Junkets

So A just got back from his second junket to a Venture Fair, this time in Kazan'. These events are pretty big deals; the President of Tartarstan came to this one:

Although he didn't always pay attention to the other talks:

Just to give you some idea of what the venture/entrepreneurship environment is like here, check out these two audience polls:

That's 63% of the audience that think that the state should dominate venture investment. Yikes!

And 79% think that the state is not doing enough to support the industry…

Needless to say, A was perturbed by this.

He spoke later that day in a session called "secrets of successful startups." He made good contacts, and is looking forward to the next junket (Novosibirsk again), in June.

Kazan' decided to go out with a bang; here's some shots of the entertainment during the closing dinner:

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and so on, something like 17 different performances. They were late for the flight home. In fact, he just caught the last train (midnight) and the last metro (1am) home, and made it in about 1:45 am. Phew!