Belarusian exhibition industry: start of the year

№ 2, 2022
Heading: EXHIBITIONS
Author:

Job title: директор выставочного унитарного предприятия «Белинтерэкспо» БелТПП

Recently, the global exhibition industry has been developing unevenly: exhibitions have resumed and even gained momentum in some countries and regions, while in other parts of the globe they have a compressed or hybrid format.

Compared to the pre-pandemic period, the approaches to holding exhibitions have changed in many respects: the exhibitions have become more restrained in their design, and priorities have shifted to solving practical issues. Pompous opening ceremonies, cultural and entertainment programs are gradually becoming a thing of the past. Companies barely attract promoters and support staff. These are consequences of sanitary and epidemiological restrictions, as well as a simple saving of time and money. Even in Asia, where great attention was traditionally paid to ceremonies, esteemed guests often make a brief tour of the expositions, without delivering welcoming speeches from the stage.

The main focus now is on attracting the target audience for exhibitors, matchmaking, database formation, and creating a comfortable business networking environment at the exhibition. In order to exclude those who come just for hanging around the exhibition, the organizers introduce electronic registra­tion and set fairly high prices for entrance tickets.

As a result, exhibiting companies note that despite a decrease in the number of visitors, their quality characteristics have increased along with the volume of business deals.

The predictions about the decline in the popularity of exhibitions and the general migration of businesses to digi­tal platforms have not materialized: a study by the Global Association of the Exhibition Industry, UFI, has revealed that 72 percent of the responders answered that they plan to participate in exhibitions and visit them with the same or even higher frequency than in the pre-pandemic period. As for digital technologies, the respondents are not ready to spend a significant part of the budget on them, although they con­sider digital as an auxiliary way to reach a larger audience.

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The enterprise Belinterexpo of the Belarusian Chamber of Commerce and Industry strives to move in the wake of exhibition trends and use the most modern technologies. In its work, the company focuses on such advanced concepts in the field of services and project management as agile/scrum, lean production, SPIN selling.

The clients, their goals and objectives are at the center of the process of prepa­ration and planning of each exhibition project. The main job of a Belinterexpo manager is to find out the strategic goals of the client and further help fulfill them. Increasing brand awareness, searching for new business partners, presenting a new type of product, marketing analysis of market conditions – all these tasks are successfully solved by Made in Belarus exhibitors at the most prestigious exhibition venues in the world.

The year 2022 began for Belarusian enterprises with major exhibition events. On February 13–17, the Belarusian exposition was presented at the world's largest food exhibition Gulfood in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates. The event was attended by 10 enterprises: five producers of meat products and five dairy companies. There were seven participating companies representing the Grodno Region, and three companies from the Minsk Region.

During the exhibition, the delegation members met with senior officials of the Dubai Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Dubai Industries and Exports agency. The opportunities of Belarusian companies in the UAE market were discussed at these meetings. Besides, the exhibitors presented their export potential on the sidelines of World EXPO 2020.

The stands of Belarusian companies saw continuous negotiations. Great interest was demonstrated towards all Belarusian products presented. ­Following the results of Gulfood 2022, Belarusian manufac­turers reached agreements on the supply of products to 20 countries worldwide.

More than twenty companies producing confectionery, meat and dairy products took part in the Belarusian exposition at the exhibition "Food, Ingredients and Production Technologies – UzFood", hosted by Tashkent on March 29–31. There were presented such concerns as Belgospischeprom, Brestmyasomolprom and Grodno­myasomolprom.

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As part of the business program of the exhibition, Belarusian  entrepreneurs took part in the Retail Center, where they held negotiations with representatives of the largest retail chains and importers of Uzbekistan, such as ­Makro, Korzinka, Carrefour, Baraka, Havas, and others.

On April 13–16, the National ­Exposition of the Republic of Belarus was held at the 31st Vietnam Expo, the largest multi-industry international exhibition event in Vietnam. Participating in the exposition were 35 companies that demonstrated engineering and petrochemical products, pharmaceuticals, scientific and technical developments, as well as food products and beverages. Belarus was granted the honorary status of the Special Guest of the exhibition.

During the work of the national pavilion, a presentation of the Belarusian enterprises' export potential was organized. The event was attended by representatives of Naftan, Grodno Azot companies, Minsk Automobile Plant, Slutsk Cheese-Making Plant, Babushkina Krynka Holding, Belmedpreparaty enterprise. More than twenty agreements and export contracts were signed at the exhibition by the Belarusian participants.

In the short term, Made in Belarus expositions will be arranged at exhibitions in Azerbaijan, Kenya, Turkey, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and other countries. The Belinterexpo enterprise of the BelCCI encourages Belarusian companies to participate
in them.