The Brand Manage-ment Summer School was held in the city of Pinsk on the basis of the Polesye State University on Septem-ber 24-28.
The teachers – highly qualified speakers from Bela-rus, Russia and the UK – conducted theoretical and practical training on topical issues of promoting prod-ucts and services; designing and registering intellec-tual property rights and protecting them; and dis-cussed the negative consequences of the spread of counterfeit goods; and the difference of them from faked and falsified products.
The peculiarity of the "new season" of the School is the emphasis on practical exercises.
Most active participants of the School’s presentation seminars, held in 2017, representatives of the enter-prises of the Republic of Belarus, as well as partici-pants of the republic's contest "100 Ideas for Belarus", were the trainees of the School.
All the classes of the School were duplicated in the online format; therefore, everyone could increase the level of knowledge in the area of brand management in remote access at the webinar platform. The webinar records were posted on the BelBrandTV channel on the YouTube.
During the first school day, the trainees learned to think off-standard and promote their innovative pro-jects by using the TRIZ (theory of solving inventing problems) technologies. In her practical training unit, the TRIZ teacher Natalia Chizhevskaya offered the trainees to take the role of marketing specialists of the most popular Belarusian and foreign companies.
The second day of the Summer School was especial-ly informative in terms of mastering the legal and so-cial aspects of the protection of intellectual property rights. The Patent Attorney Denis Nedvetsky intro-duced trainees to the registration systems of trade-marks in the Republic of Belarus and abroad, protec-tion them against counterfeiting and distribution of faked goods, and against unfair competition.
On September 26, the trainees borrowed the experi-ence of using intellectual property and protecting it from business practitioners. Lectures in the interactive format were given by Marat Akhmedjanov, Vice-Chairman of the Eurasian Creative Guild and Director of the Hertfordshire Press Publishing House (London), and Nikolai Nikolaev, Director of the "WLW" Advertis-ing Agency and a business trainer (Belarus).
On September 27, the Summer Brand Management School introduced its trainees to Olga Issa, a special-ist in the field of business administration, marketing and PR. Olga Issa has a successful experience as PR Director for the Beriger Ingelham LLC, Nivision Group, ZAL Pharmsynthesis, Fleming Family, Partners Asset Management, PIOGLOBAL AM and Assistant Director of the Renaissance Capital (Moscow). Her experience in building consumers' respect for intellectual products evoked a particular interest.
On September 28, Denis Shlesberg, Executive Crea-tive Director of the "Artonika" Branding Agency (Mos-cow), a member of the Board of the Association of Branding Companies of Russia, and lecturer at the Supreme Branding School and the British Higher School of Designing, spoke about current trends in creating and promoting brands, protecting them from counterfeiting and falsification, as well as about possi-ble ways of combating the spread of counterfeits.
The Summer Brand Management School in Pinsk ended with a large-scale youth action, accompanied by the distribution of leaflets against fakes, piracy, gray imports, etc. The action was held on September 29 on the pedestrian Lenin Street.
The project "Brand Management School" continues. A preliminary application for participation can be sent by filling out the Application Form.