Creative Business Forum

According to the Higher School of Economics, video games are one of the most promising sectors of the creative economy and one of the fastest-growing areas of the IT industry. Since 2018, the Russian video games market has grown from RUB 106.5 billion to RUB 165.6 billion in 2021. The video game industry is becoming a conduit for contemporary creativity and innovation. Video games are now present in various segments of popular culture, and some have even become its phenomena (e.g., Mario or Final Fantasy). In some countries video games have been recognized as a separate art form. The volume of the global gaming market (USD 180.3 billion) is larger than the music and movie markets combined. What products does the video game industry produce? What is the potential for development for the video games industry in Russia? What are the obvious expansion areas and promising niches? What measures are needed to increase investment in the video games sector? How can we prevent the exodus of Russian entrepreneurs and IT specialists? In which direction should we direct our efforts to improve the global position of the Russian video games industry?

Moderator
Vasiliy Ovchinnikov, Adviser to the Chief Executive Officer, Russian Information Technology Development Fund

Vasiliy Ovchinnikov

Adviser to the Chief Executive Officer, Russian Information Technology Development Fund

Panellists
Alexey Goreslavsky, Director General, ANO "Internet Development Institute" (IRI)
Taras Kozyura, Team Founder, GIG CREW
Vyacheslav Makarov, Producer, Game Designer
Igor Stolyarov, General Director, World Games of the Future; Head, Game of the Future 2024 Project
Andrey Tolmachev, General Director, Kaliningrad Region Development Corporation
Artem Chermenin, Director of Strategic Development, VK Play

Alexey Goreslavsky

Director General, ANO "Internet Development Institute" (IRI)

Alexey Goreslavsky was born in Moscow in 1977.
He graduated from the History Department of Moscow State University in 1999 and from the postgraduate school of the Institute for US and Canadian Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences in 2002.
He worked for Moskovsky Komsomolets and Sovershenno Sekretno. Versia newspapers starting 1995.
He served as editor-in-chief of the Internet newspaper Vzglyad from 2005 to 2007, director of online projects at the Interfax news service from 2007 to 2010, and as head of communications of AgencyOne from 2011 to 2013.
He became deputy general director of Rambler&Co in 2013.
Alexei Goreslavsky was appointed editor-in-chief of Lenta.ru in March 2014.
He is married and has a daughter.

Taras Kozyura

Team Founder, GIG CREW

Vyacheslav Makarov

Producer, Game Designer

Igor Stolyarov

General Director, World Games of the Future; Head, Game of the Future 2024 Project

At the beginning of his career, Igor worked for Coca Cola. In 1995, he became business manager of Duracell, Gillette Group, and five years later worked as area manager for Gillette International for CIS and Baltic States. He supervised the company’s projects in Melbourne, Australia.
From 2004 to 2006, he held the post of Vice-President for Sales and Service of the biggest Russian of cellular communications operator, MTS. In 2005, he was recognised as Best Business Manager, according to the Managers’ Association. In 2007, he was honoured with the Russian Government’s award for his assistance in starting up State Corporation RosNanoTech.
From 2007 to 2014, he worked on the Organising Committee for Sochi 2014 in the capacity of Senior Vice-President. Mr. Stolyarov was awarded the memory medal and diploma of the Russian President, numerous Letters of Appreciation from the IOC and OCR for the preparations for the Olympics.
In 2014–2015, he was Acting envoy of Infront Media AG to Russia. Igor is a Member of the Board of a number of agencies engaged in marketing sports channels. He teaches marketing, branding and economics of sports assets at the Academy of the National Economy, RIOU, MGIMO and RGGU.

Andrey Tolmachev

General Director, Kaliningrad Region Development Corporation

Artem Chermenin

Director of Strategic Development, VK Play