Russian Venture Forum in Kazan

Russian Venture Forum in Kazan

Last week was action-packed. Several members of the RENTLY Технологии team took part in the Russian Venture Forum, held on 10 and 11 April at the Kazan Expo International Exhibition Center in Kazan. Our company had its own stand at the forum (see the photos), while Arturs Zantmans and I also played an active part in the various activities: networking sessions, project pitches, expert discussions and more.

The forum gave me the chance to catch up with a great many people.

First and foremost, I would like to mention Airat Khusnutdinov. He was the person who invited me to join “я-ИТ-ы”, a community of IT executives. I take an active part in its events and am a regular at its managerial duels. I wrote about the latest one here. The second photo shows me with some of the community’s active members in Kazan.

At the opening of the forum, I also caught up with Roza Akhmadieva, Rector of the Kazan State Institute of Culture (see the third photo). I know Roza from our time at RANEPA. As many may remember, I successfully defended my dissertation only recently as part of the master’s programme in Management in Culture, Education and Science (USKON).

Roza graduated from this programme with honours a year before me. We met in May 2024 at the RANEPA Institute of Public Administration and Civil Service conference session “Public Administration and Russia’s Development: New Horizons and a Vision of the Future”, where the previous year’s graduates received their diplomas. Now we have met again in Kazan. Next time will be on 23 May at a conference at RANEPA, where our own class will receive its diplomas.

In short, we are not easing off—we are only picking up speed!