A 30,000-Strong IT Festival in Kolomenskoye

On 8 August, T-Bank held the fourth edition of its IT Picnic at the Kolomenskoye museum-reserve in Moscow, drawing 30,000 developers, engineers, analysts, designers, product and project managers, along with their friends and families.

The festival was built around eight lecture tracks: engineering productivity, Big Tech in a hard hat, generative AI, from data to decisions, products from start to finish, cybersecurity, popular science and education. Speakers came from T-Bank, Yandex, Sber, Nornickel, VK Tech and the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, among others.

Partner zones featured T-Bank, Ozon Tech, MTS Web Services, Okko and Nornickel, while Citilink, Samolet and Auto.ru also ran hands-on areas. Attendees could play an AI chess opponent, explore robotics, hunt for hidden code with a metal detector, operate a radio-controlled crane or identify a car brand by sound. Sports, games, creative workshops, children's programming and robotics classes, VR experiences and live music from IOWA, Cream Soda and others filled out the day.

Half of ticket sale proceeds will go to the Galchonok charity fund, which helps children and young adults with organic central nervous system disorders. The money is intended to equip a new rehabilitation and systemic care centre for children with cerebral palsy and their families.

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What the Event Signals About T-Bank's Tech Community Strategy

T-Bank's Talent Brand on Display

The event continued T-Bank's public effort to present itself less as a traditional bank and more as a technology company. A partner display traced the group's 20-year path from classical bank to an organisation with its own engineering platforms and AI centre, and the lecture programme put the same emphasis on engineering productivity, generative AI and cybersecurity.

AI and Cybersecurity Set the Agenda

Several sessions focused on practical AI use as businesses grow, AI agents defending banks against attacks, and methods for assessing AI's effect on software development. Those topics mirror the areas where Russian tech employers are competing hardest for specialists, and they gave the festival a recruitment flavour beyond simple entertainment.

A Soft-Power Stage for Partners

Companies including Ozon Tech, MTS Web Services, Okko, Nornickel, Citilink, Samolet and Auto.ru used the event to get in front of a concentrated audience of tech workers. The charity component — half of ticket sales going to the Galchonok fund — also ties the T-Bank brand to a concrete cause: equipment for a new rehabilitation centre for children with cerebral palsy.