The Student Agency Team Organised One of the Stages of the 'Big Book' National Literature Award

The S.A.D.I.K. team under the direction of the Department of Integrated Communications assistant professor Tatiana Sokolova together with CROS communications agency provided support for the 'Big Book' Nation Literature Award.

'Big Book' - is the largest national literature award, established by the 'Domestic literature support centre' in 2005. The deputy head of the Federal print and mass communications agency (Rosprint), Vladimir Viktorovich Grigoriev, is the creator and the unchanging chairman of the award board of trustees.

This year the Literature lunch, traditionally hosted at the GUM in Moscow, was held in Zoom. On June, the 2nd, the chairman of the experts’ board, Mikhail Butov announced a shortlist of authors, which will be revised by the Literature academy, the jury of the award, and three finalists of 'Big Book' will be announced.

Due to the pandemic, this stage of the award was held remotely, which, undoubtedly, created a lot of difficulties for both, the organisers, and the participants of the conference. 

Leonid Burmistrov, the vice-president of the CROS communications agency, spoke about how the inability to hold in-person events affected the organising of the event: 'For three years the S.A.D.I.K. agency, together with CROS, has been providing informational support for the 'Big Book' national literature award. However, this year the award was held online for the first time. This change required great effort from both the members of the Literature academy and the organisers. S.A.D.I.K. navigated well in the new circumstances and was ready for the extra work: besides the traditional calling the mass media, organising of the mailing lists, the event accreditations and the analysis of the 'Big Book' coverage in news reports, the team participated in extra organisational meetings, gave instructions to the participants of the award regarding the usage of the platform. S.A.D.I.K. has done a great job for the event today to be successful'.

Fortunately, Literature lunch was a success. Following the event, the student agency team shares their impression, compares the work to their experience last year, and speaks about the objectives they had:

I have been a part of the 'Big Book' project since last year, and my first meeting happened during the Literature lunch at the GUM in the Red Square, where, on the 5th of June, the list of finalists was announced. 

My feelings from the event changed with the platform switch: last year the direct interactions with the journalists were more 'alive', and the place of the event created a feeling of excitement and solemnity.

This year the announcement of the shortlist happened in ZOOM, however, the organisation did not suffer from it: the award was successfully moved online. One should also mention that this was an interesting work experience and team interaction in the unusual circumstances for all of us

Vlada Loskutova
“Advertising and PR” 2nd-year student, NRU HSE

'Big Book' showed that before I hadn’t known how to communicate with people, as in how to build rapport without any issues. Now, having been 'behind the scenes', I gained the opportunity to understand how events are organised and how much effort is put into organising them. Teamwork, meeting new people and new opportunities - this is what I liked most

Liza Malinina
'Media Communications' 2nd-year student, NRU HSE

The stages of the 'Big Book' award is always a nervous and important experience for me. One wrong move, one wrong click - and false information will scatter to all the Russian mass media. But, at the same time, it is interesting and even fun! The communication with the award participants, the accreditation of the mass media, the reconciliation of the pre- and post-releases, video calls and the inside jokes of your team - all of this is an indispensable experience, that brings great joy

Glafira Lepilova
“Advertising and PR” 2nd-year student, NRU HSE

The partnership between S.A.D.I.K., 'Big Book', and CROS does not end here - the readers' vote and the award ceremony of the award winners at Pashkov’s House are still ahead.