May 14, Dushanbe – The second day of the Go Viral Festival in the capital of Tajikistan was no less interesting than the first day. About 680 participants came here to gain knowledge and to learn about the innovative ideas of modern Tajikistan in the field of media technologies, business, culture, and IT.
Charles Martin, the Go Viral founder and American Spaces Director, opened the second day of the Festival. He spoke about the history of organising and holding all festivals: the first one was held in the USA in Austin, Texas.
Moderator Daria Khristolyubova demonstrated the ‘chapan’ (Central Asian traditional coat) to the participants; it will travel around Central Asian countries, where Go Viral will also take place. Charles Martin tried to embroider a small pattern on this Festival symbol. Other event participants did the same.
Before the beginning of the panel discussions, three winners were announced; they were the authors of the best posts for the Instagram photo contest. They received memorable gifts. The contest continues; the participants who publish the best creative videos from any session of the Festival and post them on social media tagging #GoViralFestival2022 and #GoViralTj will also receive the prizes.
During the parallel sessions, a QA (Quality Assurance) engineer at Amazon Maksud Khojaev conducted an online presentation in one of the rooms. He recalled the history of computer technology’s development, talked about the profession of a QA specialist, and told in detail about the tasks any tester sets for himself.
“The main task of a Quality Assurance specialist is to prevent the client from leaving dissatisfied,” Khojaev said and called it a “broken hearts” problem.
“What will be the consequences if the tester misses a bug?” the audience cautiously asked. Khojaev reassured the audience and reminded them that “everyone makes mistakes”.
“You will not get fired for this right away but it is very important to learn from this and next time, start testing exactly with the bug you missed last time,” he added.
Young and talented architect Oyat Shukurov, co-founder and author of the self-published magazine “Abraxas” dedicated to architectural theory, poetics, and technology, tutor at the British Higher School of Art and Design in Moscow, held a master class “Form Ever Follows Function: Architecture for People” and showed how old buildings can be redesigned following modern requirements and national traditions.
“The world is changing and so are the requirements for modern architecture. However, architecture is created for people and its main goal is to make people feel good. We are a part of nature; we must feel it and cause minimal damage to it,” the young architect believes.
The organisers and Oyat Shukurov invited session participants to take part in a tour of the architectural objects of Dushanbe on May 15, the last day of the Festival.
The panel discussion in the IT section about NFT, blockchain, and cryptocurrencies aroused great interest and the room was packed.
Moderator Rustam Khojaev spoke about blockchain technology, its algorithm, and its principles.
In the second part of the session, the invited speakers discussed the positive and negative aspects of the blockchain technology, why NFTs (non-fungible token is financial security consisting of digital data) cost a lot of money, the reason for the diversity of cryptocurrencies, and why the banks do not want to invest in them.
“The banks do not like to take risks. The bank cannot invest in the riskiest tool – cryptocurrency, so traditionally, they are used to investing in safe tools,” said Shohruh Rustamov, financial analyst at the First Microfinance Bank of Tajikistan.
Rustam Khojaev believes there are prospects for blockchain technologies in Tajikistan. They can be in demand in the public sector, in the field of finance and accounting, education, healthcare, art, and science. However, in his opinion, the infrastructure, society, and relevant authorities of the country are not ready for it yet.
“People want to launch it and make money on hype,” Sergey Chutkov said about the reason why there are so many different cryptocurrencies.
He added it was important for Tajikistan to keep up with the whole world.
“There is a risk that we will fall behind and the state will not be able to make money on the blockchain technology,” Chutkov said.
The discussion of cryptocurrencies was so exciting for the young participants that even at the end of the session, the participants talked with the speakers for a long time.
During the second part of this day’s program, the participants could choose workshops and sessions in areas of their interest.
During a workshop dedicated to starting a business with the available resources, Brandon Andrews, an entrepreneur from the USA, delivered a presentation “Getting past GO! Developing a business plan for your idea”. Andrews’ company helps big brands to test their products in the early stages.
He asked the participants what is stopping them from starting a business today and tried to help future entrepreneurs get rid of their fears and overcome existing barriers.
One of the participants said that he faced the problem of finding his audience; another participant said she had a fear of a ‘blank page’ – she did not know how to start; the third participant did not know where to find funding for his project.
“Start with yourself, think how much your time, your idea, and its implementation are worth. Tell about yourself and your business in different places, launch promotion campaigns, and conduct research on what funds and organisations could support startups like yours. You can even conduct fundraising on Facebook,” said Andrews answering questions from the participants.
Those who have no ideas but have a desire to open a business, he advised to write down during the week all the difficulties they face or what ‘annoys’ them in everyday life. Then, they should try to come up with solutions to those problems. This will be the idea for launching their own product.
The American businessman spoke in detail about the business plan, went through all its steps with the participants, and reminded them of the importance of communication with the target audience (community).
“These people will test your product. They will become your first customers and support your business. You have to create and develop a community around your business from the very beginning,” Brandon highlighted.
The Go Viral 2022 Festival will be held in Dushanbe, Tashkent, Bishkek, Almaty, and Ashgabat cities from May 13 until July 2.
For media inquiries, please reach out Go Viral Ambassador in Tajikistan, Manizha Babakulova, via email at manizha@iwpr.net or phone number at 901-10-79-48.
The Go Viral Network is implemented by IWPR and by a grant from the United States Department of State. This press release was funded by a grant from the United States Department of State. The opinions, findings, and conclusions stated herein are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the United States Department of State.