The place and the date were chosen on purpose – the first Manufactory exhibition was opened on the 15th of May in the old (On the 29th of May in the new) style in a specially built for such events Exhibition hall. Now, this building is occupied by Zoological Museum, as an opened 15 years ago memorial plate testifies.

The ceremony was opened... by statesmen of the nineteenth century - the minister of finance Yegor Kankrin and the chairman of the exhibition committee engineer-lieutenant-general Fedor Gerard. In the role of the real historical characters who have contributed to the development of the exhibition industry performed the President of the Russian Union of exhibitions and fairs Sergey Alekseev and the general director of "Expoforum-international" Sergey Voronkov. Welcome speeches were said by modern representatives of the city authorities- a special representative of the governor of St. Petersburg Anatoly Kotov and a CEO of a congress-exhibition bureau Andrew Mazarin. Sergey Voronkov thanked the guests – leaders of the exhibition community of St. Petersburg: the Svetlana Pliev- a director general of the company "MAKO Congress Management"; Michael Lobin- a director general of the executive directorate of St. Petersburg; Irina Lubina- a director of the separate subdivision in St. Petersburg "International exhibition company"; Oleg Shostya- a general director of "FAREXPO”; Igor Kirsanov- a general director of “Exhibition Association “RESTECH”; Alexander Menshov- a director of the office in St. Petersburg of “Messe Dusseldorf Moscow”. He invited to join the main event of the Expo industry - the world day of exhibitions, which is celebrated on the 5th of June.

The historical atmosphere of the holiday was supported by authentic to epoch buffet dishes which were served 190 years ago at the Manufactory exhibition: galantine with pistachios, pike perch and salad with roasted almonds.