The final stage of the business game “City of the Future” was the teams’ defense of their presentations. The projects were: “Vladivostok without Borders” (creating a comfortable urban environment for mothers with prams, elderly people and people with disabilities); “Russian Fun” (Russian culture festival for children of foreign citizens); “Probok.NET” (how to reduce traffic jams in the city); “Reconstruction of Vladivostok’s main park”; “Brin the grin” (program for green landscaping), “Generation Green” (environmental education for young people) and“ SMARTparking ”(lounge zone on the upper tier of a multi-level parking garage).

Each project was aimed at creating convenient, interesting and comfortable urban space for city residents. Here is how "City of the Future" project manager Maria Nemtsova, who teaches economics at ILS and holds a Ph.D. in the subject, explained it:

“All the teams chose highly relevant topics that are regularly discussed by local news agencies, including traffic jams, the need for high-quality sidewalks and passages, landscaping, and international communication. Each team determined the focus of their project and analyzed the situation, searching for possible analogues abroad and finally offering their solutions.”

“The project gave us the opportunity to present our thoughts on how to transform our city,” says Arina Belan of section 10A. “We saw how much difficulty pedestrians face in many parts of the city when trying to cross roads and even intersections. Our team’s project included conversion of the Nekrasovskaya overpass into a convenient ground-level crossing.”

“Our team’s Russian Fun project was designed to help foreign citizens adapt to life in in Vladivostok,” says Alana Dzhagaeva of section 10B. “Many people who come here from Uzbekistan and Tajikistan speak Russian poorly, and our idea was create interest among these new residents in Russian language and culture. Our target audience is children from 6 to 15 years of age.”

Each project presentation was given a maximum of seven minutes, as each team talked about their main idea, discussed the strengths and weaknesses of the project, and tried to convince the judges of the value of their ideas.

“Each project was unique, and most importantly, creative,” notes ILS Deputy Director for Science and Scholarship Marina Artemenko. “It was clear that each team saw the city’s sore spots and offered ways to eliminate them. It would be very good if, after our students complete their higher education and become specialists in their chosen professions, they remember our game and try to put their school ideas into practice.”