Graduate School of Business Holds First Project Fest
The HSE Graduate School of Business (GSB) held its first open-air student festival, Project Fest by GSB, at Shabolovka. It was the final stage of the Student Groups Project Competition for the 2020/2021 academic year. Lectures, master classes, business games from students and business representatives, and educational and entertainment activities were also organised for all Festival visitors.
The project teams were tasked with not just presenting the results of their activities, but also securing as much investment as possible from visitors of the festival. Visitors, in turn, also had to be active: they participated in master classes, presentations, lectures, business games, and more for the opportunity to be entered in the lottery and win prizes from the event partners.
The three projects of the festival to attract the most investments were awarded commemorative prizes by GSB management and partners, as well as additional opportunities to implement their projects in GSB and beyond.
First place was awarded to the Saturn.Planner project, headed by Alexander Ikonnikov, a second-year student in the ‘Business Administration’ Bachelor’s Programme. GSB rewarded the most enterprising team with an opportunity to be selected to support student projects through the Fast Track System.
Second place went to the HSE 3X3 Streetball League project led by Pavel Ivanov, a second-year student in the ‘Business Administration’ Bachelor’s Programme. The team was given an opportunity to act as understudies for the GSB management team and hold a student dean's office day.
Project 'Go Native', led by Alina Tulyakova, a Master's student in Marketing Communications and Advertising in Contemporary Business, will host a business breakfast in the company of GSB management as their reward for third place.
Alexander Ikonnikov, head of the Saturn.Planner project, said that Project Fest was a great opportunity to introduce their project to a large part of their target audience. It is a great platform to showcase their business ideas and find like-minded people, he believes.
‘We are grateful to all the organisers of the event and GSB management, especially to Valery Katkalo, First Vice Rector of HSE University, Dmitrii Volkov, Deputy First Vice Rector of HSE University, Anna Morozova, Director of the Centre for Project-based Learning, and Dmitrii Knatko, Programme Academic Supervisor of ‘Business Administration’ Bachelor’s Programme. We were glad to participate in such an activity together with other team-creators of their own projects, and we advise other students not to miss out on this opportunity and present their ideas at events like this one,’ said Alexander Ikonnikov.
The awards ceremony for the student project teams was hosted by Dmitrii Volkov, Deputy First Vice Rector of Deputy First Vice Rector of HSE University.
Dmitrii Volkov
The Student Project Festival ‘Project Fest by GSB’ is the first event of its kind for students organised by the Graduate School of Business. We summed up the results of the programme to support student projects in the 2020/2021 academic year and once again saw how talented and active our students are in a variety of fields: sports, business, IT technology, and more. The festival brought together not only students who presented the results of their projects, but also business representatives, who spoke to students and shared their success stories. The Graduate School of Business would like to thank the partners of the festival — X5 Retail, KPMG, Amway, and Coca-Cola — all of whom helped us to organise this wonderful Festival for GSB students!
In addition to the project competition, at the festival venues visitors could compete in the construction of a of a spaghetti and marshmallow tower, take a neuro-test, and find out what kind of entrepreneur they are. You could also play mafia, test your stamina on professional exercise bikes, undergo an interview at a consultancy company, become a graffiti artist, and participate in international student street art. A total of more than 20 different activities were organised by students, GSB experts, and Festival partners.
The central sporting event was the HSE 3X3 Streetball Final, organised by the GSB student streetball league team with the support of partners such as the Student Basketball Association, Red Bull, and Be-Kind.
‘I have to be honest, the organisation of the competition was difficult: our team invested a lot of physical and mental effort in it. It's no exaggeration to say that we spent all night installing the basketball court and, based on the amount of resources that were put into it, we would very much like to keep it within the walls of GSB,’ said the second-year ‘Business Administration’ Bachelor’s Programme student and ‘HSE 3x3’ Student Project Manager.
He also thanked the GSB management for allowing such a large-scale event to take place. ‘It can be considered unique, as no university has ever held a streetball competition on its premises before. And we would like to make this practice a tradition,’ emphasised Pavel Ivanov.
Victor Keyru, a professional basketball player and winner of the Russian Basketball Cup, awarded the winners of the streetball competition their prizes. He talked to the students and answered their questions.
Project Fest by GSB was attended by more than 250 people, including the following business speakers:
Georgiy Akopyan, Chief Operating Officer of Citymobil, Forbes ‘30 under 30’, shared with students his experience of managing a fast-growing start-up;
Ivan Melnik, Innovation Director at X5 Retail Group, explained how innovations are created and whether it is possible to make money from them;
Tigran Baseyan, CEO of GeekZ, a product of Geekbrains, gave a talk on a very relevant topic for students: 'How to sell your student project, or the history of learning through failure';
Zhanna Chernova, Marketing and PR Manager at Amway, led a workshop with students entitled, ‘How to grow in the GIG economy. Entrepreneurial skills, from decision to result in a live discussion format’.
Ekaterina Brazhnikova, Deputy Director General, Moscow Agency of Innovations
I am absolutely convinced that you have to speak to students of the HSE Graduate School of Business only in their language! When you tell them what prospects and doors are open to them today, their eyes light up, and then they are ready to move business mountains and accomplish great feats! That is exactly what the students who presented their 17 projects at the festival are doing. I wish them good luck and more success!