HSE SPb Mediaforum never ceases to amaze
At the beginning of March the Higher School of Economics in Saint Petersburg hosted Media Forum for the second time. The program included speeches by experts from four different areas of the media industry: Event Management, SMM&PR, Design and Photography. This article will focus on the most interesting, informative and fascinating parts of the forum. In addition to the forum overview, an interview with one of the forum participants.
HSE Media School brought together about 1000 motivated participants seeking for both practical knowledge and inspiration for 2 days. During an hour allotted to each presentation experts successfully shared with the audience passed work cases and insides about upcoming events and trends. It's also important to note, that every speech was not only informative but also simple to understand, what made it accessible not only to advanced participants, but also to newcomers to the media sphere.
For example, Dara Zhukovskaya from SETTERS (young, but already authoritative communication agency) told about some refinements of realizing secular events in Saint Petersburg and Moscow, and explained how to distribute responsibilities within the team of event organizers. In another room Kseniya Zhavoronok – head of SETTERS design department – helped us to immerse ourselves in the world of psychological design techniques, the structure of social networking guides, as well as media design trends in general. Over the three years of its existence, due to the diligence and creativity of the team, the agency has managed to work with companies such as NYX, Uniqlo, Lancome, Street Beat, Megafon, Yandex Food, Gazprom Neft’ and plenty of others.
Also a number of practical tips were given by Zoya Skobel’tsyna (CEO of the event marketing agency LINE UP, and creator of education platform- EWENT.RU). Zoya devoted the audience to various specifics of organizing mega-events, to the basis of the advertising campaign and explained what technical tools should be used for PR and content in social networks.
And finally, a bright and talented photographer - Alexei Korzov, who definitely did not leave anyone indifferent, was presenting the topic «How to find your way in photography». As his camera managed to catch many stars of music and movie industry and capture them in unique black and white photos, the presentation was full of useful advices and interesting stories.
What is also important – the forum brought together students not only from Higher School of Economics, but also from others St. Petersburg universities. It was even possible to meet among the participants those who started their media career long ago. So, after the forum I was able to talk to one of forum observers – Ekaterina Kadesnikova, a student of SPBPU, chair of Advertising and Public Relations. It was very interesting to ask Ekaterina a couple of questions about the forum:
How did you know about the forum?
- Ekaterina: I heard about the forum from my friend, who is studying at HSE and was a volunteer at this event.
Is this your first time on the forum?
- Ekaterina: Yes, I was on it for the first time.
Which +/- do you see in its organization?
- Ekaterina: This Forum is one big plus. Very good idea, good organization. It is great that the participants of the forum, who attended 7+ lectures, will be given certificates. Well, of course, forum members were pleased with the special discounts in the cafe "Granola". The only drawback is that not all speakers said something really new for me.
Which blocks/directions did you go to initially?
- Ekaterina: I was more interested in Event, SMM and PR. Since my future profession will be directly related to them (as I believe now).
Which speakers did you like the most, remember and why?
- Ekaterina: I consider the speakers from SETTERS and Badmamas were the coolest, because, firstly, they gave me a very interesting material, secondly, they decorated and presented it very well, and thirdly, they created a great working atmosphere, which allows me to understand them
The MediaForum allowed plunging into motivational, inspiring atmosphere and making made everybody feel that they are the one who can do anything. It was held at the highest level without any noticeable hiccups. For everything abovementioned we can be thankful to the charismatic hosts (Ivan Burkov and Jaroslav Yas’ko), volunteers, photo-/video- makers and, of course, to the team of organizers – HSE Art Union.
*Some photos are taken from the official HSE MediaForum page in Vkontakte
Article is written by Chernyaeva Anna