is there life (and conferences) outside of St. Petersburg and MSK
And again we see a skew. Does this mean that IT specialists in the regions are less skilled or have less experience? Absolutely not. It’s just that Moscow and St. Petersburg are the epicenter of vacancies and IT companies, so the competition for miidle+ and senior level specialists is higher and salaries, respectively, are higher. How can this imbalance be corrected? Develop the IT industry in the regions, create regional events and initiatives, help IT specialists attend professional conferences and make useful contacts.
IT situation in the regions
But are the regions so far behind in terms of technology? Let's figure it out. IT technologies came to us from the West, and not only the technologies themselves came, but also culture, features of management and process construction, methodology and even their own language. Therefore, regional IT ecosystems in Moscow, Ulyanovsk or, for example, Tomsk are similar. Each regional IT ecosystem is, first of all, a social phenomenon, the peculiarity of which is an actively interacting professional community.
The cultural code of the IT industry is freedom, active horizontal connections and teamwork. IT professionals value the opportunity to meet, share experiences and exchange ideas. They need face-to-face industry events where they can discuss new products, ask questions, find like-minded people, and simply “synchronize watches.” And IT conferences act as a kind of “smoking room” for the IT community.
Unfortunately, in the regions there are an order of magnitude fewer such events than in Moscow and St. Petersburg. And the average ticket price for an in-person professional IT conference in our IT capitals is 60 – 70 thousand rubles. This creates an opportunity gap for professionals who want to connect, develop, learn, and be inspired. We strive to change this situation by organizing regional IT events. This helps specialists find useful connections, exchange knowledge, understand which skills to develop. Ultimately, this serves the development of the entire IT industry in the country.
Now let's look at how regions generally live in the context of IT.
Tomsk
It is considered an important innovation center of Siberia. Tomsk is famous for its universities and colleges such as Tomsk College of Information TechnologiesTomsk State University of Control Systems and Radioelectronics, National Research Tomsk State University, Tomsk State University of Architecture and Civil Engineering, Seversky Institute of Technology – by the way, this is a branch of the National Research Nuclear University MEPhI, and others. These educational institutions actively train specialists in the field of IT and engineering, which creates a qualified personnel reserve.
The city is home to various scientific institutes and research centers that develop new technologies. This creates a favorable environment for start-ups and innovative projects.
Yes, startups in the field of information technology are actively developing in Tomsk. There are several incubators and accelerators that support aspiring entrepreneurs. For example, TomskHUB, Business incubator TSPUMSBI “Friendship”, Innovative territorial cluster “IT IT”SMART TECHNOLOGIES and others. This helps create new jobs and attracts the attention of investors.
Both local and international IT companies operate in Tomsk. For example, Softline, Zennex, Usetech, Elcom+, Communication Systems, as well as branches of major players such as Yandex, MTS, Beeline and Rostelecom.
Tomsk regularly hosts the “IT City” conference.
Ulyanovsk
Ulyanovsk is a city with a developing IT industry that attracts the attention of both local and foreign investors.
There are several higher educational institutions in Ulyanovsk, such as Ulyanovsk State Technical University (UlSTU), Ulyanovsk State University (UlSU). They train specialists in the field of information technology and related disciplines. This creates a base for staffing the local IT industry.
Both local and federal IT companies operate in Ulyanovsk. Among them are SimbirSoft, Simtech DevelopmentPROF-IT GROUP, ZeBrain, RedLab and others. Every year the conferences “Strike”, ULCamp, Summer Merge and others are held here.
In the 2000s, the first IT companies began to appear in Ulyanovsk, and, of course, the struggle for personnel began. The first reaction of industry leading companies was to agree to artificially prevent the flow of personnel from company to company. And also maintain wages at the same level, regardless of the state of the business.
But this agreement could last only six months. And the “market” rules of the game have returned to the IT specialist personnel market. Then a new era began for the region’s IT ecosystem: large companies agreed to join forces to increase the number of IT specialists in the market. The vector of joint action became the slogan “to help provide career guidance and train enough personnel so that there is enough for everyone.”
And the first thing that large IT companies in the Ulyanovsk region began to finance and support were educational initiatives. Free courses were opened, conducted by industry managers at various universities. This helped increase the annual influx of new specialists into the industry by an average of 25-30%. A logical continuation of the process was IT conferences, where professionals could share experiences, establish connections and involve more and more young people in their ranks.
It is noteworthy that companies that were and are bitter competitors in the personnel market began to join forces. Together they began to organize events, the results of which would belong to the entire region. Without regard to the fact that everyone will enjoy the fruits of their efforts, and that the results of the companies’ efforts will not be felt immediately, but only after 3-5 years. This turned out to be an absolutely correct decision. The regional IT industry can only be developed by pooling resources. Collaboration has become the key to success. This made it possible to create a strong professional community of IT specialists in Ulyanovsk.
