About the complex

Valentina Matviyenko, Chairman of the Federation Council of the Russian Federation opened the plenary session “Labour and Labour Relations in the 21st Century: The Development Trajectory”. “We live in an era of dynamic changes, including in the nature of labour relations. Constant evolution has become a norm for the society. The state, in its turn, must proactively and effectively address changes by amending the labour legislation and adjusting the systems of education and social security,” noted Mrs. Matviyenko. “For example, introduction of advanced technologies boosts productivity, competitiveness and promotes economic growth. At the same time, many traditional occupations are becoming obsolete leaving professionals unemployed. Therefore, it is crucial to have a clear picture of what professions will be in high demand and what occupations will be driven off the market in the future and plan labour training accordingly.” Mrs. Matviyenko also delved into the self-employment and labour migration issues. “One of the immediate objectives is to boost the country’s appeal for highly skilled professionals to migrate to Russia. I hope participants of the Forum will support this initiative.” 

Georgy Poltavchenko, Governor of St. Petersburg, spoke on behalf of the city residents. He noted that the global economy was becoming increasingly anthropocentric. “According to UN, the share of human capital in the national wealth of some countries reaches 80%. Human capital is also the main asset of our state. St. Petersburg is keeping up with the trend. For example, the St. Petersburg Economic and Social Development Strategy 2030 lists the development of human capital as the city’s main strategic objective.” The Governor made an observation that the city was one of the first in the country to pioneer social partnerships. “Every year, the executive branch, employers and trade unions sign a tripartite agreement. Pursuant to its provisions, the minimum wage is set at 16,000 roubles for St. Petersburg, for 2017, which is more than twice the amount of the minimum wage across Russia and is 40% higher than the minimum living wage established for St. Petersburg. We also have the lowest unemployment rate in the country (1.6% of the city’s economically active population). In 2016, the city set a new record. The total number of people employed in its economy exceeded 3.3 million.

Delivering his contribution report, Nikolai Kropachev, Rector of St. Petersburg State University, talked about training of highly skilled professionals that would be in demand on the modern labour market. “To improve the quality of education, employers and educational institutions, be they vocational schools, colleges or universities, must work hand in hand. Though, at large, the society is responsible for the quality of education, educational institutions must be open to a dialogue.” Mr. Kropachev shared St. Petersburg State University’s experience in the engagement of employers in the institution’s activities. “We can adopt one of the two cooperation models outlined in our legislation. Practicing experts can participate in the development of educational programmes and maintain examination board memberships. Last year, 1,700 employers participated in the activities of examination boards administering national examinations to the University graduates. Working professionals participating in exams provided more than 100 invaluable positive and negative feedbacks as to the quality of the university operation. Today, more than 1,000 employees from different industries contribute to the development of the University’s professional standards. Only practicing professionals can tell what skills graduates should demonstrate today, and what competences will be in demand four to six years from now.”

Speaking on behalf of employers, Anatoly Karachinsky, Member of the Board of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs (RUIE), President of IBS Group of Companies, said, “When we are headhunting, we pay more attention to the set of skills and competencies and less to the name of the profession. It is very good that some professional standards, e.g., in IT, health care and aviation, are now reviewed on annual basis. However, in most cases, it takes two to three years to have an upgraded educational programme approved.” Mr. Karachinsky noted that the quality of higher education in our country has substantially improved. However, surveys of entrepreneurs regularly conducted by RUIE show that today the labour market is experiencing a shortage of qualified graduates of vocational schools, e.g., metal workers, turners, welders, etc. “Today our priority is to restore the system of vocational schools. It is necessary to develop professional standards based on best practices in relevant areas and introduce them to the employees of colleges and vocational schools for them to upgrade their educational programmes.”

The St. Petersburg International Labour Forum will run for three days, March 15-17. The Event will focus on the key theme—a contemporary employee. This topic will be further expanded by the participants of the “Labour and Labour Relations in the 21st Century” and “The Key Social Development Trends and Evolution of the Labour Market” Conferences. HR trends will be discussed at the facilitation subpanel “Competencies of Managers of the Future.” Participants of the “Labour Mobility and Migration” Conference will concentrate on the effects of globalization on labour market. They will also study international human capital development integration projects. The project’s program features the “Human Resources. Management. Security 2017” Exhibition.

Booths of more than 90 companies from Germany, Greece, Spain, Korea, Latvia, Russia, Taiwan and France will showcase the latest developments in the domain of medicinal cosmetics, skin care, machine and laser cosmetology as well as uniforms, supplies, furniture for clinics and salons as well as tools and aids for eyebrow shaping, hair removal, permanent make-up, injections, thread lifting and exfoliation.

“Domestic companies occupy a substantial niche both at the Exhibition and on the market. This year, our Exhibitions features a new RosBrendPRO section dedicated to the Russian made cosmetic products,” Anna Dycheva-Smirnova, CEO of Reed Exhibitions Russia, the company-organizer of the INTERCHARM projects, Deputy Chairman of the Russian Perfume and Cosmetics Association, said. Novakom—a distributor of ingredients for professional beauty products, waxes, cosmetic foundations and premium class serums; Protein Contour, presenting its anti-aging beauty products with epidermal growth factor; the GRAND-Cryo Group of Companies manufacturing state-of-the-art medical cryotherapy equipment conforming to international standards of quality and safety are displaying their products in the RosBrendPRO section.

