What started out as a simple idea to try to explore Russia’s emerging Internet technology over an afternoon event in Moscow quickly gathered momentum. Which is why, on Monday December 13, TechCrunch Europe is coming to Moscow, Russia, for our first ever TechCrunch Moscow (to be held in English).
But we also decided that it would be awesome to have some Silicon Valley players attend virtually, either by video feed or via the telepresence equipment kindly provided by Cisco from their Valley offices. It beats traveling from the US.
So this is an unashamed appeal: if you are Mark Zuckerburg, Steve Jobs or someone of that elite level, then we’d love you to appear on stage via video link. Let’s build some links between Russia and the Valley. Maybe Ron Conway or Evan Williams / Biz Stone is available? We don’t know – that’s why we’re making this appeal. So, Ron, Biz, Steve or Mark – if you’re free, then contact TechCrunch Europe Editor Mike Butcher (mikebutcher AT beta.techcrunch.com). Thanks.
TechCrunch Moscow will be held at the first Russian private tech incubator, the Digital October Center, located in a historical manufacturing building Krasny Oktyabr (or “Red October” / Красный Октябрь in Russian). You can buy tickets here and attendees will enjoy a full day packed with speeches by the leaders of the industry, networking opportunities and a chance to preview promising Russian tech startups.
Co-organised by TechCrunch Europe together with Kite Ventures and Telemarker, our partners have also put together a dedicated event web site and a dedicated Twitter feed. We’ll be using the hashtag #TCMoscow.
The conference will focus on the key issues regarding tech entrepreneurship in Russia. TechCrunch Moscow is about supporting the startup and venture capital eco-system in Moscow and Russia. It’s also about uncovering the trends and the hottest companies and startups in the market right now.
Speakers include Arkady Dvorkovich, assistant to the President of Russia; Arkady Volozh, CEO of Yandex, Russia’s leading search engine; Annelies van Den Belt, CEO of SUP/Livejournal; Semyon Voinov, founder of Zeptolab and creator of “Cut the Rope”; Demyan Kudriavtsev, CEO of Kommersant; Oskar Hartmann, founder and CEO of KupiVip, and many others.