On September 29, 2021, within the framework of the Northern Forum on Sustainable Development, the Youth Startup Forum was held. The event was organized by the Northern Youth Forum and the Yakutia Innovation Development Fund. The event's partner is the Go Global World - an international community of tech entrepreneurs .
The startup forum consisted of a discussion session "Startups and Technologies for the North and the Arctic", master classes for startups and Impact Startups Pitch Session.
At the discussion session "Startups and Technologies for the North and the Arctic" representatives of the government, business and science from different countries discussed issues related to the technological development of the North and the Arctic. The session was moderated by the initiators of the startup forum Ekaterina Sofroneeva, PhD candidate and researcher at Vaasa University (Finland), and Savina Alekseeva, head of partnership and acceleration programs at Yakutia Venture Company (Russia).
Anatoly Semenov, Minister of Innovation, Digital Development and Infocommunication Technologies of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) spoke about the development of infocommunication technologies in the Arctic part of Yakutia and the innovation ecosystem of the region. Despite the fact that Yakutia is known throughout the world as a resource-extracting region, now it relies on diversifying the economy - primarily through the development of innovations, IT and creative industries. The speaker noted that startups are actively developing in the Arctic.
Paul Fuhs, President of the Marine Exchange of Alaska, member of the Arctic Economic Council commissions, noted the importance of cooperation between the Arctic countries on the use of technologies, especially in terms of sustainable development of the macroregion. For this, according to him, not only the Arctic states themselves, but also their inhabitants and, in particular, young people should be active.
Ekaterina Demidova, Head of Regional Development at the Skolkovo Foundation, shared information about their work with colleagues from the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug and the Murmansk Region and expressed her readiness to work with other northern regions of Russia, especially in terms of supporting youth entrepreneurship.
The event was attended by representatives of scientific and startup communities from the Nordic countries such as Finland, Denmark, Sweden, Alaska (USA), Canada, as well as Great Britain.
Janne Perttu from the Wasa Innovation Center (Finland) spoke about the development of the Finnish startup ecosystem. He spoke about the transformation of the public and private sectors, projects of the Innovation Center for sustainable energy, territorial cooperation Kvarken EGTC, and new technologies. He noted that a feature of the Finnish startup ecosystem is the leading role of student entrepreneurial communities, and the contribution “to cooperation instead of competition” of public and private enterprises and development institutions.
Eva Wu, Arctic Youth Network from Canada, spoke about the youth entrepreneurship development program and highlighted the importance of preserving the identity of indigenous entrepreneurship.
Celine Emma la Cour from the University of Copenhagen (Denmark) spoke about Denmark's strategy for transition to renewable energy and the country's “green” impact startup ecosystem.
Nikolai Korchunov, Ambassador-at-Large of the Russian Foreign Ministry, senior Russian official in the Arctic Council, joined the discussion. He noted the importance of such youth initiatives and wished the participants that the event would form the basis for cooperation on specific projects. According to him, it is necessary that young people be active in the technological development of the Arctic and be able to convey to national governments the most pressing issues related to this.
Zhenming Wu, Researcher at the University of Reading (England) drew the participants' attention to the problems of permafrost melting and climate change and the importance of developing technologies, in particular, InSAR technology for providing comprehensive monitoring of climate changes occurring in the Arctic and the North.
One of the technologies that can have a significant impact on the development of the world and especially the Arctic countries are wireless technologies of new generations. According to Alexei Fedorov, a researcher at the University of Lund (Sweden), technologies like 5G can lead to larger-scale technological changes in all spheres of human life, but they will be especially important for the remote northern territories.
Vasilii Efimov, director of the Yakutia Innovation Development Fund, proposed a project that could unite all Arctic countries - the Arctic Startup Expedition. The Arctic Startup Expedition will be an international program for the exchange of experience in the field of innovations, the search for and support of promising technological projects aimed at solving the technological problems of the North and the Arctic - both for the territories and population of the macroregion and for large companies. Vasilii Efimov invited the participants of the event to cooperate.
Mikhail Uksusov, Special Representative of the Chairman of the Committee of Senior Officials of the Arctic Council, asked participants to pay attention to technologies that would improve the quality of life in the Arctic and help reduce the outflow of young people.
At the end, the speakers answered questions. Answering the question " Are Startups IN the Arctic and the North necessarily startups FOR the Arctic and the North?", the speakers noted that startups from the Arctic and the North need to focus on international markets from the very beginning, and the money earned outside the Arctic and the North can be invested in the preservation of the unique natural and climatic conditions of the macroregion and its development.
To the question of "How to develop a startup ecosystem in the Arctic and the North?" the experts answered about the need to take into account the peculiarities of the conditions of the North, the need for a stable economy and business environment, the involvement of young people and indigenous people of the Arctic.
Summing up the session, the moderators noted a huge number of directions in which technologies can develop and startups appear, but it is obvious that green technologies will be the end-to-end one, since the inhabitants of the North and the Arctic feel the effects of climate change earlier and sharper than the rest of the world.
In addition to the discussion session, within the framework of the Youth Startup Forum for emerging entrepreneurs, master classes were held on the topic “How to work with an idea? "and "How to prepare for the pitch? " The speaker was Andrey Grechkin, mentor of the B8 Accelerator. Andrey has helped the development of more than 30 startups. He is a speaker of startup events in the Russian Far East and a mentor of the federal competition Archipelago 2020 and 2021.
The Impact Startups pitch session was held online. The experts were presented by startups that can change people's lives for the better, especially life in the North. Among the projects presented were projects that will help in the fight against the growing amount of plastic, early diagnosis of cancer, especially in the remote regions of the North and the Arctic, learning of native languages and creation of a united Arctic brand. Projects will be recommended by the organizers for support by international organizations.
The initiators and organizers of the Youth Startup Forum hope that the forum will be the beginning of a large-scale initiative to promote the prospects for the development of innovations, technological entrepreneurship and the development of startup ecosystems in the regions of the North and the Arctic.
____________________
We recommend subscribing to the page of the organizer of the Youth Startup Forum:
Northern Youth Forum Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/NorthernYouthForumNYF
We also recommend visiting and subscribing to social networks and key resources of the event partner - the international community of technology entrepreneurs Go Global World:
- Website: www.goglobal.world
- Global chats in English:
Facebook Chat: www.facebook.com/groups/goglobalworldchat/
Telegram Chat: https://t.me/GoGlobalWorldChat
LinkedIn Chat: https://www.linkedin.com/groups/13862213/
- Global announcements:
Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/GoGlobalWorld1/
Telegram Channel: https://t.me/GoGlobalWorld
LinkedIn Page: https://www.linkedin.com/company/go-global-world/
- Youtube “Go Global World”: https://www.youtube.com/c/GoGlobalWorld
- Eventbrite: http://goglobalworld.eventbrite.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/goglobalworld/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/GoGlobalWorld
- Social Networks in Russian:
TG Channel: https://t.me/GoGlobalRussia
TG chat: https://t.me/joinchat/SyamvnZv4qaREXMR
FB: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1189340884731706
- YouTube "Go Global World in Russian": https://www.youtube.com/channel/UChMteJRzRCE00cReU4oWmEA
