Venture Fair in Irkutsk for young and creative

Russian Venture Fair 2012 will take place in Baikal region for the first time. The III Baikal Venture Fair will take place within the All-Russian Fair. Events of such level indicate real interest of Irkutsk in the development of innovative businesses, passing from words to deeds. The format of future events has been recently discussed by the organizing committee in Irkutsk.

RVCA holds Russian Venture Fair starting from 2000 and this is the central annual event for professionals of the domestic equity and venture capital market. Each year the fair invites the top management of major investment institutions, venture funds and direct investment banks, consulting firms, business angels, managers and owners of small and mid-capitalization innovative companies, journalists and politicians from Russia, Europe, USA and other countries.

The organizers of the event in 2012 are the administration of Irkutsk and Russian Venture Capital Association (RVCA) with the support of NO ISTU. It is planned that about 50 Russian innovation companies will present their projects at the fair.

Executive Director of RVCA Albina Nikkonen reported at the meeting that preparations for the Russian and Baikal venture fairs are in the closing stages. According to her, Russian Venture Fair will focus on the young, creative and innovative young people for the first time, Irkutsk State Technical University will supervise this issue; the University is the center of youth innovation in Irkutsk region and aims to train young entrepreneurs.

We expect that a constructive dialogue will take place at the site of ISTU, and leading experts will be able to infect the students with creativity in the technology sector. Talented young people are precious human resource that needs to be developed. We know that there are a lot of developments at university departments and laboratories, and we need people with a certain way of thinking to market the developments, - Albina Nikkonen said.

Albina Nikkonen stressed that the main purpose of the fair is to help entrepreneurs in technological innovation to navigate in today's economic environment and to understand how to attract investment from private equity investors to accelerate their business development. Venture Fair is a place of an innovative company and investor first meeting. So called marriage of convenience follows the fair: one wants to buy at a low price, and the other to sell at a high price. As a result, if an investor is interested, and an entrepreneur is adequate, then their marriage is successful.

Fair Winners in several categories will be determined by the judicial commission which will include 35 people - investors, consultants, lawyers.

Every minute counts now, everyone needs to concentrate – both the organizers and partners. We discussed the nuances, logistics, and a list of technical issues at the organizing committee. The next organizing committee will be held on August 24, - the Executive Director of RVCA said.