Google press conference in Kiev
As you probably already know , Google held a competition of business plans in Ukraine among senior students of Ukrainian universities . I, Bodnarchuk Mikhail and my team took the 3rd place. Therefore, I attended a press conference devoted to this event, and I can tell you about what was happening there.
Among the representatives of Google were Dmitry Sholomko , a Google consultant in Ukraine, as well as two representatives of Google specializing in regional development and promotion, who arrived at the award ceremony from London.
')
Sorry, of course it's hard for me to stick to the facts, since I was focused on how to better talk about my project and find it difficult to keep track of everything. There are no photos, as this is the first report. But there were photographers, and I think soon this topic can be supplemented with fresh photos from the correspondent.
So, let's go:
The press conference began at 11 o'clock in the Regus conference room (which is 42-44 Shelkovichnaya str.). When we came into the hall, representatives of the media, Google and the finalists of the competition gathered at the round table.
Initially, there was the opening speech of Ms. Tamar from London.
However, she did not tell anything new and interesting. Praised by Google, said that the creators of Google, too, started everything from college. It was a bit annoying that all the phrases had to be translated, although judging by the audience everyone knew English at a sufficient level to understand every word.
After that, there was a prize giving ceremony. Participants were given packages with Google logos, a Google pen, and a Google T-shirt. Just want to mention the design of T-shirts, at a meeting with students of the Kiev-Mohyla Academy Dmitry Sholomko most arrogant students;) gave out black T-shirts with the Google logo. I didn’t understand how the Google logo could look on a black background, and didn’t take the jersey. And here at last white T-shirts, with a logo on the chest. It lacked only the search string under the logo for full Google;) But there was an inscription I'm feeling lucky (I'm lucky!) Behind the shirts. Well, yes, and besides, each finalist was given a deserved prize.
After the phrases "Congratulaions", "Thanks", the finalists made a speech. First of all, I thanked Google. I have prepared a couple of phrases for the day that there are a lot of people in Ukraine who are developing computer games on naked enthusiasm. And the fact that games are not only a type of modern art, it can also be a promising business project. The remaining participants also thanked Google, and all who came.
The meeting was attended by journalists from various Ukrainian publications. Among them: the correspondent , today , Internet.Ua , OsvŃ–tnŃ–y Portal , Economic news , etc.
Their first remark is that in the Googl press release, too little is said about the business projects of the participants themselves. Just one paragraph. The participants of the Invest2Ukraine project prepared a press release in advance and were happy to present it to the representatives of the mass media. Alas, I did not think about it and I still have to write a press release.
In short, what I understood about projects and authors:
- Interactive tourist guide in Ukraine . The project of the portal on which information will be focused on cities, towns, villages of Ukraine. The authors raised the problem of the regions of Ukraine, namely the information barrier between the millionaire cities and small regional centers.
(Authors: Oleksandr Lapyuk and Artem Yaremchuk. Students of the Institute of International Relations)
- Invest2Ukraine . Of course Invest In Ukraine is grammatically more correct, but the authors decided to name their project that way. The portal will have a base of Ukrainian projects requiring investments and a foreign investor will be able to find out information about the projects and invest money in them. Probably the first project in Invest2Ukraine database will be Invest2Ukraine itself;)
(Authors: Students of the T.G. Shevchenko National University Alexander Popov, Alexey Orlov and Ivan Drobishevsky)
- Multiplayer browser game Dream-In . I will try very briefly to describe here what our project is about, and I'll write out all the details in the press release. So, Dream-In is an adventure game, the main features of which are the simplicity of the game mechanics (no familiar role-playing system, stats, characteristics, as well as documentation, etc.), a fascinating story and quests, as well as a well thought out Web 2.0 approach to the development of the game. The community will be able to complete quests, vote for the most interesting and thus expand the game.
(Authors: Bodnarchuk Mikhail, Ilya Savchenko, Nikolay Palamarchuk, Kratkova Olga)
And the questions of journalists continued. Of the most memorable was the question to all participants from the journal "Economic News". The question was formulated as follows: - what are the analogues of projects in Ukraine?
- how much is the project?
- What is the payback point of the project?
