Exhibition industry as a development driver of the Russian economy

In today’s world, the exhibition market has a dominating impact on the development of business environment and on the establishment of favorable conditions for business. As it promotes international cooperation and coworking, exhibition business is a key instrument of a general marketing strategy of a company willing to showcase and promote its services and goods in a market. Competitiveness of companies of the exhibition industry directly depends on the marketing instruments they use and on the convenient hi-tech services that exhibition companies provide to their partners and customers. In other words, if a company offers exhibition services on a “turn-key” basis, its services must not only be hi-tech and of high quality, but also exceptionally convenient and easy to understand for the customer.

Notwithstanding the ongoing crisis and anti-Russian sanctions, exhibition activities in this country still remain one of development drivers of domestic economy. Turnover of the Russian exhibition business currently stands at $800 million a year. It is good performance that earns Russia the seventh rank worldwide, after the U.S., Germany, France, the UK, China and Italy. Every year, about 950 В2В exhibitions are held in Russia; their total area is about 2 million square meters. Almost 100,000 exhibitors representing over 100 countries from across the globe take part in them, and the number of visitors ranges annually from 7.5 to 8 million people. Exhibition business is developing vigorously, has its own infrastructure, logistics base and professional dedicated talent, which makes the Russian exhibition community quasi-competitive and exigent with respect to its members.

An exhibition company of today, if it claims a stakeholder’s place in the exhibition service market, must meet certain criteria.

First thing to mention is digital technology. Active digitalization of exhibition activities is a global trend of the past few years. First of all, it is characterized by sweeping adoption of innovative technology across all business processes and by active interaction with online communities. In a full-cycle exhibition company, digitalization occurs at all levels: marketing research and advertising, customer interactions, design and concept development, production and installation of an exhibition booth. Using advanced software, the company’s potential customer can visualize their exhibition booth, and estimate its profitability in a matter of minutes, and hi-tech production can cut the costs of required materials as much as possible, thus reducing the final booth price.

Incidentally, whatever the development of communication and production technology, live human communication is the most universal instrument in promoting any services, and cyberspace cannot efficiently substitute it. It means that a company’s personnel, correctly selected, trained and motivated, has a no lesser value than hi-tech production solutions. A company aspiring to leadership cannot avoid investments in talent. It needs to contribute to professional growth of its designers, artists, managers and production team.

A full-cycle exhibition company that has its own production will not be able to capture leadership in a market by disregarding another global trend – compliance with Russian and international environmental standards. This compliance boosts a company’s competitiveness in a major way, as it provides an opportunity to take part in multiple projects with international partners who value production sustainability and emphasize it as a decisive factor in picking their contractors. Technology is evolving, and industrial ecology is also undergoing digitalization. Specially designed software watches polluting emissions, waste management and even noise that is also included within the scope of “environmental pollution.”

Thus, taking into account the fact that the level of the services supporting offered products and the highly competitive environment occupy a special place in the exhibition sector, a prospering full-cycle exhibition company must target its development vector towards expansion of information and communication digital technology, development of creative potential of its designers and artists, and also pay attention at compliance with Russian and international environmental standards. These are the three components of effective performance in the exhibition industry.