The Youth Day was held on 9-11 October 2024 in St. Petersburg as part of the official convention programme of the 13th St. Petersburg International Gas Forum which is one of the most large-scale and reputable business events in the gas industry. The central topic of this year is “Present and future of energy world”. The project has been implemented since 2015 by St. Petersburg State University of Economics (UNECON) with the support of Gazprom, EF-International and other partner companies.
This year, 30 best students from 12 countries (Russia, Belarus, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Nigeria, Tajikistan, Tanzania, Vietnam, Zambia) out of 300 candidates got opportunity to meet in St. Petersburg at the Expoforum site to discuss relevant issues of energy industry development together with leading experts.
9 October, Day 1
The first day began for the participants with meeting each other and project organizers, as well as team building which gave participants opportunity to get to know each other for further fruitful joint work.
The event continued with the official Youth Day opening ceremony, which took place at the stand of Gazprom partner universities. Welcoming remarks were made by Deputy Chairman of the Management Committee of Gazprom Sergey Khomyakov, Rector of St. Petersburg State University of Economics Igor Maksimtsev and Director of Higher Economic School, Vice-Rector of St. Petersburg State University of Economics Yana Klementovichus.
“The Youth Day has been held for ten years already. Many of its participants currently work in the world’s leading energy companies. I am sure that today, those people are also present here, who will soon be introducing advanced technologies in the oil and gas sector, basing on deep knowledge, as well as on principles of careful attitude to the environment. Your participation in the forum is a big step into the future. During the Youth Day, you’ll have a wonderful opportunity to meet leaders of the energy industry, talk to renowned experts, feel the atmosphere of the Gas Forum. The organizers have come up with complex tasks and competitions. And you will be able to gain professional experience here, which will help you in building your future successful career” – Sergey Khomyakov said.
“Dear friends! I am glad to welcome you in Russia, in my beloved city of St. Petersburg. You have passed through very difficult challenges to become participants of the Youth Day of St. Petersburg International Gas Forum. I wish you to have interesting meetings, discussions, a good stay in St. Petersburg and, of course, human and friendly communication. During the entire Youth Day, there will be meetings, competitions, but you have already won, because today you are here with us at SPIGF 2024” – Igor Maksimtsev pointed out.
“Exactly ten years ago, we launched the first Youth Day and saw the same smiling, interested eyes when we met our first participants. This event brings together the best representatives of the young generation. Here you can double your energy to solve important problems, discover new opportunities, find answers to sophisticated professional questions. We really hope that this energy will be your guiding star for the coming years, so that you can succeed as professionals. It is no coincidence that we are opening our project, our Youth Day programme, at the stand of Gazprom partner universities, because working with universities is one of the company’s key goals. I wish you to get maximum energy, recharge for the coming years, unite to solve very important problems in the energy sector” – Yana Klementovichus greeted the participants.
Then participants went to SPIGF exhibition. Representatives of Gazprom Invest conducted a tour for the students, where they told them about the stages of integrated implementation of investment projects and provided information about the functioning of a unique construction complex that allows implementing large-scale projects even in the harshest natural conditions. At the Gazprom GID stand, participants got acquainted with the GID mobile application developed by Gazprom, which is a multifunctional platform that provides access to many services and opportunities for company’s employees. The application allows to solve administrative issues and also includes various entertaining and useful content, a news feed, blogs, personal recommendations, etc. The students also visited Gazprom Science lecture hall and listened to a lecture on the evolution of international gas markets, where they learned about price formation, new technologies and various aspects related to gas contracts.
The programme of the first day continued with a panel discussion “Alice in digital grid world”, dedicated to the transformation of personnel training process. Within the framework of the event, Alexander Voloshin, Head of the Department of Relay Protection and Automation of Power Systems, Director of the Centre of the National Technology Initiative “Technologies of Electricity Transportation and Distributed Intelligent Energy Systems” of NRU “MPEI”, Dmitry Shirshov, Head of Directorate of Gazprom and Evgeny Gengrinovich, Advisor to the Director General of Infotecs, noted that young specialists after training often face a new, unfamiliar reality at work and feel like Alice Through the Looking-Glass – the world has turned upside down. The experts shared their experience in building a modern personnel training process that allows graduates to quickly integrate into the work process, discussed the current assessment of the competencies of industry specialists in the market, as well as directions for the development of training methods to ensure the competitiveness of the industry. The session was moderated by Ivan Komarov, Vice-Rector for Science and Innovations of NRU “Moscow Power Engineering Institute” (MPEI).
At the end of the day, Gazprom Invest representatives Dmitry Afanasev, Head of Resource Planning Department, and Maria Mokhnacheva, Leading Specialist of the Department of Large Projects Support, held an interactive session “Trends and needs 2025+ of Gazprom project activity”, were they spoke about the company’s experience in implementing large projects, digital tools, sought-after professional skills and competencies of the future, as well as opportunities for internships in the company.
After intensive convention programme, participants had a city tour and visited Lakhta Centre.
10 October, Day 2
In the morning of the second day, students had free time to take a closer look at the SPIGF exhibition, the area of which this year was a record 48000 m2 and which brought together 600 exhibitors.