The authors of the “Tourist Guide” felt a little awkward when it was necessary to name the project amount, but in the end they called it $ 1000 with a payback period of 6 months. All journalists sharply wanted to become investors of such a profitable project. From myself I’ll add: one prize from Google (laptop) is enough for the guys to do without external funding. Analogues of the project, of course not.
The authors of "Invest2Ukraine" called the amount of $ 10,000, the payback seems to be a year. Among the analogs, foreign investment portals were named, but in Ukraine there is nothing like that yet.
We must have hit everyone with $ 50,000. Of course, the amount of solid, does not include the promotion of the site, only the development and support of the game during the year. And the break-even point is also determined somewhere in 12-14 months. This is my first business plan, in numbers I can not be sure, but according to calculations, this amount is not far from reality. I do not know any analogs of our project, either in Ukraine or in Russia and in the world, either.
Standard questions about project support by Google. I will answer thesis:
- Google will not implement these projects.
- Google does not hire winners (participation in the competition can only be a preference under the standard procedure of hiring)
- Google does not formally contribute to the promotion of projects of finalists.
- Perhaps, if some of the projects will be implemented, Google will be able to promote it using Google Ads. Wait and see.
In fact, Google has already done a lot for the participants. Our business plans were evaluated by the largest player in the market and now large companies in the Ukrainian Internet market have become interested in them (and us). Even if we don’t find an investor and don’t find a scheme of cooperation with these companies, thanks to the Google certificate it will be much easier to create a team of enthusiasts and convince them that our ideas are worth something. Google certificate, it is like a certificate of quality. If there is one, then the project has business prospects.
An interesting question about who evaluated the work of the participants . I note that I myself was interested: after all, there is no googl in Ukraine de jure. There is only his consultant. Was one person really evaluating? It turns out that no, for the evaluation of business plans, Ukrainian employees of Google, who work in different offices of Google, were involved. Including their Russian colleagues.
Then we talked to the press, gave interviews. Since our team was the only girl among the finalists, it seems that we were the most photogenic couple. We were the most photographed, we had a mini photo session.
Actually, that's all. We are in Google T-shirts and with four video cameras went home. Passing through the evidence of Kiev in Google T-shirts with bags of Google, we barely restrained not to stop someone from passing by and ask, “Young man, do you believe in Google?”
Among the representatives of Google were Dmitry Sholomko , a Google consultant in Ukraine, as well as two representatives of Google specializing in regional development and promotion, who arrived at the award ceremony from London.
')
Sorry, of course it's hard for me to stick to the facts, since I was focused on how to better talk about my project and find it difficult to keep track of everything. There are no photos, as this is the first report. But there were photographers, and I think soon this topic can be supplemented with fresh photos from the correspondent.
So, let's go:
The press conference began at 11 o'clock in the Regus conference room (which is 42-44 Shelkovichnaya str.). When we came into the hall, representatives of the media, Google and the finalists of the competition gathered at the round table.
Initially, there was the opening speech of Ms. Tamar from London.
However, she did not tell anything new and interesting. Praised by Google, said that the creators of Google, too, started everything from college. It was a bit annoying that all the phrases had to be translated, although judging by the audience everyone knew English at a sufficient level to understand every word.
After that, there was a prize giving ceremony. Participants were given packages with Google logos, a Google pen, and a Google T-shirt. Just want to mention the design of T-shirts, at a meeting with students of the Kiev-Mohyla Academy Dmitry Sholomko most arrogant students;) gave out black T-shirts with the Google logo. I didn’t understand how the Google logo could look on a black background, and didn’t take the jersey. And here at last white T-shirts, with a logo on the chest. It lacked only the search string under the logo for full Google;) But there was an inscription I'm feeling lucky (I'm lucky!) Behind the shirts. Well, yes, and besides, each finalist was given a deserved prize.
After the phrases "Congratulaions", "Thanks", the finalists made a speech. First of all, I thanked Google. I have prepared a couple of phrases for the day that there are a lot of people in Ukraine who are developing computer games on naked enthusiasm. And the fact that games are not only a type of modern art, it can also be a promising business project. The remaining participants also thanked Google, and all who came.
The meeting was attended by journalists from various Ukrainian publications. Among them: the correspondent , today , Internet.Ua , OsvŃ–tnŃ–y Portal , Economic news , etc.
