subscribe to news Alexey Vyalkin spoke at the Council of Heads of CCI

The main part of the meeting of the Council of Heads of CCI was dedicated to "Diversification of services of Chambers of Commerce and Industry. Implementation of the one-stop shop principle in the exchange of services and work between Chambers of Commerce and Industry".

The session was moderated by Sergey Katyrin, President of the Russian Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

One of the subjects discussed at the meeting was the development of exhibition and fair activities in the CCI system.

According to Maxim Fateyev, Vice President of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Russian Federation, the chambers held about 480 exhibition and congress events during the first 11 months of 2021. Due to the limitations caused by the coronavirus pandemic, the industry needs to find new approaches and define more clearly the role of the CCI in this process.

However, the Vice President of the Russian Chamber of Commerce and Industry is confident that it is premature to say that traditional offline exhibitions are being superseded by virtual formats. Each option has both strengths and weaknesses. The presence of brands, companies' products both in virtual and real life does not dilute their influence on the target audience but enhances it.

Alexey Vyalkin, Chairman of the CCI of Russia’s Committee on Exhibition, Fair and Congress Activities and Director General of EXPOCENTRE AO, cited data from the UFI Global Barometer survey of the Global Association of the Exhibition Industry. According to the results of 2020, 51% of the surveyed companies will incur losses. At the same time revenues in 2021 were 48% higher than in 2020 and were 28% higher than in 2019. In Russia, 63% of companies reported losses in 2020. Companies' revenues in 2020 averaged 37% of 2019. In 2021 this figure is higher at 53%.

"The results of the study suggest a critical impact of the pandemic on the global exhibition industry in 2020," said Alexey Vyalkin in his speech. “Today, however, the situation is gradually improving, and the expert opinion is that the industry, mainly thanks to offline exhibitions and business events, is recovering rather quickly".

According to him, the industry is trying to find ways out of the crisis, companies are applying new standards of work, finding additional sources of profit. One of the opportunities for the Russian congress and exhibition industry, Alexey Vyalkin called the development of the investment component of the events.

"It is especially important to strengthen the exhibition segment with the help of investment and economic components, because today exhibitions are no longer divided into b2b- or b2c-formats only. Exhibition projects should also be assessed from the standpoint of their investment potential - in b2i (business investment) format", - he said.

It is a fundamentally new approach. The task for the future is to make the investment component grow qualitatively over time. This means that investment should lead not just to business development, but to development on a new technological platform.

We invite exhibitors to present their investment and innovation projects, so that they present not just products or services, but a vision, a model of their future development.

This approach makes it possible to invite the target audience of investors who would like to invest specifically in these sectors of the economy to the relevant events.

Alexey Vyalkin also suggested using the formula for the efficiency of the company's participation in the exhibition, which can be used to calculate the approximate sales volume of the exhibitor at the end of the exhibition. It is calculated on the basis of statistical data on the composition of exhibitors and visitors, as well as the number of business contacts per exhibitor.

In conclusion of his speech, Alexey Vyalkin noted that it was necessary to continue the work on positioning exhibitions as the most efficient mechanism of innovations and technologies promotion. "This is the idea we discuss at the meetings of the Committee on Exhibition, Fairs and Congress Activities of the Russian Chamber of Commerce and Industry. We would like our colleagues in the regions to consider our experience and attract new participants to their events”, - he stressed. “And, of course, we expect that the initiatives of regional exhibition operators to expand their own projects with startups and innovative companies will be supported by the authorities and chambers of commerce and industry”.

A number of heads of regional chambers spoke at the meeting. Among them was President of the Voronezh Oblast Chamber of Commerce and Industry Union Yuri Goncharov, President of the Altai Krai Chamber of Commerce and Industry Union Boris Chesnokov, President of the South Ural CCI Union Fyodor Degtyarev, President of the Ryazan CCI Union Tatiana Guseva, and President of the Bryansk Oblast CCI Union Antonina Katyanina. Also, presentations were made by Elena Ublieva, Executive Director of RUEF, and Vladimir Ulakhovich, Chairman of the Belarusian Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

Press Service, EXPOCENTRE AO

Source: https://www.tpprf.ru/en/