The nation is over-conferenced and many people have too many events on their calendar already. We understand. There are more events and news stories for us to cover than existing resources allow.
But, since 2012, the Kyiv Post has put tremendous energy into its now 5th annual English-language conference that takes place around American Thanksgiving. We call it the Tiger Conference because it remains our hope that Ukraine will have a tiger, as in fast-growing, economy soon. It hasn’t worked out that way for many reasons.
The conference is a low-budget but not a low-quality affair. We don’t spend the millions of dollars on honorariums that billionaire Victor Pinchuk lays out for speakers to his annual Yalta European Strategy conferences. We can’t afford to spend anything on honorariums at all.
Yet every year, we are blessed by great people willing to speak in the public interest on serious public policy issues.
We have corporate and other sponsors whose support ensures we at least break even, essential for an independent and commercial newspaper that survives mainly on revenue from advertising, subscriptions and such events.
We try, however, to include fun events and pack them all into a 24-hour period. This year, we will have a reception on the eve of the Nov. 29 conference, six panels the day of the conference and an evening awards ceremony – honoring the top 30 Ukrainians under 30 years of age and expat Stuart McKenzie for his contributions to Ukraine.
The top 30 under 30 awards were one of the welcome ideas of Kyiv Post CEO Luc Chenier.
We hope as many people as possible can join us or watch the livestream. Otherwise, the Kyiv Post can be counted on to provide complete coverage.
