Here’s the good news: we really have plenty of those stories. This was the first observation I made on arrival to the IT-Forum in Zaporizhzhya on Sep. 5. The line-up of the one-day single-stage conference included founders and executives such as Infotek’s Mark Marchenko (who also appears to be the main driving force behind the event), Promodo’s Oleksandr Kolb, Mykola Palienko from Prom.ua and many others.
And it’s less about conference topics — even if the speaker talks about the psychology of online spending like Kolb, or about the importance of discounts in online retail like Oleksandr Ten from Skidka.ua. It’s more about students and youth learning from the speakers by asking them questions.
After the conference kicked off, the good news came: there are more than enough youngsters — in this case, in Zaporizhya, — eager to listen to experienced business people and learn from them. The conference was surprisingly affordable for this kind of event, with admission costing just Hr 50; in addition to that about 150 tickets were distributed for free to students of local universities learning IT-related qualifications.
As a result, the audience was mostly people aged in their late teens and early twenties, who surprisingly spent most of their time listening to the speakers and asking questions, leaving the room occasionally to grab some free coffee and cookies and rest on bean bags.
The interaction at the forum between the students and established tech entrepreneurs cannot be overestimated. It showed the importance for the younger generation to be more active and gain exposure with the market if they want to work there very soon. As for the conferences that are going to take place in Ukraine soon (you know who you are), it’d make perfect sense to tailor an offer or two to the “less privileged students.”
Andrii Degeler is the Kyiv Post’s information technology reporting fellow. Degeler has been covering the IT business in Ukraine and internationally since 2009. His fellowship is sponsored by AVentures Capital, Ciklum, FISON and SoftServe. He can be reached on Twitter (@shlema) or [email protected].
