In 2004-2006, Sergey Plugotarenko was the Executive Director, and later the Director of the Runet Award competition. Since 2005, he has been the coordinator of program committees for a number of major industry conference events, including the Russian Internet Forum (RIF) and Russian Internet Week.

Sergey became the ideologist behind the creation of the Association of Electronic Communications (RAEC), which unites the largest actors in the Russian Internet industry. He later became the Director of RAEC. He is also the ideologist and founder of the Internet Development Institute.
Sergey Plugotarenko was a member of the Council of the Coordination Center for TLD .RU/.РФ, as well as the Expert Council of the ANO Center for the Implementation of National Projects of the Russian Federation.

In 2022, Sergey Plugotarenko was elected CEO of the ANO Digital Economy.

Sergey Plugotarenko was recognized as "Person of the Year" according to the ROTOR 2009 online competition, was included in the "Magnificent Twenty of Runet" of the Union of Internet Figures "EZHE", was awarded the "Media Manager of Russia" prize in the nomination "For Contribution to the Development of the Industry", in June 2015 he received gratitude from the President of the Russian Federation for his services in developing the system of professional training of personnel in Russia. In 2017, he became a laureate of the Virtuti Interneti ‒ "For Services in the Internet".