On hand to congratulate participants and visitors on the opening of the exhibition was the Vice-Governor of St. Petersburg, Head of the Municipal Administration – Alexander Govorunov. He noted that a critical aspect of urban infrastructure involves outdoor advertising, whose quality has a direct impact on the comfort and general mood of large numbers of people. “This is particularly true during the hosting of major, world-class events like the FIFA World Cup that Russia will be staging in 2018, and within the scope of today’s discussion platform here at the expo, a lot of attention will be paid to precisely that issue,” stressed Alexander Nikolaevich Govorunov.

His remarks were seconded by the Deputy Director of the RF Federal Antimonopoly Service – Andrey Kashevarov. He pointed to the timely nature of the St. Petersburg International Advertising Forum, being held within the framework of the expo at a time when the advertising industry is facing the challenges of the changing structure and dynamic of the market and the need to replenish its overall volume, which contracted by 16% in 1H 2015 compared to the same period previous year. Andrey Kashevarov also expressed the hope that advertisers would demonstrate some activity in the outdoor advertising area, currently accounting for just 11% of the total market (well behind TV and the Internet), in time for the FIFA World Cup and World Ice Hockey Championships.

For his part, ExpoForum International General Director Sergey Voronkov reminded all participants that the ExpoForum Convention and Exhibition Centre is precisely the kind of place where advertisers can display their active stance against the backdrop of major international events – the venue and its surrounding grounds feature literally dozens of different advertising vehicles. Moreover, exhibitions and conventions are a unique solution for managing advertising budgets, since they allow companies to put their best foot forward while offering them new opportunities for cooperation at the international level.

The 21st specialised exhibition “Advertising. Information. Design. Formatting,” being held at ExpoForum on 14-16 October, showcases the products of more than 50 Russian companies. Aside from the St. Petersburg International Advertising Forum, where discussions will focus on outdoor advertising and the festive styling of St. Petersburg, there will also be conferences for marketing experts, PR specialists and brand managers – Standup Marketing, NewAgePR, Branch Marketing, as well as seminars, master classes and presentations for all players on the communications market.