Tomsk Hosts Session of Sustainable Future of Russia

The session of the Sustainable Future of Russia platform for young professionals was held in Tomsk at 2015 U-NOVUS forum for young scientists on 21 to 22 May.

Aleksey Shipov, Member of the Board of ACIG Group of Companies and Managing Director of the platform; Anton Chuklin, Member of the Supervisory Board of ACIG; Irina Bakhtina, Vice President Sustainable Business & Comms NAMET RUB & Africa, Global SB & Comms Capability & Training at Unilever; Sergey Kulizhsky, Pro-Rector for Social Affairs at Tomsk State University; Konstantin Belyakov, Pro-Rector for Development of Tomsk Institute of Business, and other experts participated in the session.

Graduate and postgraduate students and young professionals took part in the roundtable discussion, entitled Business, State, Young People and Their Synergy for Sustainable Development, on the first day of the session where they discussed various topics of current importance like theory and practice of lifelong education, business learning, participation in initiatives of young people, and social design.

The discussion was then followed by the lecture by Ms. Bakhtina. She presented her detailed analysis of how PR and corporate communications influence the image of the company and shape prospects of its development to her audience.

“PR shape the past and the present of the organization from outside, monopolize its voice and opinion. In contrast, corporate communications transform the future of the organization from inside and expertly direct the variety of its voices and individuals,” she explained.

Session participants got a chance to utilize their received knowledge some time later. An expert platform was organized for the authors of innovative projects where the students presented their projects and received some valuable recommendations about their further elaboration. Shaping regional images, development of marketing strategies, and even production of eco-chocolate in Siberia are among the areas concerned by these projects. Experts gave their opinions regarding further development of such projects and assessed them.

Young leaders of Tomsk utilized their skills and competences on the second day of the session. Teams of students from different higher-education institutions of the region took part in a simulation game in the Hall of Scientists.

“Guys in the teams did not know each other at first, which made it even more complicated. In spite of this, the participants completed all game tasks with success. We see that young people of Tomsk positively accept our feedback and have a mature way of thinking. These qualities are easily good both for games and for professional activities in the real life,” Mr. Shipov said.

Their projects (11 of them) were presented at the end of the second day. Each of the projects received its appropriate assessment and recommendations. The authors of the best projects will be invited to further participate in the platform activities.