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The Annual Alumni Conference of the Ukrainian School of Political Studies 17/01/2011 The Annual Alumni Conference of the Ukrainian School of Political Studies took place from 6 to 7 November 2010 in Kyiv, gathering over 180 young leaders – state officials, lawyers, businessmen, politicians, journalists and civil society representatives.

The specific feature of the event was the opportunity for participants to evaluate experts' presentations and express their opinion on the issues discussed via the SENSE evaluation system provided by the event's partner – "ROST" Company.

During the first panel discussion, the participants had the opportunity to debate with the experts on the topic "Network social groups as constructors of the political and ideological design of the country".

After the welcome address by Ihor Kohut, Director of the Ukrainian School of Political Studies, Chairman of the Board of the Agency for Legislative Initiatives, the panel discussion took place in the SENSE interactive mode. The debates were moderated by Darka Chepak, Editor-in-Chief of "Savik Shuster Studio", 2006 USPS Alumnus. The main speakers of the first session were: Serhiy Haiday, Director of Strategic Planning and Social Engineering Agency “Gaiday.Com", Alyona Sybiryakova, Managing Partner, "Rost" Group, François Friederich, Co-ordinator of the Schools of Political Studies of the Council of Europe, Denis Bohush, President of “Bohush Communication”, Member of the International Public Relations Association (IPRA), Council Member of IPRA, Vice-President of the Ukrainian PR League.

The participants focused particularly on the following key topics:
- Networks social groups as social capital accumulation platforms
- Path to network society through horizontal social links
- Penetration of innovations, new ideas and practices – rule 150 ("Dumber number").

In the framework of the seminar, the Alumni were invited to reply to the following questions:

1) Can social networks influence political and ideological design constructors of a country?

Yes - 77%; No - 23%

2) Are you a member of any social networks (Internet social network, club)?

Yes - 93%; No 7%

3) If a member of your social network community ran for the position of President of Ukraine, would you support him/her?

Yes - 56%; No - 44%

4) How would you be ready to support this candidate and contribute to his/her election?

- the readiness to take part in the realisation of the programme at different levels and positions - 56%
- participation in the development of the action plan - 32%
- finance - 4%
- participation in the electoral campaign - 8%

After the first panel discussion, the first question was voted on again – to understand whether the discussion had changed participants' views. See the comparative results below: 

 

 

 

 

 
Yes - 67%; No - 33%

The second panel discussion focused on "How to make Ukraine better?" was moderated by Oleg Petrenko, First Deputy CEO of the Medical Center "Universal Clinic "Oberih", 2006 USPS alumnus.

The following experts were invited to the discussion: Volodymyr Bohatyr, Deputy Minister of Justice of Ukraine, 2009 USPS alumnus, Denys Buhay, Advocate, Manager of the "Law Firm "Vaschenko, Buhay and Partners", 2009 USPS alumnus, Yuri Bova, City Mayor of Trostyanets, 2006 USPS alumnus, Dmytro Voloshenkov, Vice-Head of Odessa Regional State Administration, 2009 USPS alumnus, Olexander Bohutsky, Director President of LLC "International Commercial Broadcasting Company" (ICTV), Starlight Media Group Manager, 2006 USPS alumnus.

The objective of this discussion platform was to show the vision and the perception of public processes in Ukraine by the School's alumni of various years.

Furthermore, the Official Ceremony of presenting diplomas to participants of 2010 USPS was conducted within the framework of the conference, with the participation of Ihor Kohut, Director of the Ukrainian School of Political Studies, H.E. Ake Peterson, Representative of the Secretary General of the Council of Europe for the co-ordination of co-operation programmes in Ukraine and François Friederich, Co-ordinator of the Schools of Political Studies of the Council of Europe.

On the last day of the seminar, the meeting of the USPS Alumni Association took place, during which the Report of the Association’s Board was presented and the new members of the USPS Alumni Association's Board were elected.


 

 
 
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