Sergey Voronkov, CEO of ExpoForum International, participated in the opening session of the VI All-Russian conference “Efficiency of Exhibition, Trade Fair and Convention Activities and Promotion of Domestic Goods and Services in the Domestic and Foreign Markets” with the report “Economy of Impressions as the Contemporary Trend. Multicomplexes and Events as a Driver for Convention and Exhibition Market”. As noted by Mr Voronkov, positive impressions of ExpoForum International customers and partners, as well as the visitors to events at ExpoForum and Lenexpo, are an integral indicator of the company’s performance. Impressions should also touch on the comfort and aesthetics of the venues, their rendered services, the significance content of events and the relationships between the parties. Mr Voronkov said, “Since August 2015, the issues of the customer loyalty index have been included in the polls of exhibitors and visitors at their own and guest events. This indicator is used in international experience showing which part of the project the participants are ready to recommend the product to their partners. The NPS of the market leaders exceeds 50%, the ExpoForum indicators by guest organisers are 63% and for their own projects the leaders are the Agrorus Exhibition Fair (70%) and the St. Petersburg International Gas Forum (67%)”.

Sergey Alexeev, Vice President of ExpoForum International and RUEF President, spoke at the opening session with the topic “Trade and Industrial Exhibitions as an Important Tool to Promote Products in the Domestic and Foreign Markets. World Experience”. He cited the following figures: 85 industry exhibitions are held in the world daily; exhibitions occupy an area of 30,000 football pitches; they bring together 260 million visitors each year; USD 100 billion is the annual turnover of the exhibition market. Mr Alexeev admitted that the producers of goods and services in Russia spend only 1% of the budget on promotion (including through exhibitions), while this figure in the developed countries is 5–6%. The speaker noted, “Exhibitions are a face-to-face-industry, which is particularly important in the online era. This is a really efficient way to get useful business contacts, the most advanced tool in bringing new industrial equipment to the market and an indispensable assistant in creating interregional and international relationships”.

On 7 June, Maria Tubianskaya, Project Manager for Sporting Events of the Hosted & Customised Events and Venue Services Division, will speak in the presentation area about EXPOFORUM as a multifunctional arena for sports competitions and events