Speakers:

Ann-Karin Koskinen

Marketing Director, Muumimaailma Oy, Naantali, Finland

Ann-Karin has been working at Moominworld since 1994, just a year after it opened in 1993. First Ann-Karin was taking care of ticket sales and some office tasks, but very soon she took over marketing abroad and gradually - the whole of marketing. Ann-Karin works as Marketing Director since 2007 with three products: Moominworld, Adventure Island Väski and Theater Emma.

Ann-Karin had studied tourism in Stockholm and language and economy at the Finnish-Swedish University Åbo Akademi in Turku. During her student years, Ann-Karin had worked both at Viking Line and Silja Line-boats, cruising between Sweden and Finland. Ann-Karin is bilingual, her mother is Finnish-speaking and her father is Swedish-speaking. Ann-Karin has two sons, 14 and 11 years old.

Ulf Larsson

CEO, Junibacken (The Junibacken Museum, Stockholm, Sweden)

Ulf Larsson has worked with Swedens biggest amusement parks and arenas as CEO since 1990. In the autumn of 2009 Ulf started as the CEO of Junibacken. Ulf has adopted much of his knowledge of service and quality to Junibacken. The employees of Junibacken are all educated in Junibackens service school, a way to understand the basics of service and how to deliver it to their guests. Another big task is to find interesting sponsor partners who by sponsoring Junibacken can fulfill the companys social responsibility. Junibackens mission is to make sure that childrens books and reading will continue to be an important part of the childrens culture.

Elin Karlsson

Museum Director, Junibacken

Elin Karlsson has been working at Junibacken since 2006. Elin started off working during weekends as a host/guide in the museum, but very soon she started to work as a team leader for the museum staff, actors and musicians and since November 2009 Elin is the Museum Director. Elin has studied acting in Gothenburg, performed children´s theatre, worked as a coordinator at an event bureau, as an actor at Gothenburg city museum among other places.

Jenny Helldahl

Head of communication, Junibacken

Jenny Helldahl has been working as Communications Manager at Junibacken since 2010, but started off in 2004 as team leader of the museum staff. Jenny has a degree in Art History and History of Literature as well as Communication and PR. She has also worked as a guide at several cultural institutions such as the Drottningholm Castle in Stockholm, as well as Project Manager for a foundation providing school work help to students with various difficulties.

Natalia Romanova

General Director, Cirque Du Soleil Rus

Natalia is Director General of Cirque du Soleil Rus and Founder of NRG Sport, a sports marketing company. Natalia has over 15 years of international business experience. She has spent ten years marketing and selling fast moving consumer goods and taking charge of the marketing division of the consumer products group for the Russia-based Johnson and Johnson. She also has a five-year expertise in the strategic business development, including Romir, one of the largest marketing research companies in Russia.

Natalia graduated cum laude with a major in Economics from the Moscow State University and holds a graduate Business Economics degree from the Helsinki University. She speaks Russian, English, Finnish and basic French. She lives just outside of Moscow with her husband, two children, leonberger dogs and horses.

Tigran Saakov

Art Director of the Children’s Integration Theater “Kukly”

Tigran believes that management of people is an artistic task. In order to carry it out properly, Tigran wears bell-bottoms and suspenders. Ever since he graduated from the St. Petersburg State Theater Arts Academy, Tigran actively searches for signs of art within himself, and sometimes in other people - as a part of his job. Having settled for children's theater, Tigran unexpectedly, developed sincere respect for his little clients. This might be explained by the fact that he is a parent himself. Tigran agrees with professionals who say that being “a good person” is not a job, and goes even farther, he thinks that being “a bad person” is not a job either. Artistic and political credo – destroying boundaries. This is where the idea of an integration theater came from. This idea has nested naturally and gave roots in Tigran’s soul.

Ekaterina Pustoshnaya

Co-founder of museum LabirintUm, CEO of museum-theater Skazkin Dom

Ekaterina has graduated from the St. Petersburg State University of Technology and Design with a major in Economics. She has served as the marketing officer in a number of organizations and trading companies. Ekaterina was able to travel extensively and visit various interactive children’s museums all over Europe. She was moved by the idea to create a similar playground in St. Petersburg, was able to find like-minded partners and in 2009, together with Oksana Orlova and Ekaterina Andreevskaya, she launched the children’s play museum Skazkin Dom. A year and a half later, Ekaterina’s second project was born – the interactive museum of cognitive science LabirintUm. Despite her busy professional life, Ekaterina is able to devote a lot of time to her little son and likes to travel with her family. Currently, Ekaterina is working on getting her yacht permit and wants to go to sea.

Aleksey Shishov

Director and Art Director of the Karlsson Haus Theater

Aleksey graduated from the Saint-Petersburg State Theater Arts Academy. He is responsible for the creation of interactive plays for kids of school and pre-school age. Aleksey is the author of the “Theater as tool for school” special program, within the framework of which the “Parts of Speech” play-lesson was staged. Aleksey believes that theater, especially puppet theater, is the best art invention of humankind. With the help of theater, it is easy for adults to reach understanding with children: to talk about very serious things, to dream, and to be mischievous together, similar to the way the plump little man with a propeller on his back does it. After all, each and every one of us has the life-long desire to play, and only our games become more and more complex with time. And for kids, theater may be the first step to getting to know the world around them and within themselves. Children learn to not just consume, but to create, think, and listen.

