The past year 2020 passed "in the trend" of the COVID-19 pandemic, which affected all spheres of life, including business, and almost in the most devastating way. However, major players did not stop developing at all, and even used the problems caused by the pandemic as a window of opportunity. For example, Russian companies made a brilliant appearance on the international arena with innovative projects to support and develop business. Many of them won prestigious international awards.

Projects of the Moscow Innovation Agency

In 2020 Moscow Innovation Agency made a serious statement, having presented a number of outstanding business innovation projects at Russian and international contests. The highest interest, positive feedback and encouragement were received by such solutions: "Moscow Accelerator", "Map of Innovative Solutions", "Leaders of Digital Transformation".

Within the framework of the "Time for innovations - 2020" contest the agency was successful twice. Firstly, the "Map of Innovative Solutions" project was the best in the "Popularization of Innovation" category. The project was submitted to the contest already as a fully implemented working solution. It represents an online platform for entrepreneurs engaged in the creation of technological innovations.

With the help of "Map of Innovative Solutions", enterprising startups were able to effectively distribute information about their own promising developments and attract potential investors, buyers, and business partners in general. On the other hand, potential clients and venture capitalists themselves, thanks to this platform, received a convenient toolkit for searching for interesting technological solutions.

In addition to the successful presentation of "Maps", the Innovation Agency itself was highly appreciated by the competition committee and won in the category "Program of the Year". And this was not the only successful endeavor of the organization - in 2020, the Agency took part in ten prominent Russian and international competitions, where other projects of the organization were also a resounding success.

For example, in December, the results of the 4th annual competition "Development of Regions. Best for Russia - 2020", where the Moscow Accelerator program, developed by the Moscow Innovation Agency to promote the scaling of innovative developments in different areas of the economy, won in the category "Best Infrastructure Project of the Year". This is also a working project, in which about a hundred of prominent technological companies took part.

One more development of the agency - the Program of pilot testing of innovation solutions - won the Digital Leaders 2020 award in the "Platform of the Year" category. The program was created to establish cooperation between the developers of innovative solutions and business. Besides the Russian award, the program was also nominated at the World Summit Awards 2020 contest held as part of the UN International Summit on the Information Society. The expert commission recognized the program as the best in Russia in the "Public Administration and Interaction with Citizens" category.

Anti-crisis project "Let's get through..."

Special attention should be paid to a bright project "Let's Break Through: Chronicles of Business Rescue" - an innovative online platform developed under the guidance of Deputy Mayor of Moscow for Economic Policy Vladimir Yefimov.

During the most acute phase of the global pandemic crisis, Sergei Sobyanin appointed Efimov head of the economic support staff. At the same time he promptly developed and implemented a methodological set of materials, combined with an information platform, which were designed to provide the capital's business with the most effective tools for overcoming the effects of the crisis. The project proved to be a truly effective solution and received extremely positive feedback from Moscow entrepreneurs who used its tools.

The key idea was to provide the business community with complete, accurate, timely and reliable information about what state support measures they could count on during the crisis and how to use them effectively. The development team received maximum information support from the Economic Support Headquarters itself, as well as the Analytical Center of the Moscow Government.

An online platform was created in the shortest time possible, where all the necessary data was collected in the most accessible and informative form. This resource has included the best analytical materials, instructions for effective anti-crisis measures, examples of real cases, when entrepreneurs have successfully used the crisis phenomena not only to stay afloat, but also as a powerful impetus for development. On the site 24/7 the most relevant news were published, online broadcasts of virtual meetings and round tables with the participation of executives of companies were held, and discussions of urgent issues were broadcast live.

The project "Let's Break Through: Chronicles of Business Rescue" received unprecedented support in social networks. The total reach of the participants from business circles of all sizes was about 1.3 million people. The developers of the project maximally accurately targeted the promotional campaign of the resource to the target audiences. For example, 43% of the users were top managers and heads of companies, 30% were qualified specialists, and 20% were ordinary employees of small and medium-sized enterprises.

Feedback from the target audience and industry experts was unusually bright and even enthusiastic. It included 10 author's round tables, demonstrated 168 successful anti-crisis business cases, several virtual boards of directors with almost a hundred participants, 1500 official comments from business representatives. Such involvement attracted international attention to the project.

The online project "Breaking Through: Chronicles of Business Rescue" was subsequently submitted for the Eventiada IPRA GWA, where dozens of other projects from 17 countries were nominated, and became the deserved winner in the category "Best Crisis Management Project.