“Outdoor advertising is an important factor in the life of our city, while the participants have the opportunity to exchange achievements and create new conditions for work,” believes Andrey Krus, Deputy Chairman of the Committee on Printing and Interaction with the Media.

Sergey Mitealev, Director of St. Petersburg SUE Lensvet, noted that advertising projects in ExpoForum have already become a tradition, and added: “St. Petersburg claims that it is the centrе of the light culture. The creative potential is present in light, design, advertising, we are doing a common work for the good of our city and are making it even more attractive for tourists. Thank you for this!”

Sergey Dolgov, CEO of Kantselyarskoye delo, explained that it is no wonder the RIDO exhibition and the Stationery Forum are being held together because they have related markets. He was supported by Elena Ublieva, Commercial Director of ExpoForum-International: “I will note our new proximity, the project with the Stationery Forum. We really have adjoining auditoriums that can interact efficiently with each other. We are seeking new formats, we understand that our city waits for creative solutions in the field of advertising, carriers, light and souvenirs.”

Over 50 exhibitors participate in the exhibition. There are 8 theme sections: advertising graphic arts, Internet advertising, outdoor advertising, business souvenirs, interactive advertising, packaging, POS-materials, and specialised media. The company GREENLUX stressed functionality. “GREENLUX products are more interesting to those who go to exhibitions frequently, because our booths are mobile and are collected in a small suitcase.That is, by having one set of exhibition equipment, a person can save time and resources for setting up an exhibit in other regions, travelling with their set,” explained the Head of the Development Department of the Exhibition Press Agency GREENLUX,AnnaVasilieva.

Litek is the leading producer of nickel tags in Russia and demonstrates its approach to branding. Litek uses a metal plate, a metal nickel plate from 0.05 to 0.15 mm thick with a special glue layer. It is designed for branding and personalising advertising materials or products of in-house production. Similar nickel tags allow any object to be personalised. Quite recently, the company opened a new direction, nickel badges, bookmarks in journals and premium business cards, which are rapidly becoming popular.

Inkostark is a professional light-engineering company, specialising in LED lighting. Its main type of activity is solving non-standard lighting tasks for streets, roads, highways, territories and workshops of commercial enterprises, administrative buildings, and HUS facilities. The company fulfils architectural and artistic lighting, street and sports lighting projects. “TV crews adore us!” the company representative reports proudly, and not in vain, for example, in 2016 for the main arena of the Yubileyny Sports Complex, an LED floodlight was developed with high colour transmission index, which ensured the requisite conditions for remote broadcasting of the 2016 Hockey World Championship.

Many companies represented at RIDO tried to stress the significance of the production of domestic goods, which could become worthy competition for the products produced abroad. “We have porcelain production that dates back to 1990 and we are brilliant representatives of the St. Petersburg porcelain products. Our chief competitor is China, but we are trying to follow the path of import substitution and show that Russian porcelain is the quality standard and instil in the consumer a taste for it,” commented Darya Barmina, a specialist in advertising and public communications of the Skudelnik porcelain factory.

The task of the exhibition is to acquaint the suppliers and buyers of the goods and services, and also to supply the maximum information to those who are interested in developing their business. For this purpose, for the first time a consulting area has been set up Digital Pit Stop where agency representatives answer questions about Internet advertising and website development. On 19 October the Business Contacts Centre will start operation, an area of individual negotiations of buyers and suppliers of goods and services: agencies, producers and suppliers of graphic arts, souvenir and advertising products, representatives of marketing and advertising departments, and company directors.

The business programme includes over a dozen events on relevant industry trends. They include a practical conference for marketing experts and business owners StandUp Marketing on the topic “Digital Branding,” NewAgePR conference for PR-department and press service specialists, conference on promotional product purchases, and much more.