Anastasia Blokhina

PR Manager, Erarta – Contemporary Art Museum and Galleries

Marija Ostashinskaya

Manager of Programs for Children, Erarta – Contemporary Art Museum and Galleries

Guests:

• Innova
• SMART театр
• АРТ Личность
• "Бенефис", Санкт-Петербургский театр
• Большой театр кукол
• "БУФФ", театр
• Бюро АртТерра
• Военно-исторический музей артиллерии, инженерных войск и войск связи
• Всероссийский музей А.С. Пушкина
• Генеральное консульство Швеции
• ГМЗ "Павловск"
• ГМЗ "Царское Село"
• ГНУ ЦМП им.В.В.Докучаева
• Государственный музей истории религии
• Государственный Русский музей
• Государственная филармония Санкт-Петербурга для детей и юношества
• Государственный Эрмитаж, Школьный центр
• ГУ "Агентство Стратегических Инвестиций" (Проект музей сказок А.С. Пушкина в ЦПКиО им. С.М. Кирова)
• "Карамболь", Санкт-Петербургский Государственный музыкальный детский театр
• Комитет по культуре Правительства Санкт-Петербурга
• "Ледокол 'Красин'", Филиал ММО в СПб
• Лофт Проект Этажи
• Маленький театр больших кукол
• Модуль-Т (Музей Сказки ЦПКиО)
• Музей Анны Ахматовой в Фонтанном Доме
• Музей Арктики и Антарктики
• Музей гигиены
• Музей-институт семьи Рерихов
• Музей кошки
• Музей политической истории
• НП "САПИР" (Союз Ассоциаций и Партнеров Индустрии Развлечений)
• Петербургский музей кукол
• "Поляна Сказок", ООО "Театральный дом"
• Продюсерский центр "Домино" (театр "Домино", театр "Львёнок")
• "Разночинный Петербург", музей
• Республика кошек
• Российский Этнографический Музей
• "Светлячок", театр кукол
• «Сказкин Дом», музей-театр
• "Сказкины посиделки", детский интерактивный театр
• "Солнышко", Детский центр
• Санкт-Петербургский государственный музей театрального и музыкального искусства
• Санкт-Петербургский государственный театр марионеток им. Е.С.Деммени
• Санкт-Петербургский кукольный Театр Сказки
• СПб ГУ Центральный парк культуры и отдыха им. С.М. Кирова
• Санкт-Петербургский музей игрушки
• "Таврик", театр
• "ТАРАБУМ", Музей-театр анимации
• Театр Дождей
• "У Нарвских ворот", детский драматический театр
• Царскосельская гимназия искусств имени А.А.Ахматовой

About Cirque du Soleil

http://www.cds.ru/generic

Cirque du Soleil is an international company from Quebec dedicated to the creation, production and distribution of artistic works. Our mission is to invoke the imagination, provoke the senses and evoke the emotions of people throughout the world. Cirque du Soleil is a generator of new experiences, a laboratory and platform for creators. We are constantly researching new artistic avenues and innovating within our organization – and we intend to carry on taking such risks and inventing with audacity.

About Junibacken Museum

http://www.junibacken.se/russian

Junibacken has about 400 000 visitors per year. Visitors from other countries (outside of Sweden) make up about 25 % of the total number. The majority of foreign visitors of Junibacken come from Finland, Estonia and Russia. Junibacken is also Sweden´s largest producer of children´s theatre with 3 – 5 premieres every year.

About Moominworld

www.muumimaailma.fi

The Moominworld gets about 220000 visitors per year (the museum is open in summer only) and if counted with Väski and Emma together - 300000. Visitors from other countries (outside of Finland) make up about 27% of the total number. The majority of foreign visitors of the Moominworld come from Sweden, Norway, Estonia, Russia, Japan and Hong Kong.

About Children’s Integration Theater “Kukly” (Dolls)

The Children’s Integration Theater “Kukly” is a project of the Theatrical Public Organization “Salt” and was launched in St. Petersburg in 2007. The theater acquired its own permanent stage in April of 2010. It has become the first professional theatrical playground in St. Petersburg, fully equipped to welcome all kids of guests, including those with limited capabilities. Moreover, the staged plays are adapted for kids with various hearing disorders. The theater’s productions are equally entertaining for everybody: for kids who have hearing problems, for kids who don’t have hearing problems, and even adults. While able to share a moving theatrical experience with each other, – the audiences learn to be more tolerant, sensitive and open. In its relatively short history of existence, the theater has already become an award winner in the “Kids’ Theaters of St. Petersburg” Festival.

About Interactive museum of cognitive science LabirintUm

http://www.labirint-um.ru

Interactive museum of cognitive science LabirintUm was founded in December 2010 in the Tolstoy Skver multifunctional complex. The museum is staged on 700 square meters of space and houses over 60 exponents, which graphically demonstrate the work of certain Laws of Physics and explain the nature of some of the world’s most beautiful and wonderful phenomena. The museum is an open learning environment, in which every visitor can participate in all the experiments. LabirintUm makes it possible to create a tornado, a wave or a lightning, be inside a gigantic soap bubble, to catch one’s own shadow, to roam in a mirror labyrinth and learn to fly. The museum carries a wide selection of learning and show programs for children of various ages, called on to clearly demonstrate the work of various physical phenomena.

The Karlsson Haus Theater

“Give the children love, more love and still more love – and the commonsense will come by itself.” – said Astrid Lindgren. And we agree with the famous author. And the desire of Karlsson and Lillebror to be mischievous together is pretty much the essence of our theater for kids and adults. Theater is a good place to be mischievous together, and not to be worried about looking silly and nonacademic. Theater is a place where adults can afford to act a little childish, to let go of problems and to respond to the lead of the actors. Children, on the contrary, can gain experience and become wiser through empathy. Our theater is small – only 40 seats, which are not traditional chairs, but are colorful pillows on the carpet. The audiences play an active role in the show, give advice to and communicate with the actors. This relaxed interaction helps to build the cozy and comfortable atmosphere, where children and adults, actors and all theater guests become united by a moving joint experience.