Their first remark is that in the Googl press release, too little is said about the business projects of the participants themselves. Just one paragraph. The participants of the Invest2Ukraine project prepared a press release in advance and were happy to present it to the representatives of the mass media. Alas, I did not think about it and I still have to write a press release.
In short, what I understood about projects and authors:
- Interactive tourist guide in Ukraine . The project of the portal on which information will be focused on cities, towns, villages of Ukraine. The authors raised the problem of the regions of Ukraine, namely the information barrier between the millionaire cities and small regional centers.
(Authors: Oleksandr Lapyuk and Artem Yaremchuk. Students of the Institute of International Relations)
- Invest2Ukraine . Of course Invest In Ukraine is grammatically more correct, but the authors decided to name their project that way. The portal will have a base of Ukrainian projects requiring investments and a foreign investor will be able to find out information about the projects and invest money in them. Probably the first project in Invest2Ukraine database will be Invest2Ukraine itself;)
(Authors: Students of the T.G. Shevchenko National University Alexander Popov, Alexey Orlov and Ivan Drobishevsky)
- Multiplayer browser game Dream-In . I will try very briefly to describe here what our project is about, and I'll write out all the details in the press release. So, Dream-In is an adventure game, the main features of which are the simplicity of the game mechanics (no familiar role-playing system, stats, characteristics, as well as documentation, etc.), a fascinating story and quests, as well as a well thought out Web 2.0 approach to the development of the game. The community will be able to complete quests, vote for the most interesting and thus expand the game.
(Authors: Bodnarchuk Mikhail, Ilya Savchenko, Nikolay Palamarchuk, Kratkova Olga)
And the questions of journalists continued. Of the most memorable was the question to all participants from the journal "Economic News". The question was formulated as follows: - what are the analogues of projects in Ukraine?
- how much is the project?
- What is the payback point of the project?
The authors of the “Tourist Guide” felt a little awkward when it was necessary to name the project amount, but in the end they called it $ 1000 with a payback period of 6 months. All journalists sharply wanted to become investors of such a profitable project. From myself I’ll add: one prize from Google (laptop) is enough for the guys to do without external funding. Analogues of the project, of course not.
The authors of "Invest2Ukraine" called the amount of $ 10,000, the payback seems to be a year. Among the analogs, foreign investment portals were named, but in Ukraine there is nothing like that yet.
We must have hit everyone with $ 50,000. Of course, the amount of solid, does not include the promotion of the site, only the development and support of the game during the year. And the break-even point is also determined somewhere in 12-14 months. This is my first business plan, in numbers I can not be sure, but according to calculations, this amount is not far from reality. I do not know any analogs of our project, either in Ukraine or in Russia and in the world, either.
Standard questions about project support by Google. I will answer thesis:
- Google will not implement these projects.
- Google does not hire winners (participation in the competition can only be a preference under the standard procedure of hiring)
- Google does not formally contribute to the promotion of projects of finalists.
- Perhaps, if some of the projects will be implemented, Google will be able to promote it using Google Ads. Wait and see.
In fact, Google has already done a lot for the participants. Our business plans were evaluated by the largest player in the market and now large companies in the Ukrainian Internet market have become interested in them (and us). Even if we don’t find an investor and don’t find a scheme of cooperation with these companies, thanks to the Google certificate it will be much easier to create a team of enthusiasts and convince them that our ideas are worth something. Google certificate, it is like a certificate of quality. If there is one, then the project has business prospects.
An interesting question about who evaluated the work of the participants . I note that I myself was interested: after all, there is no googl in Ukraine de jure. There is only his consultant. Was one person really evaluating? It turns out that no, for the evaluation of business plans, Ukrainian employees of Google, who work in different offices of Google, were involved. Including their Russian colleagues.
Then we talked to the press, gave interviews. Since our team was the only girl among the finalists, it seems that we were the most photogenic couple. We were the most photographed, we had a mini photo session.
Actually, that's all. We are in Google T-shirts and with four video cameras went home. Passing through the evidence of Kiev in Google T-shirts with bags of Google, we barely restrained not to stop someone from passing by and ask, “Young man, do you believe in Google?”
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/9671/
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