On September 19, at the World Youth Festival held on behalf of the President of the Russian Federation, Avito experts gave lessons on entrepreneurship. They talked about how to launh own start-ups without seed funding, whether it is important for young entrepreneurs to move to the capital, and shared lifehacks that are necessary for implementing their own projects in the media and digital spheres, as well as for building a personal brand.
The World Youth Festival Assembly is taking place in Nizhny Novgorod from September 17 to 21. Two thousand young leaders from Russia and 120 foreign countries are participating in the festival. The Assembly’s goal is to strengthen the ties between vigorous and ambitious young people from across the globe.
In addition to an extensive business program, the festival also features an entrepreneurship school run by Avito. Among its lecturers were: Oleg Vinzhegin, Head of the Sales Department at Avito Services; Anton Azarin, Senior Manager for key partners at Avito Services; and Alexey Butenko, Head of Avito Auto magazine.
Oleg Vinzhegin held a session entitled “Digital Entrepreneurship Without Seed Funding.” He spoke about the key trends that are influencing business today. Services is a sector where you can start your own business without investment, which is very important for young entrepreneurs. As a first step, you can launch a product or service on a limited scale to gauge consumer interest, Oleg Vinzhegin advises.
According to Avito Services, in the first half of 2025, entrepreneurs under the age of 35 accounted for 42% of all ads on the platform. The largest growth was in digital areas—IT services, web design, marketing, and SMM. It highlights the desire of young people to combine professional growth with a flexible work format, explained Anton Azarin, who gave a lecture entitled “Regions versus the capital: where will young people have more prospects?” According to him, young professionals are increasingly choosing a flexible lifestyle, preferring freedom in choosing tasks to an office routine schedule. The ability to provide services without geographical restrictions and to choose tasks independently allows them to build a strong portfolio and quickly expand their client base.
Alexey Butenko, Head of Avito Auto Magazine, held a master class on creating media—from finding your identity to distribution, monetization, and dealing with neural networks. Participants were given practical insights and tools to help them implement their own projects in the media and digital areas, as well as build their personal brands. After the session, there was a pitching where participants presented their project ideas and received feedback from Avito experts and other session participants.
"If you decide to launch your own media outlet, it is important to formulate at the very beginning what you want to talk about and why, what your audience wants, how to distribute content, and how to monetize it. And also, how to find a balance between the system and creativity. We talked about this today with the participants of the World Youth Festival, listened to their fresh, cool ideas, and shared our experience. When launching Avito Auto Magazine, we started with a large-scale study, the results of which formed the basis of our content strategy. We combined the power of Avito's big data, the experience of auto experts and opinion leaders, and the most popular content formats to become a reliable guide for our audience on their way to buying the perfect car," Alexey Butenko says.
The general partners of the WYF Assembly-2025 are the Russian Music Union, JSC Russian Railways, and Phygital Games. The general information partner is the international television channel RT, and the general media partner is ANO Dialog Regions. The partner for the excursion and regional programs is the More Than Trip program. The strategic partner is VK Tech. Co. The following have also joined the partnership program: “New Generation” program arranged by the Federal Agency for Affairs of the Commonwealth of Independent States, Compatriots Residing Abroad and International Humanitarian Cooperation (Rossotrudnichestvo), the Movement of the First, the presidential platform “Russia – Country of Opportunities”, Sovcombank, the Avito Tech. Co., State Atomic Energy Corporation Rosatom, Russian “Znanie” (Knowledge) Society, the Film Studio Soyuzmultfilm, the Government of the Krasnoyarsk Territory, the Central Bank of Russia, program for young entrepreneurs “Rosmolodezh.Undertake” and the Mashuk Knowledge Center. Information support for the event is provided by Rossiyskaya Gazeta, Argumenty i Fakty publishing house, the African Initiative and the Window to Russia project of ANO “TV-Novosti”.
The organizer of the World Youth Festival Assembly is the Federal Agency for Youth Affairs (Rosmolodezh), the co-organizer of the event is the Government of the Nizhny Novgorod Region and the event operator is the World Youth Festival Directorate. The Festival pursues the goals of the Youth and Children national project.
Overview:
In accordance with the instructions of the President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin on preserving and developing the legacy of the World Youth Festival, which took place on the Sirius Federal Territory in 2024 and united 20,000 young people from 190 countries of the world, festival events on the territory of the Russian Federation will be held annually. The next World Youth Festival for 20,000 participants will be held in 2030. In 2026, there will be a smaller event, an International Youth Festival with 10,000 participants. In between, the World Youth Festival’s themed Assemblies will be held annually for 2,000 participants. The World Youth Festival Directorate continues its work aimed at strengthening international youth cooperation.
