A digitalization conference in Nizhny. I’m hardly not gonna be there…

With conference season still in full-swing, I’ve been busier than a bee of late. Just recently I only had two days at home and it was back on the road again. This time though it was a domestic business trip – albeit it a thoroughly important one …

It was for CIPR in the city of Nizhny Novgorod. CIPR?…

CIPR is a transliteration from the Russian ЦИПР, which stands for “Digital Industry of Industrial Russia”. That was a direct translation that came out clumsy in English (curiously due to the fact that there are two words for industry/industrial in Russian; only one in English:), but it’s now taken on the more modern and pertinent (in terms of content), and appropriate (in terms of English language sense) name of “Digitalization of Industrial Russia”.

CIPR: conference, exhibition, presentations, speeches, agreement signings, meets, greets, handshakes, chats. Never dull, and always a pleasure (it takes place yearly in Nizhny Novgorod – Russia’s sixth-largest city, 500km east of Moscow) ->

That fine historical building is where the talks and panel discussions take place, while the exhibition – needing a bit more room – is in the large, modern hangar-like building next door. That’s where we head first…

I was here last year, and enjoyed it so much I was back again this year. So what’s changed?…

First – it’s gotten way busier. It seemed that there were a lot more stands but, perhaps to fit them all in, most were smaller (and more modest). It was actually a bit too busy (and cramped). Still – not a bad result growth-wise. The place will struggle squeezing everyone in next time though if it continues to grow at its current pace…

Of course, we were here too, also somewhat shrunken:

…As were our fave colleagues:

ATOM (electric cars) was here too; at least its chassis was:

And a whole load of other companies ->

A separate small hall was set up for startups; way to go CIPR!

Here’s me warming up for the panel discussion on constructive security/digital immunity ->

Before CIPR, I had a meeting at the city’s Lobachevsky University, where I also told both lecturers and students all about my favorite topic: how we’re saving the digital universe, of course ) ->

As luck would have it, I was in practically the same hotel room I was in on the last night of our Magadan-Yakutsk-Moscow road-trip in 2021! ->

There was a clear sky that evening, so we decided an evening stroll along the city’s main pedestrian walkway – Bolshaya Pokrovskaya Street – was in order. Btw, these pics were taken by my travel companion OS, who was in Nizhny for the first time (and now wants to return for a non-work visit) ->

We pass by teh city’s kremlin (kremlin means city fortress, btw. The Kremlin is of course the most famous:) ->

Not bad (and I did recall Paris’s Petite Palais here:) ->

OS was really impressed with the flowers (tulips?) here, as you can see:

Flowers? Lots of? On my blog? Now there’s a first!

The sunset was a goodie ->

The local frozen meat and fish cuts were not bad – just not as utterly-deep-frozen as those we tried in Yakutsk (which stick to your tongue!). Clearly the freezers in restaurants here don’t go down to -50°C! ->