After that Youth Day participants went to the SPIGF Plenary Session “Gas market 2024: The new world order outlines”, where industry leaders discussed trends in the development of the global natural gas market and prospects for international cooperation in conditions of a changing economic and geopolitical situation.
One of the key events of the Youth Day was off-tie meeting “Leadership in energy: Generation gap”, which traditionally took place in the format of a dialogue between representatives of the expert community and students. The following experts took part in the discussion: Denis Demin, Head of the Department of Strategy, Innovation and Sustainable Development of Gazprom Neft, Janco Lončar, Director of Comita d.o.o., Kiril Polous, Deputy Head of Department – Head of Directorate of Gazprom, Konstantin Romanov, Deputy Head of Directorate of Gazprom; Director General of Gazprom Hydrogen. The meeting addressed the issues of energy transition, the use of renewable energy sources, decarbonization, Russia’s place in the global energy sector, international cooperation in energy, finding balance between industrial development and compliance with the climate agenda. Particular attention was paid to discussing the knowledge and skills that young energy specialists need, as well as discussion of effective knowledge transfer strategies to mitigate the effects of generation change and ensure a sustainable future. Students also had opportunity to ask their questions. Dmitry Vasilenko, Vice-Rector for International Relations of UNECON moderated the meeting.
A special moment of the programme was the Winners of the Virtual Academy awards ceremony, held by the Chairman of the Management Committee of Gazprom Alexey Miller who personally greeted the participants of Youth Day 2024, wished them success in setting ambitious goals and achieving them, and congratulated the best graduates of the Virtual Academy (the selection stage and educational programme of Youth Day), which was held in June-July 2024, and solemnly presented them with certificates. The winners were: Daria Selezneva (Lomonosov Moscow State University), Annicette Ingrid Noumbi Domgouo (University of Douala, Cameroon), Thi Thanh Thanh Le (Yersin University in Dalat, Vietnam), Amirkhon Aminov (SPbPU), Angelina Matsiushenka (Belarusian State University).
At the end of the day, the participants had a networking session with energy experts, during which Konstantin Romanov, Deputy Head of Directorate of Gazprom; Director General of Gazprom Hydrogen, Vasily Zinin, Deputy Head of Directorate – Head of Division of Gazprom, Denis Demin, Head of the Department of Strategy, Innovation and Sustainable Development of Gazprom Neft, and Andrey Berezin, Director for Development of International Center for Emerging Markets Research, Youth Day alumnus, told the young people about their projects and research, shared practical advice, discussed issues participants were interested in concerning their further professional development.
11 October, Day 3
On the third and the final day, participants had an entertaining interactive business game “Energy landscape: Towards advanced technologies”. The teams represented energy companies and worked on their development strategies. The task of the teams-companies was to develop and optimize the world’s energy systems using advanced technologies and improvements to achieve high profit and minimize environmental damage. Over the course of five rounds, the teams made decisions, seeing in real time how they impacted the global energy market and geographic regions. Upon results of the business game, the Jury determined the team that completed the task, used resources rationally and achieved the best results – the winner was the team “Red Phoenix Power”, which was represented by Amirkhon Aminov (SPbPU), Nikita Izbyakov (SPbPU), Nikita Kuznetsov (RANEPA), Eliza Mustafina (USPTU), Thi Ngoc Tra Le (University of Economics and Law, Vietnam), Chizoba Nzeakor (ITMO).
The Jury of the business game united: Alexey Koshelets, Head of Division of Gazprom (Chairman of the Jury), Leonid Sukhikh, Rector of Tomsk Polytechnic University, Konstantin Slanov, Business Development Director of Comita Digital Technologies; Director General of Comita Digital Technologies Kazakhstan, Olga Orlova, Head of Banking and Financial Markets Department, Professor, Executive Director of the Endowment fund of UNECON, Alexey Kholodkov, Continuous Improvement System manager of the Department of Economics and Corporate Planning of Gazprom Neft. The moderators were Natalia Sarakhanova, Academic Director of Youth Day, Associate Professor of UNECON, and Tatyana Krylova, Expert of School of Business and International Proficiency of MGIMO University.
The official end of the Youth Day 2024 took place at the closing ceremony. Elena Kasyan, Head of Department of Gazprom, addressed to the participants and noted that during participation in the Gas Forum and Youth Day, which is an excellent platform for professional development, students were able to get acquainted with the gas industry, the real sector of the economy, on which the development of countries and the well-being of citizens depend, and also wished all participants to always be ambitious and hardworking. In her turn, Yana Klementovichus, Director of Higher Economic School, Vice-Rector of UNECON, congratulated everyone on the finale of the Youth Day, expressed gratitude to Gazprom for the unique opportunity and initiative that has been supported for ten years, EF-International, which provides maximum comfort on the site for successful work, and Gazprom flagship universities for their maximum involvement and support of the project. Special words of gratitude were expressed to the members of the business game jury and the team of organizers, including Dmitry Vasilenko, Director of the Youth Day project.
In this way, three intensive, useful and interesting days passed, which the participants will remember for a long time. And the Youth Day project will continue its work in 2025 and will be happy to welcome new students!
