From highly qualified professionals to newcomers on the job market, networking events in Kyiv welcome every interested professional, inspiring them, and helping them make new friends and find new business partners.
These informal parties and meetups are organized regularly to allow people from one or a range of spheres to meet, either to talk about their professional projects or to find new ones.
As networking events are flourishing in Ukraine’s capital, the Kyiv Post has picked the best ones for English speakers.
For everyone: Change Makers
With 46 parties already thrown in dozens of different locations, Change Makers is the most successful non-specialized networking event in Kyiv. It has been taking place every Thursday for more than a year now, bringing together people from various sectors.
Change Makers was launched in March 2017 by four friends from both the public and private sectors who felt there was a lack of opportunities for young professionals to meet in Kyiv.
Victor Artemenko, an independent development consultant for nongovernmental organizations and public institutions, and one of the founders of Change Makers, says that most of the meetings between people from different sectors were often very formal.
“Change Makers is made for people from NGOs, governmental organizations, media or businesses who are seeking change and making changes,” he explains.
Artemenko says he was inspired by the famous Plux weekly networking meetings in Brussels, where he lived in 2014 and 2015. Plux gathers people from European institutions, NGOs and other organizations on the Place du Luxembourg, a central square in Brussels which is nicknamed “Plux.”
Despite not having as many guests as Plux in Brussels does, Change Makers is quite successful with at least 100 participants every week, and sometimes over 200.
However, the organizers say they do not count their success by the number of participants. According to them, at least 10 people have already found a job during these meetings. A video production NGO was also created after talks during the informal parties.
Change Makers meetups are now also held in Sumy, Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk and Ternopil. Poltava and Rivne should soon have them too.
For the summer, Change Makers have set their location at the Bar of Your Friends. Every week, they create a separate Facebook event for the party.
Change Makers. Bar of Your Friends. June 28. 6:30 p. m. 13 Mykhailivska St.
For IT people: Silicon Drinkabout
Silicon Drinkabout stands out among the numerous IT networking events in Kyiv. It is the only one where not only developers and engineers are invited, but also other people from the IT sector.
Guests include project and product managers, marketing specialists or recruiters. Every Friday, over 150 IT professionals meet in a different location — usually a bar or a co-working space.
Silicon Drinkabout was launched in January 2017 by the business developer Igor Ovcharenko, the project manager Dmitry Shust, the executive director of UAngel business network Regina Makhotina and the founder and CEO of Skyworker IT career-consulting company Lidiya Terpel. Since then, it has become a top tech event in Kyiv.
The idea behind the IT networking wasn’t created in Ukraine: The first meetings were held in London in 2011, but soon the concept became popular worldwide thanks to social media. In Ukraine, Lviv and Odesa also have their own Silicon Drinkabout events.
But Silicon Drinkabout is not only a meeting, Viktor Yakubiv, a front-end developer at the Swedish company Beetroot, and regular goer explains. “I came to the event and understood that I wanted to stay, to be a part of the community. Because, it’s really different and I like to explore it,” he explains.
A core of about 50 people, now friends, come every week. But the community is much broader with more 3,000 people following Silicon DrinkAbout Kyiv on Facebook.
On June 22, the “Bar of Your Friends” will hosting the 72nd Silicon DrinkAbout meeting.
Silicon Drinkabout. The Bar of Your Friends. June 22. 8 p. m. 13 Mykhailivska St.
To find out the location and time of the next Silicon Drinkabout, go to the Facebook link.
For business professionals: Networking receptions by the British-Ukrainian Chamber of Commerce
The networking receptions organized by the British-Ukrainian Chamber of Commerce (BUCC) are probably the oldest networking event in Kyiv as the first reception was organized in 2003.
Initially only for members of the chamber, the receptions were opened to the public after a few years.
On the last Wednesday of every month, guests, including people from government, NGOs or owners of small and big businesses, meet up in Kyiv’s fanciest hotels. In summer, the events are usually held on a terrace or a rooftop venue.
Each event has a guest speaker who gives a lecture for about 20 minutes on a topic related to their field of interest. This year, the BUCC receptions hosted famous speakers like European Union Ambassador to Ukraine Hugues Mingarelli.
Next meeting will take place on July 25. The speaker and location are to be announced.