Ekaterinburg
Ekaterinburg is one of the largest cities in Russia and an important center for the IT industry. Many well-known IT companies operate in Yekaterinburg, including Corus Consulting, KROK, SberTech, Kontur and others.
EkbPy, Dump and other conferences are held in Yekaterinburg.
There are IT clusters and a technology park, business incubators such as the Ural IT Cluster, Kontur-Park and others. They help startups develop and find investments.
In Yekaterinburg there are several universities that train specialists in the field of information technology, such as the Ural Federal University named after the first President of Russia B.N. Yeltsin, the Ural Technical Institute of Communications and Informatics (branch of SibGUTI). These educational institutions actively cooperate with local companies to train personnel.
Novosibirsk
Novosibirsk is one of the largest cities in Siberia and an important center for the IT industry in Russia. The city is actively developing its technological and innovative capabilities, which makes it attractive to specialists in the field of information technology.
There are many well-known IT companies operating in Novosibirsk, including Sibur Digital, KROK, Eltes, BG Staff, R-One, Kontur, branches of T-Bank, Yandex, 2Gis and others.
CodeFest is taking place in Novosibirsk. Technology parks and business incubators, such as the Information Technology Cluster in the Siberian Science City, Sibacademsoft, Academpark and others. Clusters and associations support start-up companies. They operate innovation centers where startups can receive advice and assistance in development.
There are several universities here that train specialists in the field of information technology, such as Novosibirsk State Technical University (NSTU), Siberian State University of Telecommunications and Informatics, Siberian State University of Information Systems and Technologies and others. These educational institutions actively cooperate with local companies to train personnel.
Kazan
Kazan is one of the key IT centers in Russia, actively developing in the field of information technology. Here are the main aspects concerning the IT industry in Kazan:
Several large IT companies and clusters are located in Kazan, including:
– Kazan IT-Park named after. Bashir Rameev. This is a technology park that supports startups and small companies, provides office space and infrastructure for development.
– “Innopolis”. A satellite city of Kazan, created specifically for IT companies. Companies such as Acronis, Yandex, Alfa-Bank, Atomdata-Innopolis (Rosatom state corporation), Cognitive Technologies, Schneider Electric, Magnit IT Lab, IT X5 Technologies “Open Mobile Platform” are located here. , “New cloud technologies”, IVA Technologies (IVKS LLC), companies of the ICL group, Sber and many others, as well as many startups. There is also Innopolis University and several technology parks.
– Sber and T-Bank also have representative offices and are actively engaged in developments in Kazan.
IT training in Kazan is provided by several universities. Among them are Kazan National Research Technological University, Kazan State Energy University, Kazan Innovation University named after V.G. Timiryasov (IEUP), Kazan National Research Technical University named after. A.N. Tupoleva-KAI, Institute of Information Technologies and Intelligent Systems at Kazan Federal University (KFU) and others. KFU is one of the leading universities in Russia with a strong program.
Problems of regional conferences
And yet, the leaders in the movement for IT specialists are the capitals, but interesting events are regularly held in the regions as well. The main challenges faced by regional conferences include:
– Lack of funding. Regions often lack a sufficient number of sponsors and investors, which makes organizing large events difficult. Although, it is worth noting that industry is now actively filling this niche. Enterprises in the oil and gas, chemical, and metallurgical industries are actively pursuing digital transformation and hiring developers, as well as organizing their own events and sponsoring others’ events. Nevertheless, IT in industry is still a separate, actively developing niche. Although it has points of contact with the development community as a whole, it more often holds its own specialized events.
– Smaller audience. Regional IT communities are usually less developed, resulting in fewer participants and speakers. Often the salaries of IT specialists in the regions are lower than in Moscow and St. Petersburg, developers are less willingly allowed to attend conferences – they are afraid that they will be lured away to other companies. For the same reason, they are less likely to buy corporate tickets.
At the same time, one can argue with this thesis: let us again mention industrial giants who are ready to develop their employees, including sending them to industry events. And in general, the IT departments of such giants as Sibur Digital, Uralmash, Gazprom, Rosneft and Rosatom now easily compete with large IT companies in terms of the number of programmers, DevOps, Data Science and ML engineers. And many such giants are located in the regions.
– Lack of infrastructure. On the one hand, the regions lack modern conference venues, which limits the possibilities for organizing events. On the other hand, IT specialists from all over the country and even neighboring countries, such as Belarus or Kazakhstan, often flock to conferences in Moscow and St. Petersburg.
