Social agenda issues in the context of creating an innovative economy and developing creative industries in modern Russia were the main focuses of the Innosocium Foundation, the social platform of the Roscongress Foundation, in 2021.
“The Innosocium Foundation provides vital support to priority focuses of social development and also shapes and promotes this agenda at the country’s main communication platforms. Coordinating a dialogue between business, the state, and civil society helps them focus their attention on such important aspects of innovative development as creative industries, education, women’s leadership, and social communications,” Adviser to the Russian President Anton Kobyakov said.
The Innosocium Foundation clarifies and promotes the role of creative industries, develops social communication in this special sector of the economy, and attracts priority attention to it, which has made an important contribution to the formation of the Creative Industries Development Concept, which was approved by Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin in September 2021.
In an effort to promote interest in creative industries, the Creative Business Forum (CBF) was held during the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF) for the first time in 2021. The CBF became part of the UN roadmap as one of the biggest creative economy events of the year. During the four days of the SPIEF 2021, the CBF held 28 events along with a separate forum during the opening day. The events were attended by more than 270 speakers from 12 countries and over 2,000 audience members, while the media outreach in Russia exceeded 110 million people. The social platform organized nine sessions on such issues as corporate social responsibility, philanthropy, and interaction with non-profit organizations, and also established cooperation with the National Priorities autonomous non-profit organization, the Presidential Grants Fund, the Donors Forum, the Agency for Strategic Initiatives (ASI), Google.org, and a number of charitable organizations and foundations.
More than 100 people took part in the Innosocium Foundation’s events at the Eastern Economic Forum 2021 as speakers, moderators, and facilitators. The sessions and discussions organized by the Foundation were attended by over 500 Forum participants. A whole day was devoted to the unique interactive work format of the NPO Laboratory, which was developed in conjunction with the Presidential Grants Fund, in order to study and share best practices in the implementation of social projects as well as to reduce barriers in the activities of non-profit organizations. During an eight-hour strategic session, representatives of more than 50 non-profit organizations, whose initiatives aim to solve socially significant problems in culture, healthcare, ecology, and social sphere, discussed new areas for cooperation in the Far East and ways to attract resources and build connections through skilful presentations and networking basics, and they also shared the best practices of projects that have been successfully implemented with their colleagues.
The Innosocium Foundation served as a strategic partner at the First Global Creative Territories Forum, which was organized by the Russian Ministry of Industry and Trade and the Nizhny Novgorod Region Government with the support of the Russian Federation Council. The forum participants discussed prospects for developing areas where traditional folk arts and crafts exist, public-private partnership in this regard, the creation of an effective legal framework, problems related to preserving industrial and cultural traditions, historical expertise, and the creation of new unique products on their basis.
In September 2021, the Innosocium Foundation, with the support of the Russian Ministry of Education and Science and the Russian Union of Rectors, launched the fourth season of the Russian Social Projects Competition. The competition aims to draw the attention of Russian university students to major socially significant problems and ways to solve them. The finalists will complete their programmes in January next year and submit them to a panel of judges for evaluation. The projects will be pitched and an announcement will be made about the winners on 2 February 2022. The authors of the best social projects will receive grants for their implementation.
With the support of the ASI, the Innosocium Foundation organized the Creative Business Accelerator. The programme enabled participants in projects related to folk arts and crafts as well as the development of innovative technologies and digital infrastructure in creative industries to gain new knowledge in creative business management, get acquainted with leading Russian and foreign experts, and find growth points in projects and the necessary resources to implement them. The 11 finalists in the accelerator presented the most successful projects during a demo day on 30 November 2021.
Together with the ASI and with the support of Google.org, the Innosocium Foundation has developed and continues to operate an online anti-crisis mentoring programme for Russian entrepreneurs who have been most affected by the pandemic. In 2021, 700 entrepreneurs from 75 regions of Russia were trained as part of the programme. A total of 221 mentors have registered and provided 295 group and individual consultations. The people who took part in these consultations received mentoring and expert assistance on ways to overcome the crisis. The programme helped 91% of the participants learn how to utilize the information and skills acquired during the group sessions, 38% to increase revenue in the first quarter of 2021, 45% to increase conversion in their social media accounts, and 14% to create new jobs.
The Innosocium Foundation is working with the ASI on initiatives in creative industries and ways to create a favourable environment for the development of creativity in small towns with the support of the Russian Ministry of Culture. At a working meeting with Minister of Culture Olga Lyubimova, the decision was made to hold a meeting as part of the International Creative Industries Festival in the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Area – Yugra. In addition, the ASI working group in charge of developing an ecosystem of creative entrepreneurship and a service economy in Russia held a meeting in Khanty-Mansiysk. The final document issued after the meeting, which was chaired by Innosocium Foundation Director Yelena Marinina, emphasized the need to create a unified databank of creative projects that would take into account the best practices in all sectors of creative industries and provide convenient access to this service for entrepreneurs, NPOs, and representatives of regional management teams in order to subsequently replicate successful experience and come up with a suitable strategy for implementing advanced solutions in their regions.
The Innosocium Foundation pays great attention to such important trends as women’s health, their role in achieving inclusive sustainable development, and the global mission in creative industries as part of its cooperation with the Eurasian Women’s Forum.
The session ‘Creative Industries at the Intersection of Art, Science, and Technology’, which was organized by the Innosocium Foundation, was held as part of the Congress of Young Scientists, the final event of the Year of Science and Technology.
The Innosocium Foundation was also represented in the programme of the National Day of Russia at the World Expo 2020 in Dubai, where the business session ‘Creative Economy: From Startups to the Creation of New Industries’ took place on 3 December. The session’s agenda included issues related to new opportunities that creative industries offer investors and how the creative economy serves the goals of sustainable development.
“The Innosocium Foundation is one of the few communication platforms available to every entrepreneur in creative industries regardless of the scale and geographic location of a project. Our job is to draw attention to the creative industry’s problems and prospects and make sure that the most hyped and popular presentation platforms become available not only to leaders, but also to those who are just embarking on their success. We explain and promote the special role of creative industries, and we are devoting greater priority attention to this issue. We have unique expertise and know how to bring together business, development institutions, and regulators with representatives of creative industries and how to help this huge team achieve their goals,” Innosocium Foundation Director and Roscongress Foundation Deputy CEO Yelena Marinina said.
