subscribe to news Priorities for development of convention and exhibition industry until 2030 discussed at Russian Chamber of Commerce and Industry

The Russian Chamber of Commerce and Industry hosted a meeting of its Committee on Exhibition, Fair and Congress Activities in the format of pre-congress discussions on strategy, personnel, and infrastructure. The moderator was Maxim Fateev, Chair at the Committee and General Director at EXPOCENTRE.

“Our main task is to develop a common position of the Committee and determine which initiatives we will recommend to include in the materials of the Congress of the Russian Chamber of Commerce and Industry,” said Maxim Fateev, opening the discussion.

In his speech, the Committee’s chair assessed the changes in recent years. He recalled that the Industry Development Strategy until 2030 and the roadmap had been approved, a package of national and interstate standards had been formed on the basis of TC-163, the definition of a congress and exhibition event had been introduced into the law on industrial policy, and the Russian Ministry of Industry and Trade had prepared methodological recommendations for Russian regions.

Among the proposals submitted by Maxim Fateev was the expansion of the list of facilities for public-private partnership and municipal-private partnership agreements and concession agreements by including convention and exhibition centres.

Elena Ublieva, Executive Director of the Russian Union of Exhibitions and Fairs, suggested clarifying the rules for concessional financing of construction and reconstruction of multifunctional facilities. She spoke in detail about the development of measures to finance the participation of SMEs in exhibitions in conjunction with the Made in Russia programme and the Russian Export Centre, and about the introduction of regional measures to support business tourism, using the example of St. Petersburg. Elena Ublieva also noted the importance of legal certainty when working with personal data. The industry needs official explanations from Roskomnadzor in order to avoid misunderstandings and fines, she stressed.

Marat Akhmatov, Deputy Chair at the Union of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Republic of Tatarstan, CEO at TATEXPO, raised the issue of recognizing the industry as an infrastructure of federal importance and proposed a range of state support tools, from subsidies and tax incentives for upgrade of venues to participation in federal funds. He also drew attention to the transition to electronic customs clearance of exhibits and equipment.

Slava Khodko, Advisor to the Roscongress Foundation, Head at the Congress and Exhibition Alliance of the St. Petersburg Chamber of Commerce and Industry, called for clarifying the goals and terminology of the Strategy: to fix the entrepreneurial and service nature of the industry, not to narrow it down to economic tasks, and also to link ‘regional’ measures with the real need for infrastructure. He also noted that the industry infrastructure map should include an IT component, informed about projects of Roscongress for AI implementation, and invited colleagues to participate in upcoming discussions on standards and digital transformation.

Igor Astafiev, First Deputy General Director at Kazan Expo, in turn, noted that the industry already has a disparate ‘knowledge base’ (schools, courses, practices of the Chamber and large operators), which it is important to systematize and bring to a single structure, strengthen the training of state and municipal management teams at the federal level, and to close the acute personnel shortage with programmes that provide at least a minimum set of practical skills to enter the profession.

Petr Tutarashvili, Director of the Department of Commercial Relations and Business Development at Crocus Expo, stressed that the digital transformation of the industry is not limited to IT software: organisers themselves invest in working digital products, but the key barrier is access to data due to restrictions on personal data, which directly affects the quality of events. At the same time, he called for a careful approach to the construction of venues, distinguishing between the needs for compact congress centres and full-fledged exhibition centers, and first to generate confirmed demand and only then to build facilities.

Oksana Dutova, Vice President at the Association for Global AI and Robotics Development, proposed three steps for the digital transformation of the industry: first, to develop an industry standard for AI applications with a neutral data holder model in order to avoid conflicts of interest, secondly, to launch practical pilot courses together with the Financial University (English Language Department of Marketing) to reach the international level, and thirdly, to create an information competence centre for exhibition activities on the basis of the Russian Chamber of Commerce and Industry for analysis and consolidation of players.

A separate topic of discussion was HR. According to experts, the shortage of industry professionals is acute, especially at the level of applied competencies. Polina Ivanova, Vice Rector at International Institute of Management of Business Associations, suggested focusing not on launching a separate bachelor's degree in exhibition activities, but on additional education and retraining programs based on professional standards.

Tatiana Anisimova, Director of the Department of Congress and Exhibition Activities at VDNH, drew the attention to the issues of developing business tourism in megacities, taking into account the practice of venues and the needs of market participants. The presentation of the updated infrastructure of the VDNKH-Expo Convention and Exhibition Centre became a practical case.

The meeting participants approved the decision to finalize and approve the list of consolidated proposals, taking into account the discussion, and send it to the Russian Chamber of Commerce and Industry to prepare materials for its 9^th Congress. There was also an agreement to develop working sections in 2026 on key initiatives of the Committee members.

Press Service, EXPOCENTRE AO