Good results with local networks

German industry is eying Russia as an export region. With this in mind, some German organisers have developed trade fairs there, entering into interesting partnerships in the process.

Basically, big exhibition companies and smaller German organisers alike agree: "The advantages of international cooperation lie in the combination of the local partners regional network and know-how and in-depth, global industry expertise," Herta Krausmann from Nürnberg Global Fairs says. Together with Restec, St. Petersburg, the German exhibition company is staging Tekhnodrev, a specialised exhibition for technologies, equipment and tools for the furniture and woodworking industry, from November 23 to 26 in Moscow's All Russian Exhibition Center (VVC). The Russian partners have been in business for 15 years. Restec has experience of the furniture sector, organising the International Forestry Forum in St. Petersburg and launching the All-Russian Network of Woodworking Exhibitions. The people in Nuremberg aren't exactly inexperienced when it comes to construction and wood either.
The big organisers generally go for the core competence of the parent fairs in Germany. Nikolas Wollmann, deputy managing director of IMAG - Internationaler Messe- und Ausstellungsdienst in Munich, recalls: "In search of a suitable exhibition venue in Moscow to expand Messe München International's international network of construction fairs, we got talking in July 2003 with Media Globe, who had staged a construction machinery fair in Moscow since 1999 and consequently had extensive contacts with exhibitors, attendees and associations from the construction industry. That made a good basis for successful cooperation with our bauma network." The situation was similar for ispo, the International Trade Show for Sports Equipment and Fashion taking place from September 20 to 23 for the third time in Moscow. Says Manfred Wutzlhofer, chief executive officer of Messe München: "SCG, organisers of the Russian sports fair In-Sports, were on the lookout for a global partner for an international platform given the trade show's previously rather more national focus, so they got in touch with us."
The time frame from the initial contact to the implementation of a maiden joint event lasts eighteen months to two years. "It shouldn't take longer than that, otherwise the drive is lost," say officials at Messe Frankfurt, which is active in St. Petersburg with Auto+Automechanika and in Moscow with Interstoff, Techtextil, Ambiente Rossija, Heimtextil Rossija and Christmasworld Rossija.
Alliances that were able to take root before the end of the Soviet era evolved differently. Paul Hammerl from Reed Exhibitions Messe Wien says the Vienna-based exhibition company "initiated contacts in the mid-1990s - long before Reed began operating there." Reed Exhibitions Messe Wien's appearance in 2001 and the acquisition of the Wiener Messen & Congress exhibition portfolio gave it ownership of the fairs abroad as well. The existing cooperation arrangement is based on a licensing agreement. "The Viennese are the licensors, the company MSI the licensees and local organisers of Aquatherm (heating/sanitary) and intertool (manufacturing technology) in Moscow." However, the attempt to stage both fairs in St. Petersburg as well did not work out, Hammerl explains: "The local organisers Lenexpo have cornered the themes there. There is no demand for similar trade shows."
Smaller exhibition organisers hit the spot with highly specialised trade shows. One example is the Survey event ZOW, International Furniture Components and Supply Expo. It takes place for the fourth time in November - in tandem, incidentally, with the new Tekhnodrev Moscow, so Peter H. Meyer, managing partner of Survey Marketing + Consulting, Bielefeld, is pleased to announce. Personal Moscow, a human resources trade fair from Spring Messe Management, Mannheim, will be staged for the third time in 2007. Says managing director Alexander R. Petsch: "Russia continues rapidly to approach western standards in business processes. In line with this, human resources, training and human resource management as a whole will develop and change powerfully. We therefore see good development potential for our theme."
E.J. Krause & Associates, Inc. and Expocentr, owners of the Krasnaya Presnya exhibition centre and organisers since 1975 of the SVIAZ in Moscow, signed a joint venture agreement in 1995, since when they have staged the show SVIAZ / Expo Comm Moscow together. E.J. Krause also has ties with Lenexpo: in 1992 the two companies entered into an alliance to stage the pulp, paper and paper goods trade fair Pap-For.
Messe Düsseldorf is an "old hand" on the Russian exhibition market. "It was the first foreign exhibition company, at that time still under the name NOWEA, to have a permanent representative office in the then Soviet Union, in operation since the 1970s ," says Jörg Dübelt, departmental manager Foreign Fairs at Messe Düsseldorf. Meanwhile others like E.J. Krause and the exhibition companies in Frankfurt and Nuremberg also have a permanent local representative office; the Düsseldorf unit was transformed in 2002 into an affiliate under Russian law - Messe Düsseldorf Moscow O.O.O. (MDM). The longstanding commitment is worthwhile: "We have good business figures, an outstanding network of contacts and an extremely good reputation in the Russian business community," Dübelt reports. The company cooperates with many Russian organisers. It numbers ZAO Expocentr among the most important: "In the course of our long collaboration a strong bond of trust has been established." Most of the events are conceptual offshoots from leader fairs in Düsseldorf.
As specialists in Russia, Messe Düsseldorf also pave the way for other organisers looking to enter the Russian exhibition scene. Just so with CPM Collection Premiere Moscow from the Igedo Company, Düsseldorf, which organises fashion fairs the world over. This year the seventh edition of the fashion expo takes place from September 6 to 9. With support from Düsseldorf, Messe Essen is hoping to gain a foothold in Russia by exporting its Schweissen & Schneiden welding show in 2007 there. Essen exhibition company's CEO Joachim Hennecke has identified the Russian region as another highly interesting growth market for the welding, cutting and related processes industry. "We were looking for a partner who knows the country and people at first hand and is also experienced in the organisation of industrial fairs, and that's Messe Düsseldorf." Koelnmesse describes its cooperation with the MVK Holding Company as "close and extremely constructive". In May 2006 the two jointly staged the furniture supplies fair interzum moscow / Interkomplekt for the third time. They do, after all, have a common mission - their clients success. Christine Seizinger

m+a report Nr.4 / 2006 vom 15.06.2006
m+a report vom 15. Juni 2006