Startup Village, the biggest conference of its kind in Russia and Eastern Europe, won the Silver Archer award Thursday for promoting science and innovation.
The prestigious prize is awarded in 11 categories for the top public relations achievements in various fields, and Skolkovo’s Startup Village beat out competition from seven other projects at the Moscow ceremony.
“As I see it, this is a very significant success,” said Skolkovo vice president Alexander Chernov.
Startup Village is a two-day conference held over the summer at the Skolkovo Innovation Center outside Moscow. Now in its third year, the June 2-3 event attracts in excess of 10,000 people, including hundreds of high-tech startups, investors, mentors, students, scientists and global media.
Top innovations are displayed in a hands-on exhibition, and startups from all over the country battle it out in the pitch sessions to win grants and possible Skolkovo residency. Startup Village is a key weapon in Skolkovo's mission to catalyze economic diversification.
Chernov explained why he believed the Silver Archer award was deserved.
“Organizing the biggest conference in Eastern Europe means we have to mobilize every single department of the Skolkovo Foundation, without exception: from the front and back offices to the construction and city services, from Skoltech and Open University Skolkovo,” he said.
Planning for this year’s Startup Village began months ago. The event is the culmination of the currently ongoing Russian Startup Tour, in which a Skolkovo delegation travels around Russia, Kazakhstan and Belarus in search of the best local innovators to promote a culture of startups across the region.
“Startup Village has a hidden agenda,” Chernov confessed. “To create a certain attitude towards the Skolkovo project, to form it, focusing on the very values that we invest in the project ourselves.”
The prize at its Skolkovo home. Photo: sk.ru
“This appraisal by the professionals [the Silver Archer award] – and that’s exactly what this is, we’re talking about a professional award, when the leading PR executives in the country say, ‘Yes, this project is a serious public relations success,’ – this is worth its weight in gold,” Chernov added.
Skolkovo staff had to defend the project along with the rest of the nominees in five-minute presentations last Wednesday.
Chernov said he would happily have voted for any of the other contenders, which appeared equally worthy.
“But it turned out that the jury came out in our favor, and I believe that was the right and just decision."
In total, more than 180 projects were nominated for this year’s Silver Archer awards, which were inaugurated in 1997 and held in the United States as a one-off event in 2010.