Samara, 19 June 2016. PenzaNews. The Penza delegation of over 100 people are taking active part in the iVolga-2016 ten-day youth forum in the Samara region.

© PenzaNewsBuy the photo

The forum’s schedule features many meetings with VIP guests, including renown athletes.

In particular, Penza delegation members took their opportunity to meet with the two-time Olympic champion Svetlana Khorkina (who received a gift “boomerang of luck” from the head of the Penza youth innovation center “Sputnik” Ivan Tanasov); as well as with Andrei Kirilenko – president of the Russian Basketball Federation, gold player of the 2007 European championship, bronze player of the 2011 European championship and the 2012 Games.

In addition, the regional delegation met with Russian cosmonauts, such as: Alexander Lazutkin, who first went to space on 10 February 1997 and spent 184 days and 22 hours as a flight engineer of Soyuz TM-25 and Mir orbital station; and Yuri Shargin, who were the main flight engineer of Soyuz TMA-5 on 14-24 October 2004.

Other notable experts who visited the forum were representatives of the Samara region – regional Election Committee chairman Vadim Mikheev, business ombudsman Evgeny Borisov – and the State Duma deputy ethics committee chairman Victor Zavarzin.

Notable for this year’s forum, delegates are able to take part in any meetings of the schedule, even those exceeding their normal time of stay.

The iVolga-2016 features nine groups – Innovations and Technical Creativity, Cultural BOOM, Lesser Motherland – Bigger Opportunities, Media Wave, Patriot, Generation of Good, Politics, Sporty Youth – Healthy Nation, and You Are A Businessman. The first two groups were the most popular with the Penza region youth.

In each group, participants are presenting their projects and initiatives and defending them at the federal district level, with a potential to advance to the fededal level.

The Penza region delegation prepared over 80 projects.

The foreign delegates – around 150 from China and more than 20 from France – became a great point of interest at iVolga forum.

The meeting part for Russian and foreign delegations featured a “Friendship Day” event, where young men and women from different regions and countries exchanged souvenirs and presents.

Along with education, forum participants are able to engage in sports such as climbing, football, basketball and volleyball matches, and kayaking.

In addition, they are welcome to test themselves for the GTO normatives during the two-day offer, and earn gold, silver and bronze badges depending on their result.

Moreover, Sunday, June 19, will host a robotics and air drone competition: one of the competitors is Ilya Astashkin, a winner of the Penza regional forum “Lastochka.”

Also, the Penza region delegation brought a sculpture of swallow – a symbol of the region – to the forum: during the “Friendship Day” event, people were welcome to paint it, white, blue and red – the colors of the Russian flag.

The Penza delegation is easy to spot thanks to their newly-redesigned T-shirts, and people from other regions are asking them to exchange T-shirts, boosting the Penza region collection throughout the forum’s years.

The forum is accessible for people with disabilities, such as Ivan Pchelnikov from the Penza rehabilitation center “Kvartal Louie,” who will be presenting the new project “House of Veronika.”

It took the first day for the forum delegation to get adjusted to the Samara time zone (one hour earlier than the Moscow time), getting earlier and beating off drowsiness; however, they are already fully suited for the forum schedule, the had of the youth initiatives implementation center for the Penza region youth center Marina Sivyakova told PenzaNews.

“The guys and the girls compare visiting the forum to spending a year at the university. For these 10 days, we are able to socialize with people from other regions, join in groups to implement projects, share experience and get new ideas,” she pointed out.

The event is organized very well, with perfect conditions for residence, education, and security, she stressed.