First ever Creathon in Russia held at KFU
About 130 students join the event co-organized by KFU and VK Education on 26 – 27 April.
Kazan Federal University has launched a hackathon for creative students – Creathon. For two days, the students are diving into the world of advertising, media projects, and SMM. The winners will receive prizes and, in some tracks, the opportunity to realize their project.
Creathon is a platform for students to compete in finding non-standard solutions to business problems from VK, Odnoklassniki, and creative platform Prostor. Students, not only from KFU and Kazan, but also from other Russian universities, could present teams of no more than four participants. The organizers of the competition – the Department of Public Relations of KFU and VK Education – joined forces to launch the initative.
Leonid Tolchinsky, Dean of the Higher School of Journalism and Media Communications, said that this is the first time such an event has been held in Russia, and the initiators of the Creathon were inspired by the so-called hackathons, where IT specialists create products in a short period of time.
“Today we see that this industry [meaning the IT industry – editor’s note] and other industries in general are increasingly gravitating towards what we call creative industries. And specialists in creative industries, who are becoming anchors and the main ones in many processes today, unfortunately, did not have such a specialized forum of professional excellence. And thanks, in many respects, to our colleagues from the companies VKontakte, Odnoklassniki, and the Higher School of Journalism, we agreed that we will hold the first such event Russia for specialists in the field of creative industries, for students studying these competencies, a specialized professional forum – creathon,” said Tolchinsky.
Separately, the Dean emphasized that the event is timed to coincide with the 220th anniversary of Kazan University. Guests from Syktyvkar (Komi Republic) – students of Pitirim Sorokin Syktyvkar State University – arrived in Kazan to participate in the project. In the future, he hopes, the geography and spheres of the project will be expanded.
“We have so far even a little artificially restrained the flow of those wishing to participate, it was more than today – already 130 people have been admitted to participate. There were many more registered,” Leonid Tolchinsky added.
All teams are divided into three tracks. In the first track, Special Projects/SMM, students will work on creating gamification tools in VKontakte communities and a special project for Odnoklassniki. The second – New Media – is connected with the preparation of a media project for Odnoklassniki. In the third block, Advertising, the teams will have to develop an advertising campaign for the platform Prostor.
Tolchinsky welcomed the young creators and journalists from the stage.
“Do not forget that you are the first, and that is your strength. The fate of the creative industries to which you want to devote your life depends on how you show yourselves,” he opined.
Participants of the track Special Projects/SMM were first-year students of the Higher School of Journalism – young experts in social network marketing Elvina Davletshina and Elina Gilmanova.
“We participate in the SMM track in Odnoklassniki. We found it the most interesting, it is more related to the direction of our training, we are used to working in this subject,” says Davletshina. “I expect to gain new knowledge and skills and just have a good time.”
Her classmate added that she plans to develop professionally in the industry in the future, and the Creathon could be a starting point.
Emil Zamaltdinov, Alina Agliullina, and Samira Safiullina, 1st year students studying Advertising and Public Relations at the School, who are participating in the same track, shared their opinion on the benefits of the event.
“I came to this event together with my friends, full of emotions and expectations,” said Emil. “I certainly want to get knowledge in our subject, but there were no places there, so we went to SMM and will move until the end. I am a beginner in this business”.
“I think this is a good start for a career. You can get a lot of experience at VK, it’s a big platform,” Zamaldinov believes.