The Odesa Business Forum is a permanent platform and an annual event focused on the Odessa Region Economic Strategy 2050.
OBF is committed to boost and strengthen economic and investment development processes, and to unlock the hidden potential of Odessa City.
Odessa Business Club – a community of major CEOs and entrepreneurs of Odessa and the South of Ukraine – has initiated and organized this event attended by the leading European experts in urbanism, architecture and economics, Ukrainian top business players, regional and local authorities, as well as representatives of institutions supporting business. In total, 500 people, including those who participated online, attended the event.
The Odesa Business Forum was the first event in a row and we hope to scale it up in the future.
The key topics of the Forum: Economic business vision of the city; search and expanding the opportunities for Odessa to compete for attention, investments and talents in the modern world.
The Economic Business Vision, the key focus of the Forum, was presented by Andrii Dlygach, futurologist, Dmytro Kazavchinsky, co-founder of the Odessa Business Club and GST Security Seals, and Vadim Morokhovsky, co-owner of Vostok Bank.
Among the OBF speakers there were, in particular: Valeria Ionan, Deputy Minister of Digital Transformation for European Integration; Oleksandr Bornyakov, Deputy Minister of Digital Transformation for IT Development; Vlad Mykhnenko, PhD, Associate Professor in Sustainable Urban Development, Research Fellow at St. Peter’s College, University of Oxford; Karl-Filip Coenegrachts, strategist, innovator from Ghent (Belgium), creator of an alternative vision and concept of Open and Agile Smart Cities, City of People; Cees Donkers, the founder of the City as a LAB project, one of the key founders of Dutch Design Week, the designer of the urban environment, the chief urbanist of Eindhoven (Netherlands); Andreas Flodström, co-founder and CEO of the Swedish-Ukrainian IT companies Beetroot and Beetroot Academy.
The event envisaged the following panel discussions:
● Odessa, a City of Innovations. Dropping an Anchor. Cases of successful transformation of cities (panel moderator and forum voice – Andrii Fedoriv, founder of the FEDORIV marketing agency).
● City of IT and Сircuses. The role of innovation clusters in the urban economic prospects (moderated by Maxim Bakhmatov, founder and head of the Transformation Office, UNIT.City managing partner).
Among the speakers there was Oleksandr Vernik, the co-founder of the shoe equipment supply company MSM GmbH, co-founder of Gallery Architect Group, a construction company and a design studio Atmosphere, SINOBI brand, Chairman of the NGO Center for Project Initiatives.
● Odessa, a city of opportunities that no-one else ever sees but we will show (moderator – Ivan Liptuga, President of the National Tourism Organization of Ukraine).
The list of panelists included:
― Yegor Grebennikov, co-owner of the TIS seaport, founder of Impact HUB Odessa, author and investor of the concept of revitalizing the Green Theater, founder of Pro Bono Club Ukraine;
― Georgii Bochorishvili, co-owner and chairman of the board of directors of ZARS construction holding;
― Oleksandr Yakovenko, the founder of the group of companies in the field of international logistics and trade – EnlivUA;
― Andrii Zdesenko, co-founder of the SHABO Wine Culture Center;
― Giorgi Iukuridze, founder and CEO of Biosphere Corporation, owner of Charisma Fashion Group, co-founder of the Inspira Business Club in Dnipro.
The keynote speaker: Volodymyr Yakovlev, media entrepreneur, famous for his projects and books called The Age of Happiness.
Lively discussions and open dialogues at the Forum were complemented by networking at a wine tasting (Ukrainian wines were provided by the Odessa Wine Week project) and a party at the Mantra Beach Club.
