The key theme of the Russian Convention Bureaus (RCB) participation at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum was “Politics and Business: Effective Interaction for Development of the Event Industry.”
Anton Kobyakov, Advisor to the President of the Russian Federation, explains: “As part of implementing the national project entitled “International Cooperation and Export” we have established high indicators in the volume of service export. The event industry is one of the most effective generators of non-mineral resource export, and it can add significantly to budgets at different levels. This allows us to talk about the importance of including the issues of development and support of the national event industry into the work agenda of such significant events as the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum.”
Before the Forum the Russian Convention Bureau, with support of the St. Petersburg Congress and Exhibition Bureau and R&C Research and Information Center, held a business brunch on the topic “Subventions for Business Events as Tools of Effective Support of Business by the State.” The event was held in a lively discussion format.
The topic continued by the special session of the RCB entitled “Meeting Place Cannot Be Changed: En Route to Sustainable Development Via a Dialog Between Authorities and Business,” which took place on June 5, the first day of the Forum. Russian speakers and foreign experts who attended the roundtable discussion shared their views on importance of cooperation and the synergy between the authorities and business in the part of support of the national event industry. The guest speaker at RCB’s special session was Elif Balci Fisunoglu, Regional Director for Europe of ICCA.
As part of its regional agenda, the Russian Convention Bureau signed a cooperation agreement on strategic cooperation with governments of Samara Region and Irkutsk Region. These regions are included in TOP 30 regions of the Russian Regions Event Potential Rating, and have significant prospects in terms of attracting business events to the territory of the region. The next step in cooperation will be the development of roadmaps, which contain concrete steps toward implementing the agreements.
The RCB took part as an expert in such events of the SPIEF program as panel discussions. The session entitled “Main Principles of Forming Tourism and Recreation Zones” focused on the importance of developing business tourism as one of the components in the overall tourism flow, moreover, its most high-quality part in terms of economic effect. The session “Export of Culture: Opportunities for Presenting Russian Heritage on the International Arena” discussed the interrelation of the event industry and culture because availability of cultural sites in the region facilitates its growth and development as an event destination.
The RCB presented the Rating of the Event Potential of Russian Regions and introduced the Regional Passport Project, a case-study of Kamchatka, as part of the SPIEF Presentation Program in Roscongress Club for participants and guests of the Forum.
