Exhibition companies summarise results and make plans for the future

The final meeting of the Committee on Exhibition, Fair, Convention Activity of the Russian Chamber of Commerce and Industry was held in a video conference format. It was dedicated to the best practices of the congress and exhibition industry in 2023 and the discussion of plans for 2024.

The meeting was moderated by the committee’s chair and Director General at EXPOCENTRE AO Alexey Vyalkin.

Vladimir Kononov, Deputy Chair at the Russian State Duma Committee for Science and Higher Education and Chair at the Organising Committee of the NTI EXPO project, took part in the committee's work. He praised the role and importance of exhibition activities in supporting the innovative development of the national economy and industry, noting the high significance of the extensive work carried out by EXPOCENTRE in this area.

Chair at the Committee on Exhibition, Fair, Convention Activity of the Russian Chamber of Commerce and Industry Alexey Vyalkin said in his speech that, in particular, the exhibition and congress industry has recovered from the shock of the pandemic, as evidenced by the results of the events held in 2023. The issues of providing the industry with new staff and staff development have become quite acute.

One of the important events was the approval of the Development Strategy for the Congress and Exhibition Industry Until 2030, which required all participants of the exhibition market to actively engage in the process of forming plans for its implementation. The OKVED code 82.30 (Activities in organising conferences and exhibitions) was also revised, which improved the quality of statistical monitoring in the industry.

In 2023, the Committee on Exhibition, Fair, Convention Activity of the Russian Chamber of Commerce and Industry held a series of meetings dedicated to the development of interregional cooperation between domestic manufacturers, increased participation of high-tech companies and startups, especially SMEs, in major industry events, and the successful practice of holding subcontracting exchanges as part of these events.

A joint meeting of the exhibition committee and the Committee for Education and Social Policy of the Russian Chamber of Commerce and Industry focused on the issues of personnel support for exhibition activities and improvement of mechanisms for interaction between the education system and the business community. Proposals were sent to the the Russian Ministry of Labour and Social Protection to include the programme of training in the congress and exhibition activities and event industry in the Federal Project for Employment Promotion of the Demography National Project.

A separate meeting of the Committee on Exhibition, Fair, Convention Activity of the Russian Chamber of Commerce and Industry was timed to coincide with the Strategic Session on Modern Medicine: Priorities, Personnel, Laws. Exhibitions as an Effective Tool for Applying Breakthrough Solutions in Healthcare. The session was organised jointly with the State Duma Committee on Science and Education and the State Duma Committee on Health Protection. In addition to it, the 3rd Scientific and Educational Forum THE YOUNG MEDICINE was held with the support of the chamber’s exhibition committee.

Speaking about the key trends in the development of the congress and exhibition industry, Alexey Vyalkin mentioned the change in the geography of exhibitors, paying attention to the priority growth in the number of exhibitors from the CIS, EEU, SCO and BRICS countries, and the growing popularity of new formats of exhibitions themselves, as well as a significant expansion of interaction between exhibition organisers and universities. The head of EXPOCENTRE is confident that the main trends that emerged in 2023 will continue in 2024, as the work will be continued in all industry areas of exhibitions, and emphasis will be placed on supporting high-tech Russian business and developing cooperation with foreign partners, taking into account Russia's chairmanship of BRICS.

Igor Pavlov, Deputy Director at the Roscongress Foundation and Director at the Eastern Economic Forum, spoke about the best practices of events in the Russian regions.

Alexey Levitsky, General Director at Expowestrans OOO, focused the attention of the meeting participants on the tasks of improving the system of transport and logistics services in the changing conditions of the exhibition market.

Viktoria Kalinina, Deputy Executive Director at RUEF – the Russian Union of Exhibitions and Fairs, made a report on the interim results of the road map for the implementation of support measures and strategic development of exhibition, fair and congress activities until 2025.

Andrey Zhukovsky, CEO at RusCom IT Systems Group, presented data on the situation in the Russian exhibition industry based on a comparative audit of exhibitions conducted in 2018-2023.

Polina Shashkova, Vice-Rector at International Institute of Management for Business Associations, talked about the current practice of implementing educational events for the congress and exhibition industry in 2023 and educational programmes to be implemented in 2024. According to Polina Shashkova's, the educational methodology of experience exchange is very effective for the professional development of employees, allowing to use the unique experience of the best managers in order to improve the overall level of professional knowledge in the company.

The meeting participants exchanged views on the whole range of issues and agreed on plans of activities for the forthcoming period.