On 14-16 October, Moscow will become the innovation capital of the world: the best minds of the planet will arrive at the "Open Innovations" Forum and Expo to exchange cutting-edge ideas, showcase their advancements and chart current trends of technological development.
The III Moscow International Forum for Innovative Development "Open Innovations" and Open Innovations Expo will be held for the third time this year. In 2013, over 4,500 people from 47 countries visited the Forum: 10 countries and 23 regions of Russia were represented at the Expo of state-of-the-art technological developments, with more than 12,000 people exploring the Exposition. This ambitious project is implemented under the aegis of the Russian Government, under the auspices of the Ministry of Economic Development and with the participation of the Moscow Government, as well as the Russian Development Institutes of the Moscow City Government, ROSNANO Group, the State Corporation "Bank for Development and Foreign Economic Activities" (Vnesheconombank)," Russian Venture Company OJSC, ANO "Strategic Initiative Agency," the Skolkovo Foundation, the Foundation for Small Business Support in Science and Technology, and the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Russian Federation.
The country-partner of the Forum and Exhibition in 2014 is China — on the first day of activities at Technopolis Moscow, the plenary meeting will be held in the presence of Prime Minister of Russia Dmitry Medvedev and Premier of the State Council of the People's Republic of China Li Keqiang.
Forum experts will come from the USA and Japan, France and Israel, Canada, Ireland and other countries. Confirmed speakers include the President of Solar Impulse Bertrand Piccard, General Director of Lundavision Sven-Thore Holm, General Director of OZON Holdings Maelle Gavet, Senior Vice President of EMEA of PayPal Rupert Keeley, President of the Sophia Antipolis Dominique Fache, President of the Chinese Academy of Science Bai Chunli, Nobel Chemistry Laurente and Professor of Structural Biology at the Scripps Research Institute Kurt Wüthrich, Senior Researcher at the H-STAR Institute Henry Etzkowitz, Vice President of R&D for 3M International and APAC Joe Liu, Head of Creative Center Leverkusen at the Bayer Material Science AG Eckard Foltin, Professor at the Harvard University Mikhail Lukin, Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Dell Ingrid Vanderveldt and many other members of the science and business communities.
The Forum's overarching theme in 2014 — "Creative Disruption: Staying Competitive in the 21st Century." The international audience will be focused on the process of the creative disruption of markets, its reformation and readjustment, as well as on the influence of these processes on the different technological trends and various players of the global innovation ecosystem. Key topics of the Forum that are sure to be of interest to business and the authorities will be narrowing the gap between developed and developing countries, the organizational model of satisfaction of demand for cheap and qualitative innovations, international cooperation in the innovations sphere and its encouragement, convergence of technologies and know-how, the evolution of traditional models of business conduct in the digital age, and others.
The Forum Program in 2014 is divided into 16 sessions: international partnership, corporations, entrepreneurs, business environment, capital, science, education, space, biomedicine, public health service, smart computers, virtual reality, transport and infrastructure, green technologies, natural resources, and innovation as an answer to global challenges. Event formats range from top-level official sessions to hot debates, from panel discussions by the best minds on the planet to lively workshops and creative mash-ups.
A separate program has been prepared for young innovators, who have been selected from all over the world by an expert jury within the six months leading up to the Forum. These individuals, all under the age of 35, will converge on "Open Innovations" to gain the knowledge and contacts required for commercialization of their ideas. Authors of breakthrough inventions are in in desperate need of investments, staff and business-technology expertise, while investors and decision-makers are interested in the influx of fresh ideas and projects that could lead to future inventions. The meeting point of these cohorts is Moscow, "Open Innovations."
The Open Innovations Expo, an integral part of the "Open Innovations" Forum, is a sweeping platform for the showcasing of cutting-edge advancements and technologies both Russian and foreign, experience sharing in the successful implementation of innovative projects, and effective cooperation with the state, science and business. At the Open Innovations Expo 2014, Russian and foreign manufacturers and developers of innovative products and technologies, development institutes, Russian and foreign governmental authorities, representatives of the innovative infrastructure community, investment funds and banks, as well as consumers of innovative products will all take part.
Technological companies will be presented across six thematic blocks: new materials, health, power generation and energy efficiency, information technologies, innovative infrastructure, transport and transport infrastructure. The Start-Up Zone, with events specifically tailored to the needs of start-up groups, will take center stage at Expo 2014. Representatives of primary customers in the innovative sphere will also attend the Expo: representatives of regional and federal authorities, foreign delegations, and corporate co-organizers of the "Open Innovations" Forum and Open Innovations Expo, as well as businesspeople interested in establishing active business contacts in the innovator environment, potential investors, and head-hunters for promising young talent.
Registration for the Forum and Expo starts at the end of July 2014 at http://forinnovations.org.
themoscowtimes.com