A journey from Irkutsk to Nizhny Novgorod
Regional centres are gaining in importance. By no means all of them have yet attained the standards of Moscow and St. Petersburg. But they work hard to get there.
St. Petersburg comes second to the Russian capital in the exhibition rankings. The St. Petersburg fairground Lenexpo hosts 75 % of all fairs in the north-west of Russia. At present the centre comprises 25,000 m2 of under-roof and 60,000 m2 of open-air space. Work began in autumn 2004 on construction of another pavilion scheduled to go onstream in September 2005. At a cost of US$ 10 million an extra 15,000 m2 of exhibition space is being made available. Important supraregional shows are the construction fairs Interstroyexpo and BalticBuild, the energy and electrical engineering fairs Energetika and Elektrotechnika, the exhibitions for food production, processing and packaging technology InterFood/Prodtech, the international motor show and trade fair Auto+Automechnika, and the international exhibition for shipping NEVA.
The major show managers in St. Petersburg are the organising division of St. Petersburg Fair, Lenexpo JSC, and Restec JSC. From abroad, British exhibition organisers ITE Group Plc., London, and their German subsidiary GiMA, based in Hamburg, are particularly active.
New markets are also emerging in Siberia, on the Volga and in the big industrial areas in the east of the country. The abundance of natural resources, the production facilities and the knowledge base in most Russian regions also make the mainly regional fairs attractive to domestic and foreign companies. However, the amount of information available on the individual cities is rather limited, and the quality of the various exhibition companies websites mixed. In particular, statistics on the number of events staged, the number of exhibitors and attendance should be treated with caution.
The Irkutsk International Exhibition Complex SibExpoCenter, for example, built in collaboration with American, German and Canadian companies, is an important venue in eastern Siberia, with hall space of 4,500 m2. The exhibition organisers of the same name have around 30 fairs a year in their portfolio. The most prominent event in the region is the multi-industry show Irkutsk International Fair taking place every autumn. SibExpoCenter trade fairs also cover forestry, wood processing, auto service, education, construction, health and tourism.
Krasnoyarsk Fair, Krasnoyarskaya Yarmarka, celebrated its 12th anniversary in November 2004. Since 1992 more than 260 exhibitions in all have been held on the fairground. With some 25 shows a year the exhibition organisers of the same name cover the sectors construction, automobiles, IT/computer technology, wood and cosmetics. Krasnoyarsk Fair last year opened German representative offices in Essen and Munich.
Established in 1989, Siberian Fair in Novosibirsk is the most important exhibition centre east of the Urals, featuring hall space of 6,500 m2. The exhibition organisers of the same name list around 90 fairs, with MedSib (medicine), ProdSib (food technology), SibConsumo (consumer goods), SibComputer, StroiSib (construction) and AutoSib numbering among the key events. The organisers maintain offices in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Omsk and Kemerovo. In cooperation with the local authorities, Siberian Fair plans to build a new, multi-purpose exhibition and conference centre by 2007 - another step towards moving out of the capital's shadow.
Omsk is Russia's seventh biggest city. Set up in 1994, the exhibition company InterSib has in its portfolio the sectors food, construction, furniture, light industry, oil/gas, transport and energy.
Although the exhibition industry in Ekaterinburg (formerly Sverdlovsk) has developed differently since the end of the Soviet era than in other Russian trade fair cities, the city bordering Asia and Europe is at pains not to miss out on the action. Unlike Moscow, St. Petersburg, Kazan, Ufa or other Russian locations, Ekaterinburg possessed no exhibition halls to speak of until last year's inauguration of the newly-built World Trade Centre. With two exhibition halls featuring 1,400 m2 and 1,900 m2 respectively and a conference hall seating 500, the available capacities are still way behind the front-runners. Even so, a sorely needed state-of-the-art building has been put in place with the WTC. In the early 1990s the first exhibition organiser in the central Urals was established in Ekaterinburg. In 2003 the company hitherto conducted as UralExpoCentre was transformed into a holding company consisting of an exhibition organiser and exhibition services provider. Around 90 % of the shows organised by UralExpoCentre Ltd. are trade fairs like UralBuild and AGRO. It is responsible for around 30 exhibitions a year.
