The Festival is an annual multi-day event that traditionally attracts large numbers of stakeholders (up to 500/day) representing various sectors of the economy (including the ‘blue economy’ sector, e.g. maritime transport and tourism), and various target groups (including investors, entrepreneurs, researchers, foreign diplomats, Ukrainian government officials, NGO representatives, university and high-school students, and members of the general public). Besides Ukraine, the Festival brings together stakeholders from other countries, both European and non-European, including Azerbaijan, Georgia, Germany, Great Britain, Israel, Italy, Lithuania, France, Poland, the USA and others. Thus, for the purposes of the 4BIZ Project, the Festival in itself may be viewed as an activity aimed, in part, at maximizing the 4BIZ project’s outreach to a vast pool of stakeholders.

Since 2020, the Festival is held in blended format (in-person plus online).

The program of the Festival usually includes:

• Solemn events on the opening of the Festival with the participation of representatives of state authorities of Ukraine, representatives of innovation clusters of cities / regions and universities, members of international representations of the Innovation Ecosystem “Sikorsky Challenge”, representatives of Ukrainian and international investment funds;
• International Thematic Forum;
• Thematic panel discussions;
• Exhibition of startup projects, breakthrough scientific and technical developments;
• Final of the Competition of Innovation Projects, which will take place several sections
• Negotiations between potential investors, high-tech companies, enterprises and teams of startup projects on further cooperation and signing of relevant agreements;
• Some parallel activities for youth (hackathon, school of creativity, …)
• Closing ceremony of the Festival, rewarding teams of the best startup projects, awarding of diplomas and certificates.

Within the Festival-2023, the thematic section of the 4BIZ project will be organized.

We suggest to include in it:

– 3 panel discussions (Fisheries and Aquaculture, Costal and Maritime Tourism)

– international competition of startup projects (2-3 projects in each topic, up to 10 projects in total).

Learn more: https://www.sikorskychallenge.com/