Omsk entrepreneurs submitted about 500 applications for the first regional award "Entrepreneur of the City"

The name of the top manager of a large business, with whom the winners of the first regional award will meet, has become known. The names of the best will be announced at a ceremony on February 11, 2021.

In a month and a half since the start of accepting applications, entrepreneurs from the region have filled out almost 500 questionnaires. The first regional award for small and medium-sized businesses, as well as the self-employed, was established by the Omsk Region Entrepreneurship Support Fund, the Omsk branch of Sberbank and the Omsk Regional branch of the OPORA RUSSIA NGO with the support of the Omsk Region Government as part of the national project "Small and Medium-sized Entrepreneurship and Support for Entrepreneurial Initiative." The prize fund of the award is more than half a million rubles.

The main prize of the Award is a meeting with a top manager at the federal level who will share his experience.

"In early March, the leaders of each Award nomination will have the opportunity to personally meet with Vera Garmash, the top manager of the largest IT company, the CEO of 2GIS. 2GIS is an excellent example of the transformation of a regional business project into a successful federal and international one. Today, this mapping service covers more than 600 cities in 11 countries around the world. Its monthly audience in Russia, the CIS and abroad exceeds 50 million people. I am sure that communication with the leader of such a company will be interesting and useful for the best Omsk entrepreneurs," said Sergey Konovalov, manager of the Omsk branch of Sberbank.

Applications for participation were accepted from business owners and the self-employed until January 27, 2021 on the Entrepreneurship city website.RF.

"We have received almost 500 applications from self-employed entrepreneurs from Omsk and the municipal districts of the region (Tarsky, Isilkulsky, Lyubinsky and several others). At the same time, the most popular nominations were for participants developing their businesses in the social and environmental fields, as well as for entrepreneurs from the creative cluster, that is, those involved in design, advertising, photography and other creative projects. Quite a large number of applications were submitted in the so-called free nomination. After analyzing all the applications received, my partners and I decided to establish two additional nominations," explained Alexander Osminin, Manager of the Omsk Region Entrepreneurship Support Fund.

Thus, the winners will be determined not in 5 nominations, but in 7 nominations: the first nomination is for businesses that develop in the social sphere or the field of ecology, the second – for entrepreneurs from creative industries: design, photography, advertising, etc. The third nomination will determine the startup of the year (aimed at entrepreneurs who started their business in the fourth quarter of 2019 or during 2020). In the fourth nomination, the best business from among those engaged in software development or the implementation of innovative projects in various fields ("Digital Entrepreneur") will be highlighted, in the fifth nomination online entrepreneurs will be encouraged. The sixth and seventh nominations were allocated for businesses from the fields of production and trade, respectively ("Producer of the City" and "Entrepreneur of the City in the field of trade").

Experts and members of the Supervisory Board provided great support for the award. They shared the most valuable things with the nominees – their knowledge, time, and recommendations.

"Together with our partners, we have managed to create a new important project for entrepreneurs in the region. The award began to turn into an ecosystem – a closed community of nominees is being formed, a series of live broadcasts with the participation of well-known Omsk entrepreneurs are being held. A Telegram chat for the nominees was launched, where they began to arrange meetings and exchange useful contacts. We saw a lot of young people among the participants who are building their business in the Omsk region and are not going to move anywhere," said Alexander Deryabin, chairman of the Omsk regional branch of the public organization SUPPORT of RUSSIA.

Now the experts and mentors will have to make a thorough selection. A long list of all the participants who submitted a preliminary application and an extended questionnaire has already been formed. The ambassadors of the My Business Center, entrepreneurs, heads of business support infrastructure organizations, and representatives of business associations who are members of the expert council will carefully study it and select applications that will be shortlisted: three leaders will be selected for each nomination. The shortlist will be published on the Award's official website by February 9th.

Then, on February 10, the members of the Award's Supervisory Board will determine the winners in each of the nominations. The board includes mentors, well–known and experienced Omsk businessmen. Among them are Alexander Antropenko, Managing Director of Osnovy Holding, Igor Znamenskikh, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Sladonezh Group of Companies, Alexander Trippel, CEO of Planeta Center, Gennady Fridman, founder of the F-Consulting group, Siberian Cellular Communications, and the Euromed clinic network, and Gennady Fridman, co-founder of Siberian Proviant." Yuri Chashchin, Viktor Shkurenko, General Director of the Shkurenko Trading House.

The winners will be awarded on February 11 at a ceremony that will be held offline and online in compliance with all sanitary standards.