Last Thursday, a delegation of international students participating in a modular seminar of Aalto University and the Graduate School of Management, St. Petersburg University visited ITMO. The Seminar was dedicated to studying entrepreneurship in Finland and Russia; after visiting Aalto University, the students were invited to ITMO, where representatives from the Department of Projects and Innovations ran a series of lectures about the peculiarities of Russia’s innovation infrastructure.
In particular, the startupers talked about how to launch, work and promote a Russian startup in the Western market. Among those who shared their experience were Alexandra Olenina, the founder of StudyQA, a company that helps selecting educational programmes worldwide, Gideon Nweze, a graduate of the TURN8 Program, and founder of Kickcity, Alexander Alkhov (we published an interview with Alexander earlier, where he talked about additional education in St. Petersburg).
“At this point, the participants of the seminar are not focused on creating their own business, but it’s important for them to understand what is happening in the world, in other universities, in order to be professional business consultants. It’s important to attract their attention to the fact that Russia also has high-quality innovative R&D, since in ten years, they will represent their field. We are also trying to promote the residents of our business incubators and participants of our accelerator programs, so that they would interact with an international audience and meet potential collaborators. They are all focused on promoting their businesses abroad, and therefore we hold regular meetings with those who are potentially interested in developing Russian startups abroad” - explained Ekaterina Egoshina, head of marketing and innovative activities at ITMO University.
The university also conducted a similar training seminar for students of the UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School. The participants noted that meeting students from different countries helps them get a fresh perspective on the economy and how it will develop in the future.
