The conference organisers – ExpoForum, Dolphin Exhibitions (UK), and Transtec Neva Exhibitions – noted that this year, addresses made during the plenary and breakout sessions and round tables were substantive and informative, and that they provoked discussion and attracted a high level of interest among participants. Tatiana Chekalova, Executive Secretary of the Marine Council of the Government of St Petersburg, pointed to the need to develop this theme further, in order “to do everything necessary to turn St Petersburg into a maritime capital, not just in words but in deeds”. She claimed it was only possible to achieve this by organising “major and serious exhibitions and conferences on a professional basis”.

Supporting the idea of market consolidation and conducting sea and transport business activities in the city on the Neva, Sergei Voronkov, Executive Director of ExpoForum, gave a presentation on the international specialised congress and exhibition centre, where the next Transtec Forum will take place in 2014. “Constructing the new ExpoForum Convention and Exhibition Centre in St Petersburg right next to Pulkovo Airport corresponds to world trends, in which exhibition centres are built as close as possible to transport hubs. The distance from the water area is not critical for exhibitions and congresses on a nautical theme, since in exhibition practice there is this concept of a ‘movable platform’. The water area adjacent to the Lenexpo Exhibition Complex can solve this problem”, noted the speaker.

In the future, Neva 2013 and Transtec 2014 exhibitions and conferences will add themed sections on marine equipment for opening up the ocean and the Arctic Shelf, building LNG carriers and tankers, ice-strengthened vessels, drilling platforms, and marine transportation of oil and liquefied natural gas. Representatives of Gazprom emphasised this, and they presented a number of projects aimed at the logistical support of construction for the offshore section of the South Stream pipeline and the Shtokman Field, the building of a ship-based oil and gas facility and port in Teriberskaya Bay, and the reconstruction of the Murmansk base for operational support on the Russian Arctic Shelf.

“The main themes of the Neva and Transtec exhibitions reflect the new role of Russian shipbuilding, navigation, and the ports sector, which arose as a result of Russia’s economy participating in international trade, in view of the country’s entry into the WTO”, said Alexander Tikhomirov, General Director of Transtec Neva Exhibitions, in his speech. “This opens up new opportunities for Russian companies in the expanding business of both the maritime and inland waterway transport fields.”