First year for the Russian Convention Bureau was a year of success

the first year – a year of success

Russia will host about 10 thousand delegates in the next 5 years in the framework of major international events which were brought to the country by the Russian Convention Bureau.

Russian Convention Bureau was founded only a year ago. And its first year can be rated as a year of success as the Russian Convention Bureau has already demonstrated excellent results. The RCB helped bring to Russia 5 major international events, with the total economic effect of these events totaling some 70 million euro, with the expected amount of tax payments at more than 7.5 million euro.

• GMIS 2019 (Global Manufacturing and Industrialization Summit) which will take place in Ekaterinburg in July this year
• IPHS 2020 (International Planning History Society Conference). The host city is Moscow.
• The Association of Space Explorers XXXIV Planetary Congress which is to be held in St. Petersburg in 2021.
• The 25th World Energy Congress that will take place in St. Petersburg in 2022
• GSMA Mobile 360 Series that will be held in Moscow, October 8-9 2019.

Russia is still in the process of creating its image on the international market as an attractive destination for significant events. Being quite an unexplored meetings destination Russia can offer a new experience to event participants. Russia is usually associated with its two well-known capitals – Moscow and St. Petersburg. But there is a vast country behind these two cities, which offers a wide range of varied opportunities for holding events. The Russian Federation has a versatile event infrastructure in various cities of 85 regions which comprises about 3,500 venues and more than 7,500 professional companies. The diversity of regional peculiarities in the areas of industry, science specialization, infrastructural variety and local unique cultural and geographical characteristics allow to make a custom-made offer for any request for holding events. So one of the goals of the Russian Convention Bureau is to find relevant events for a particular region, industry or scientific association and help the international organizers to make strong and productive local connections for their events.

One of the instruments that helps RCB to track annual changes affecting the development of the event market in the country’s regions is the Russian Regions Event Potential Rating (conducted by the R&C Market Research Company). In 2018 the fifth study of the event potential of the Russian regions was conducted. Since the first rating was published in 2014, the event market in Russia has undergone significant change. Traditionally, Moscow and the Moscow Region have not participated in the rating due to their high level of event industry development as a whole. The three leaders of the rating remained unchanged. St. Petersburg finished in first place. In 2018, the city hosted a global event market landmark – the 85th UFI Global Congress, which brought together approximately 500 delegates from 54 countries. Second place went to Ekaterinburg. Despite the fact that the city will not be hosting EXPO 2025, the campaign to promote its application positively impacted both the international event image of Ekaterinburg and its investment attractiveness. This year at IMEX the RCB has a headliner as Sverdlovsk Region (Ekaterinburg) playing the role of Russian stand partner. Sochi, a city that successfully combines available convention and tourism opportunities, came in third. Kazan strengthened its position, rising to fourth place, and Nizhny Novgorod was the newcomer rounding out the top five. The activities of the Convention Bureau of the Republic of Bashkortostan led to Ufa’s climbing to the sixth spot in the rating. Kaliningrad and Murmansk joined the top ten for the first time.

Russia is a large country that is well-known for its hospitality and cultural heritage. At IMEX 2019 the joint exposition RUSSIA OPEN TO THE WORLD organized by the Russian Convention Bureau is coming up with the bright performances and intense presentations, as well as lots of other recreational activities. Among which are Russian ICE-CREAM Party where you can get a scoop of Russian frosty ICE-CREAM and join the national board game LOTO spending the evening in a warm, friendly and fun atmosphere (Russian Happy Hour on May, 22, 6 PM).

At the Russian Stand the guests can try Russian delicious candy souvenirs and take a picture on the background of the top landmarks and sights of Russia.