“Boiling point – Petrozavodsk”: support for the development of international projects
The “boiling point” is a meeting place for creative and proactive people not only from different parts of the Republic of Karelia and Russia, but also from foreign countries.
One of the important aspects of the Boiling Point’s activities is participation in the implementation of international projects, which today take place both face-to-face and online.
One of the most significant events in 2020, held on the basis of the Boiling Point, was the public seminar of the project “SEMPRE – Accelerators of the joint creation of social services”, organized by the KarRC RAS. The seminar brought together representatives of government authorities, social service institutions, healthcare institutions of the Republic of Karelia, SO NPOs of the Republic of Karelia and the Kaliningrad region and project participants from Germany and Denmark, who shared their experience in implementing social projects and developing social entrepreneurship in rural areas in European countries.
The outgoing year was remembered for a variety of eventful events of the international project CULTA, which also took place with the organizational and technical support of the Boiling Point. In February, candidates gathered at the site to participate in the international school of creative startups and presented their project ideas. Later, a meeting with a representative of the editorial office of the Karjalan Sanomat newspaper was held with the already selected candidates. In the summer, an online webinar was organized “Creation and promotion of creative and tourism products in foreign markets” for entrepreneurs interested in developing cross-border cooperation. The webinar was attended by experts from the CULTA, TourSME, KALITKA and KARWELL projects.
Last year, in connection with the threat of the spread of COVID-19, remote forms of holding events became extremely popular. Boiling Points resources allow organizers to take their events into a hybrid format or completely online.
So, for several months at the end of 2020, online meetings were regularly held with participants of the PROZVET project – Promoting sustainable development in Transbaikalia and Karelia through expanding the role and participation of local public organizations and women in multilateral territorial alliances “from Italy, Karelia, Kaliningrad region and the Trans-Baikal Territory.
In August, a large-scale international seminar “Art Festivals in Border Territories. Best Practices and Development Strategies” was organized in a hybrid format within the framework of the “Big Music for Small Cities” project. He gathered representatives of 14 music festivals annually held in the Republic of Karelia and North Karelia in Finland. The participants exchanged experience in implementing festival activities as one of the forms of developing international cooperation and creating a single creative community.
In October, a seminar “Opportunities of the city of Petrozavodsk and the region of Joensuu for business activities and attracting investments” was held in a hybrid format. Participants from Petrozavodsk met at the Boiling Point site and discussed the interim results of the implementation of the cross-border cooperation project “Joensuu – Petrozavodsk: Highway for Growth”, and also presented their business products. Participants from Joensuu connected remotely. It should be noted that Boiling Point presented the concept of the project “Construction of the ethnographic village” Land of Kalevala “based on the Karelian-Finnish epic” Kalevala “, which was included in the pool of proposals of the Administration of the Petrozavodsk urban district for potential investors.
International scientific conferences are also held with the technical support of Boiling Point. Thus, at the end of October, the All-Russian (with international participation) scientific-practical conference “Quality of Life: Modern Challenges and Development Vectors” was held , in which speakers from Russia, Belarus and Finland took part.
In December, one of the large-scale international online events was the three-day seminar “Russia, Finland, Karelia: Pages of Common History and Culture” with the support of the Russian Cultural Foundation within the framework of the Russian-Finnish Cultural Forum. The event was attended by leading researchers from Russia and Finland: Irina Takala, Alexander Tolstikov, Valery Shlyamin, Irma Mullonen, Ilya Solomeshch, Elina Rakhimova, Elena Soini, Yuri Shikalov, Olga Ilyukha, Eva-Kaisa Linna, Vaara Pekka, Timo Vihavainen, Alexander Osipov and others. For three days the speakers introduced the audience to the history and culture of the two neighboring countries in the period from the 15th to the 21st centuries. During the event, there was a live broadcaston the Boiling Point Youtube channel in Russian and Finnish. The entries are available for viewing for everyone who wants to immerse themselves in the history of Russia and Finland.
The development of international cooperation is one of the important areas of work of the Boiling Point, which is growing and strengthening every year with the emergence of new trends, technologies and resources. Everyone can contribute to the strengthening of international relations by participating in projects and events held with the organizational and technical support of the educational and innovative platform.
As a reminder, the opening of the Boiling Point-Petrozavodsk space took place in 2017.
Up-to-date information about the Boiling Point activities is available in the VKontakte group and on the website .