivulin, Deputy Minister of
Economic Development of the Russian Federation; Elena Marinina, Deputy CEO of
the Roscongress Foundation and Director of the Innosocium Foundation; Tatyana
Mineyeva, Commissioner for Entrepreneurs Rights Protection in Moscow; and
Alexey Rybnikov, Director of the Analytics Center for CIS with EY.
In addition to experts, the discussion was
attended by the winners of the DevService hackathon, which was held by the
Innosocium Foundation with the support of the Roscongress Foundation and the
Agency for Strategic Initiatives (ASI) in August this year. A hackathon is a
design sprint-like event in which computer programmers and others involved in
software development, including graphic designers, interface designers and
others collaborate intensively on software projects. The global goal of the
event is to create a single platform to simplify business procedures for young
entrepreneurs. The competition
participants were offered to find an original idea of any service to simplify
the conduct of business and to assemble a team ready to finalize this service
and subsequently participate in building the platform. Both teams and
individual participants aged 16–30 were allowed to compete in the hackathon. In
total, more than 200 teams from 18 Russian cities made it to the finals, who
were invited to the ‘Boiling Point’ teamwork space to finalize their projects
within 24 hours.
“We have created an infrastructure and
support institutions for the development of social entrepreneurship,
volunteerism, and NPO support, which are aimed at promoting social activity
among young people. But as far as entrepreneurship is concerned, there are a
lot of barriers. We have a lot of guys who want to do business, not
volunteering. We must give them such an opportunity. Together with the
Innosocium Foundation, we agreed to create a job exchange, taking into account
the application offered by the guys as a result of the past hackathon, which
allows us to verify the reputation of potential employers on the platform and
to issue a legal permit for parents to employ their child. And we will
definitely ensure his or her safety and give guarantees for a social contract,”
said the head of ASI Svetlana Chupsheva.
The DevService hackathon was a logical
continuation of the work started within the framework of the Innosocium
Laboratory at SPIEF 2019. The winners of the competition have not only come up
with effective and creative solutions, but, most importantly, they are
understandable to the end users – young people.
“Supporting hackatons conducted jointly
with the ASI is a new focus for the Innosocium Foundation, which was
established by the Roscongress Foundation to support important social
initiatives in Russia. The idea was born a few months ago during the St.
Petersburg Economic Forum with a view to using the opportunities of the
Roscongress Foundation for the development of youth entrepreneurship in the
country. Our goal is to create a platform for large businesses and young people
to interact at the most important business events held by Roscongress in
Russia. This can include mentoring, grant-making and direct project financing.
At the same time, we place special emphasis on working with the regions. That
is why we brought the winners of the competition from all over the country to
Vladivostok,” said Elena Marinina, Deputy CEO of the Roscongress Foundation and
Director of the Innosocium Foundation.
The EEF 2019 discussion was followed by the
roundtable meeting ‘Mentor Lounge for Young Entrepreneurs’, featuring a
one-on-one session between business experts and DevService hackathon winners,
where entrepreneurs shared their success stories and talked with students about
possible ways to support entrepreneurship and youth through technology
platforms. A roadmap and a plan to create a single platform for young
entrepreneurs will be developed based on the results of the event.