There are four companies that organise exhibitions in Ekaterinburg, but without halls of their own. Only UralExpoCentre Ltd. stages its fairs in its own facility, the exhibition centre of the same name on permanent lease from the regional government. Roughly 135 trade fairs and exhibitions took place in 2003. Uralskie Wystawki-2000 took the lead, with 54 events organised, followed by UralExpoCenter with 36 shows and KOSK Rossija with 20.
In comparison to the previous year, the share of trade fairs in 2003 jumped by 20 % to 80 %. Expositions on agricultural themes occupied the most space, followed by construction and food fairs. Growth has also taken place in exhibitions on metallurgy, mechanical engineering, printing, furniture, wood processing and sport. About 50 to 80 % of the exhibitors in 2003 were sourced from the region around the Urals.
Permskaya Yarmarka in Perm encompasses 4,800 m2 of covered space in two pavilions and an open-air site measuring 3,000 m2. Twenty-five fairs a year are on offer there. The region's economic bedrock are the oil and gas industry, electrical energy, metallurgy, mechanical engineering and forestry. This is reflected in the exhibition organiser's calendar of events.
Sixty fairs were staged 2003 in Kazan. Since the mid-1990s the biggest show management company, and the only one with a site of its own, has been Kazanskaya Yarmarka. With hall space of 6,700 m2 in three pavilions and outdoor space of 15,000 m2 the fairground of the same name is the biggest in the Republic of Tatarstan. Kazanskaya Yarmarka has staged around 45 exhibitions a year since 1997. Like the other cities, Kazan plans to modernise and develop its exhibition centre. In addition to a conference centre, another hall with exhibition space of 15,000 m2 and an international business centre are also projected. The existing halls are being revamped.
From Kazan it's on to Ufa, where BashExpo was founded in 1993. The fairground features 4,000 m2 in three halls and open-air grounds of 2,000 m2. In the main it hosts trade fairs for the oil and gas industry, chemicals and mechanical engineering. IUEF members organised 51 fairs 2003 in Ufa.
A new exhibition venue costing altogether US$ 20 million is planned there by 2008. The complex will consist of 10,000 m2 of covered exhibition space plus newbuild hotels on an area of 18,000 m2. All told, building planners have an area of 43,000 m2 at their disposal.
Next comes Volgograd, where the Tsaritsynskaya Yarmarka exhibition centre opened in 1994. Its name, like that of the exhibition company, is derived from Tsaritsyn, the old name for Volgograd until 1925. At the end of the 19th century exhibitions were held in Tsaritsyn at certain times, embodying a form of trade relations. From the 1920s to 1990s practically no more exhibitions took place there. Since its establishment, Tsaritsynskaya Yarmarka has staged around 150 fairs on a variety of topics; about 20 are on the programme for 2005. Held in the Sports Palace, they cover the sectors construction, energy, metallurgy, mechanical engineering, medicine/health and furniture/wood.
Rostov-on-Don is one of the biggest cities in the European part of the Russian Federation with a population of 1.1 million. Since 1996 the Yuzhno-Rossiski ExpoCenter has staged its trade fairs in the city, which is also known as the gateway to the Caucasus because of its geographic situation. As from 2005, all events are being held in the newly-built MegaCenter on an area of 5,000 m2.
From Rostov-on-Don the journey continues north-eastwards to Nizhny Novgorod, the headquarters of the International Union for Exhibitions and Fairs, IUEF. Fairs and exhibitions in Nizhny Novgorod can look back on a 400 year-old tradition.
1991 saw the establishment of exhibition organisers Nizhegorodskaya Yarmarka, monopolists now staging some 50 exhibitions a year. The fairground extends over 32,000 m2, 12,000 m2 of which are under cover. 70 % of Nizhegorodskaya Yarmarka belongs to the region and municipality of Nizhny Novgorod. Besides mechanical engineering, the organisers exhibition planner also contains shows on building, the automotive industry, water/environment, energy and medicine.
Moving forward, exhibition organisers and exhibitors should certainly keep a watchful eye on Russia's extensive regions to ensure that, in hot pursuit of the boom in Moscow, they do not fail to keep abreast of developments elsewhere. Natalja Winges
m+a report Nr.5 / 2005 vom 12.08.2005
m+a report vom 12. August 2005