The regional center “My Business” hosted a large-scale forum that brought together the creative business community of the Samara region and leading experts in this field at the federal level. Over three days, the event was attended by more than 500 participants. The forum program included three tracks: “Tourism and territorial development”, “Media and advertising” and “Design and visual arts”. All topics turned out to be more than relevant for the professional community of our region, as evidenced by the lively and active discussions that took place at the Week’s events.
The Samara region is one of the leading regions in terms of the dynamics of development of creative industries. Measures to support creative entrepreneurship are being developed and implemented in the province. “The sphere of creative industries is an industry of happiness, where a person, on the one hand, can realize himself, on the other, earn money and provide for his family, and, no less important, give a creative product to all residents of the region, make them in this case a little happier,” the Head of the region Dmitry Azarov previously noted.
Opened the rich program of the Public Talk forum “Marketing the region: everything about competitive territories for tourism, residence and business.” Experts from Moscow, Samara and Ulyanovsk took part in the discussion. They shared their experience in implementing tourism projects in different regions, discussed with the meeting participants various formats of tourist spaces, the effectiveness of territory branding and ways to promote creative industries.
A highlight of the first day of the Creative Industries Week was the block of the business program dedicated to gastro-tourism. Evgeniy Reimer, restaurateur and president of the Milimon Family Association, spoke about the importance of the cultural code in the implementation of modern projects. “We did projects of different kinds – without being imbued with the cultural code of our region. And gold was under our feet! History, cultural code – this is what resonates very strongly in the hearts of the inhabitants of the region. And this is very important for tourists – the authenticity of the place, the project. The cultural code is what sets us apart. And this is something that, from a business point of view, brings very good income,” noted Evgeniy Reimer.
Creative producer of the annual gastronomic festival GASTREET Tatyana Ravilova (Moscow) told the guests of the My Business center how to attract participants to industry events and events. In addition to uniting professionals, such festival sites can become a powerful tourist magnet for the region. “The festival during the day includes all kinds of master classes, education, and training for representatives of the restaurant and hotel business. And in the evening there is networking, during which projects find their investors and employers find their employees. The most important conversations and meetings for business take place,” said Tatyana Ravilova.
Another block of the business program was dedicated to design. At the thematic meeting, participants, together with industry representatives, discussed trends in product design in Russia and the impact of design on business success in general.
The second day of the forum was entirely devoted to the topics of media and advertising. At the media breakfast, which included representatives of traditional media and online publications, journalists, bloggers, PR specialists and other media specialists, creative entrepreneurs were told how easy it is to get into the media and increase the recognition of their project. Meetings were held with regional and federal experts. They discussed with the guests of the event the main trends in cultural marketing, PR strategies that can make audiences fall in love with brands without large budgets.
The main leitmotifs of the final day of the Creative Business Week in Samara were proactivity and collaboration. Experts shared their experience in implementing successful joint projects and called on the region’s creative businesses not to be afraid to unite for fresh ideas.
“This is the first time a forum of this scale for representatives of creative industries has been held in the region. Over three days, participants were able to get acquainted with best practices, be inspired by successful examples and establish mutually beneficial partnerships, listed the Minister of Economic Development and Investment of the Samara Region, Dmitry Bogdanov. – Thanks to grant support from the region, the initiative team implemented its important social project, which will help entrepreneurs in the field of creative industries in the promotion and development of their projects. Let me remind you that until April 25 we are accepting applications for a new grant competition for socially oriented NPOs.”
