This year’s Open Innovations tech forum will be hosted by the Skolkovo innovation centre, the event’s organizing committee headed by Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich has decided.
The forum, which this year runs from October 26-28, will be held in the mammoth Skolkovo Technopark that is due to open earlier in the autumn.
Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich, 2nd from left, takes a tour of the giant Skolkovo Technopark where the Open Innovations forum will be held in late October. Photo: Sk.ru.
“There are more than ten forums and conferences devoted to innovations every year in Russia – both in Moscow and in the regions – but it is Open Innovations that should, in my opinion, become the main one,” said Dvorkovich, the government’s point man on entrepreneurship and innovative technologies.
“This year’s forum will focus on tech entrepreneurship, which is crucial for [the country’s] development,” he added.
The Skolkovo Technopark – the biggest in Eastern Europe, covering 96,300 square metres – will during Open Innovations host a showroom of cutting-edge technologies from across Russia that are supported by the Skolkovo Foundation and other development institutes.
The heads of some of the world’s leading tech companies and communities are expected to attend the forum, which will include a startup show and opportunities for entrepreneurs to meet with representatives of government and big business in an informal setting.
The forum will also incorporate Eurasian Week, a summit of the member countries of the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU): Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Armenia and Kyrgyzstan. The Eurasian Week part of the forum will focus on high-tech exports and the formation of a network for tech production.
Open Innovations brings together Russia’s development institutes, including Russian Venture Company, Rusnano and the Foundation for the Support of Small Science and Tech Enterprises and VEB development bank. It is backed by the Ministry of Economic Development and the Science and Education Ministry, as well as by the Moscow city government.