– Low awareness. The budgets of regional conferences are still inferior to those in the capital, and the audience is less solvent, so tickets are cheaper. It is logical that the organizers have fewer advertising opportunities, sponsors, affiliates and channels for disseminating information. And this makes it difficult to attract participants.
Now is the time for the regions to join forces. Neighboring, more successful regions are no longer competitors for regional IT communities. Real competition in the globalizing IT personnel market takes place between countries. And this problem can only be solved by combining the efforts of regional IT communities. It is necessary to make communication and transfer of experience accessible, to form a vibrant interregional community of professionals in the field of information technology.
Main regional conferences in Russia
Everyone already knows about the largest conference organizers in Moscow and the northern capital – Ontiko and Jug Ru. But not only Moscow: in Russia there are truly large-scale and significant regional IT conferences:
ULCamp
What happens and where: ULCamp is a beach festival on the banks of the Volga in Ulyanovsk. The conference is dedicated to modern technologies and development methodologies. Brings together professionals from various IT areas, including developers, testers, designers and project managers. The conference takes place in the Ulyanovsk region.
Topics: development, cybersecurity, ML and AI,
Ticket price: varies depending on the type of access and time of purchase – from 5,000 to 8,000 rubles.
Speakers: Among the speakers are experts from Alfa-Bank, Yandex, Postgres Professional, Positive Technologies, Skillfactory and other large IT companies.
In addition to lectures and discussions, participants are offered competitions in various sports, yacht rides, quizzes and competitions. And also stand-ups and a music program. In the summer of 2024, it included: DJ Alex Twain, the DISCOPROVATION group, Bogdan Titomir, Nike Borzov and others.
Website: 2024.ulcamp.ru/
OH TI FORUM
What happens and where: conference in Vologda
Topics: IT, HR Tech, EdTech, gamedev
Ticket price: for free
Speakers: the speakers are represented mainly by regional companies Skillaz, Polden and others, but there are also representatives of the giants Skillbox, HeadHunter, Sibur Digital and others.
Website: https://ojti.ru/
EkbPy
EkbPy is one of the popular IT conferences held in Yekaterinburg, dedicated to Python and related technologies. In 2024, it was held in partnership with Kontur, and Yandex was a co-organizer.
What happens and where: the conference usually takes place in one of the large conference halls or business centers in Yekaterinburg. The location varies from year to year, but a convenient location with good infrastructure is always chosen.
Topics: Various aspects of Python development and related technologies. For example:
– Web application development (Django, Flask).
– Scientific computing and data analysis (NumPy, Pandas).
– Artificial intelligence and machine learning (TensorFlow, PyTorch).
– Automation and DevOps.
– Programming for IoT.
– Modern development and testing practices.
Ticket price: 5,500 thousand rubles for online and 7,500 thousand rubles for offline.
Speakers: both local experts and invited speakers from other cities speak at the conference – these are representatives of Yandex, Avito, Tochka, Kontur and others.
Website: https://ekbpy.ru/
IT Weekend
Description: IT Weekend is a series of conferences dedicated to various aspects of information technology.
Venue: Norilsk.
Topic Examples:
– Programming (various languages and technologies)
– Web development and mobile applications
– Artificial intelligence and machine learning
– DevOps and cloud technologies
– Cybersecurity
– UX/UI design
– Development in industry
– Agile and project management
Ticket price: ranging from free to 5,000 rubles. They often offer discounts for students or early bookings.
Speakers: Among the participants are Maxim Gorshenin, experts from Norilsk Nickel, Sberbank, Siberian Security Center LLC and others.
Website: https://itweekend.ru/
CodeFest (Novosibirsk)
Description: CodeFest is one of the largest IT conferences in Siberia. Partners include Sber, Rostelecom, Kaspersky, Yandex and others.
Venue: CodeFest takes place in Novosibirsk.
Topics:
– Programming (different languages: Python, Java, JavaScript, etc.)
– Web development and mobile applications
– Artificial intelligence and machine learning
– DevOps and cloud technologies
– Cybersecurity
– Big Data and data analytics
– UX/UI design
– Agile and project management
Ticket price: ticket prices can vary from 2,000 to 6,000 rubles depending on the category (students, early booking, etc.). Group discounts are often offered.
Speakers: Experts from leading IT companies, startups and academia speak at CodeFest. Among the speakers you can meet representatives of companies such as Yandex, Sber and others. Famous bloggers and practitioners from the IT field are also often invited.
Website: https://14.codefest.ru/
Ural Digital Weekend
Description: Ural Digital Weekend is a conference dedicated to digital technologies, innovation and development of the IT industry. It brings together experts from various fields to discuss the latest trends and exchange experiences.
