Vladimir Katenev, Deputy of the State Duma of the Russian Federation, addressed participants with a welcoming speech. He noted that holding such an important industry event bringing together specialists from all over the world in St. Petersburg highlights the contribution of his fellow Russians in developing the global congress and exhibition market.

“Russia is open for dialogue, cooperation and interaction with organizers of events from all over the world. We work together for citizens of all countries to live in a modern, comfortable and adequate way. Thank you for exchanging your knowledge and experience here, and for working on the improvement of the industry,” the speaker emphasized.

His words were joined by Kai Hattendorf, Executive Director of the Global Association of the Exhibition Industry (UFI): “Our Congress is aimed at discussing all relevant issues of the exhibition industry. And today we can understand what challenges organizers in Russia face to find solutions for them together.”

Georgy Kalmanov, Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade, emphasized that exhibitions and fairs had always developed quite dynamically in Russia. He added: “In the history of the World Fair, Russia has never hosted it on its territory. Now we are actively fighting for this right. By holding the largest international events, such as the Olympics in Sochi and FIFA World Cup, we have proved our capability to hold events at the highest level. And you can assure yourself of this, since the UFI Congress is also organized at the highest level.”

The Deputy Minister also spoke about state support of the exhibition industry in his report. “The concept of the development of exhibition and fair activities is being implemented in Russia, and the Russian Convention Bureau is working on this. In addition, at the moment we are pursuing development of the law to regulate the work of the industry,” the speaker shared. “We have studied the world's best practices, and on this basis, realized the project of the Russian Export Center that helps businesses to promote their products and increase exports.”

Sergey Katyrin, President of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Russian Federation, added that exhibitions and fairs develop gradually in Russia: “Today such events take place in 50 cities in the country. In 2017, 2,500 exhibition events took place in Russia with a total area of 3 million square metres and over 200,000 participants.”

The potential of St. Petersburg as a destination for exhibitions and congresses was revealed by Evgeny Pankevich, Chairman of the Saint Petersburg Committee for Tourism Development. He said that about 100 various festivals and competitions of different cultural and artistic dimensions are held in the city annually, with more than 50 being international. The speaker provided the following figures: “the congress and exhibition infrastructure of the city on the banks of the Neva comprises 480 congress and exhibition sites, including 12 congress and exhibition complexes and 120 congress hotels.”

He added that the city faces a task to attract over 1,100,000 business tourists in 2019; the government program entitled ‘Tourism Development in St. Petersburg’ is being implemented in the city for this reason, with the ‘Development of Congress and Exhibition Activities in St. Petersburg’ project as a top priority.

Sergey Voronkov, Director General of EXPOFORUM International, spoke about work on increasing business tourist flow in the best Russian congress and exhibition center EXPOFORUM. “EXPOFORUM was built taking real demands of the market and certain event riders into account. Now it’s the only Russian complex built specially for holding world congresses and considering best world practices,” the speaker noted. “Annually more than 200 events take place in EXPOFORUM; it hosts over 1M visitors. The occupancy schedule of the complex is planned up to 2023.”

According to the speaker, the modern and universal style of EXPOFORUM has been confirmed globally. Its list of awards includes Top-25 Event Venues and Destinations to Watch in 2018 according to EventMB, a prestigious British award, the Exhibition News Awards 2018 in the Best International Venue category (shortlist), the International Building of the Year Award 2018 in the Architecture of Culture category (shortlist), the Russian federal real estate award, PROESTATE & CRE Federal Awards 2018 in the nomination for Multifunctional Real Estate and MICE, and the Russian Business Travel & MICE Award in the nomination for Best Congress and Exhibition Center of Russia.

“At this time, the congress and exhibition center has already hosted 5 global congresses, and more than 10 similar events will take place here in the next four years. EXPOFORUM’s success is not a coincidence, but the result of regular and well-thought work,” Sergey Voronkov concluded.