Venue: Permian.
Topics:
– Software development
– Artificial intelligence and machine learning
– Blockchain and cryptocurrencies
– Digital Marketing and SEO
– UX/UI design
– Cybersecurity
– Startups and entrepreneurship in the IT field
Ticket price: from 10,000 rub.
Speakers: experts from large companies, startups, as well as university professors speak at the conference. Among the speakers are experts from X5 Tech, Ozon, Yandex and others.
Website: https://ural-digital-weekend.ru/
Dump in Yekaterinburg
Description: Dump is a conference dedicated to software development, technologies and modern approaches in IT. Partners include T-Bank, Yandex, PositiveTechnologies, SberDevices, VK, Evrone and others.
Venue: Ekaterinburg.
Topics:
– Development of web and mobile applications, backend and frontend
– Software architecture;
– DevOps and process automation;
– Artificial intelligence and machine learning;
– Testing and quality assurance;
– Team management, management;
– UX/UI, design;
– New technologies and trends in IT.
Ticket price: from 10,000 rubles depending on the category (for example, early booking, student discounts).
Speakers: experts from large IT companies, startups and universities speak at the conference. Including experts from Tarantool DB, Avito, Yandex, VK, Sber, Yandex Cloud, Cloud.ru, Skyeng and others.
Website: https://dump-ekb.ru/
City IT
Description: “IT City” in Tomsk is a large-scale event dedicated to technology, startups and the development of the IT industry. Typically conferences take place in one of the city's large conference halls or at universities such as Tomsk State University or Tomsk Polytechnic University.
Venue: Tomsk
TopicsML, security, management, business, mobile development, front-end and back-end, DevOps and others.
Ticket price: 7,990 rubles
Speakers: speakers can include both local experts and representatives of large companies such as Yandex, Sber or Mail.ru. Successful startupers and businessmen are also often invited.
Website: https://gorod.it/
Summer Merge
Description: Summer Merge is a summer anti-conference dedicated to modern technologies, software development and IT innovations. Held with the support of RAEC, in partnership with Sibur Digital, Alfa Bank, Sber, MTS, OzonTech and other giants.
Venue: Eco-park “Russian Coast”, Volga bank, Ulyanovsk region.
Topics: time management, emotional intelligence, project and team management, combating stress, burnout + sports, quests and quizzes, food courts.
Speakers: The program involves experts from well-known IT companies, startups, as well as academic specialists. These are representatives from large innovative companies, for example, X5 Group, CUSTIS, VK Cloud and others
Website: https://summermerge.ru/
Merge
Merge is one of the interregional professional IT conferences in Russia already loved by the IT community. Autumn 2024 Merge 2024 will be held in Skolkovo. I invite you to take part in order to stay up to date with trends, improve your technology knowledge and keep your finger on the pulse. See you on November 15th!
Description: Merge brings together professionals to discuss hot topics in IT. The program includes 2 intense days and 30 sections covering all key aspects of the IT industry. 150 practicing speakers from top companies, including Yandex, X5 Group, VK, Sber and many others, will share their knowledge and experience.
The purpose of the conference is to strengthen and unite the Russian IT community. That is why Merge is aimed at specialists not only from the capital, but also from the regions, and the innovative heart of the country, Skolkovo, was chosen as the venue.
Place: Moscow (Skolkovo), Tatarstan (Innopolis).
Topics: artificial intelligence, machine learning, cloud technologies, DevOps, cybersecurity, front-end and back-end development, management, marketing, HR and others
Ticket price: varies from 12.5 thousand and above.
Speakers: experts from well-known IT companies participate in the program. These are representatives from large innovative companies, for example, X5 Group, CUSTIS, VK Cloud and others.
The term Merge itself comes to us from the SQL language – it is an operator meaning merging. The Merge conference program is a fusion of technologies and areas of the IT field in all their versatility. And the participants of the Merge conference are a merger of IT communities from 60+ regions of our country.
Idea Merge — make communication with IT professionals more accessible for regional specialists, whose salaries are still lower than in the capital.
Website: https://mergeconf.ru/
Come join us at the Merge conference, which will take place on November 15-16, 2024 at the Skolkovo Technopark. The organizers tried to gather only top speakers in more than 30 sections in different areas of the IT field – from development, QA and DevOps to management, game development, marketing and recruiting. The speakers are practitioners from CUSTIS, X5 Group, VK Cloud, Skyeng, Igrocraft and other leading companies, who will present more than 150 reports over the 2 days of the conference. The program also includes an exhibition of IT companies, workshops and master classes, discussions and interactive events. Buy a ticket you can do it now.
What is the situation in the IT industry in your region, are salaries and events different? Share in the comments.