The “Anti-aging Cosmetology Today” Cosmetology and Dermatology Congress, which admits holders of the Exhibition tickets at no fee is being held on the side-lines of the Exhibition. “Cosmetic Procedures for Aging Skin,” where participants discuss anti-aging cosmetic products, equipment and injection techniques, was chosen as the topic of the first day of the Congress. The second day of the program, February 10, will be dedicated to “Aesthetic Medicine Approaches to the Correction and Treatment of Skin Pathologies.” Speakers will focus on the correction of aesthetic defects and treatment of skin diseases. On the final day of the Congress, February 11, participants will discuss critical for beauticians legal, bioscience and clinical practice issues. Among the experts participating in the Congress were Danne M King, the American scientist, biochemist, founder of DMK (Danne) professional cosmeceuticals company and a founding father of the Skin Revision Treatments line, Denis Zaslavsky, Chief Dermatovenerologist and Cosmetologist of the Russian Ministry of Health in the Northwest Federal District, Alexander Turkevich, Dermatovenerologist, Oncologist, Professor of Dermatovenerology of the Marconi University of Rome.

The Conference “Strategies for Success 2017,” where directors of beauty industry enterprises discussed legal issues as well as such topics as HR, services and equipment for beauty salons turned out to be one of the most anticipated events.

The topic of aromatherapy was given special attention. Two Exhibition’s events, the “Professional Aromatherapy” signature course and “Innovations in the Professional Aromatherapy 2017,” were dedicated to it. The INTERCHARM’s hallmark, a series of workshops offered by booths attendants, allowed visitors to not only learn about newest beauty products and trends, but also see their real life application.

The INTERCHARM Professional Saint Petersburg 2017 Exhibition is open February 9-10, from 10:00 am to 6:00 pm and February 11, till 5:00 pm. Visit Exhibition’s website at www.intercharmspb.ru to get more information.

Speaking at the opening ceremony, Sergei Voronkov, CEO of the ExpoForum International, congratulated the participants on the Expo’s anniversary. “JUNWEX has gone a long way through the 25 years of its operation—from a modest display to an event comprising 7 large-scale exhibitions held across Russia and Armenia. The project has established itself as the industry’s driving force. The Jewellery Club that now boasts 7,000 members was conceived here. We are making every effort to conform to the high level of the event by continuously upgrading our exhibition grounds ensuring JUNWEX shines as a precious stone in the ExpoForum’s setting.”

Valery Budny, Head of the RESTEK JUNWEX‘s Jewellery Russia Project, praised ExpoForum as the best exhibition ground in Europe. “My colleagues and I have visited many jewellery exhibitions, including in Vicenza, Basel, Hong Kong and other places around the world, and are confident that ExpoForum has no rivals in Europe. As for Asia, only a handful of newest projects might be similar in scale.

This year the event is expected to attract 5,200 industry specialists and booth attendants and more than 15,000 sales reps, wholesalers and retailers from different regions of Russia, the CIS and foreign countries. At the opening ceremony, the Russian Jewellery Trade Club presented a new concept of jewellery stores. It is planning to establish a franchise network of such stores across Russia. A showcase store set up in the ExpoForum’s passage will welcome guests of the Event wishing to check out its selection and interior.

By tradition, the Event organizers announced the names of the companies leading the jewellery market in the North-western region. Jewellery Factory Russian Gems, companies Talent, Elizaveta and Mikhailov’s Workshops were named among the industry’s front-runners. Jewellery Factory VIP-2000 ranked number one in two nominations: the best producer of gold jewellery with gems of the first category and the largest regional jewellery exporter.

Exhibits, which included gold, silver and platinum jewellery, silverware, items for interior decoration, watches and religious items, artistic guns, accessories, souvenirs, gift items and presentation materials, were displayed in three pavilions  of the Convention and Exhibition Centre with the total area of about 50 thousand square meters. More than 5,000 wholesalers and retailers put samples of diamonds and calibrated gems, precious metals and stones, collections of mineral specimens, fancy glass, ceramics, crystal and porcelain on display at the Exhibition. Production and retail equipment, jewellery displays, tools, supplies, software, packaging and jewellery care products were exhibited in the dedicated section.

The Exhibition is open daily from 11:00 am to 7:00 pm and runs through February 5.

In order to make visiting various areas and master classes even more captivating, it was
offered to go through them in quest format. A child was given an itinerary list with stages where he/she learnt about New Year traditions of various countries and performed tasks given by fairytale characters. Everyone who successfully passed all quest stages got a letter from Father Frost.

The park space was divided into four parts according to the cardinal points and the subjects.
In the South area children jumped on a giant trampoline “Madagascar” and danced
African dances. In the North it was impossible to pass a chum (raw-hide tent) with fluffy, friendly husky dogs. In a Russian hut near it little cooks cooked axe porridge (as a character of one Russian fairytale) at the big table, supervised by a chef, and later they ate it with special pleasure. There were two more tasty master classes close-by, the results of which participants took home as prizes – real caramel modeling and painting on ginger spice cakes with multi-colored glazing.

Representatives of various regions of Russia shared the secrets of people’s handiwork – both children and grown-ups learnt to weave on lace bobbins, make snowdrops using the Vologda lace making technology, and Chukotka bands from leather and beads. Instructors from the Nevskaya Palitra workshop gave master classes for children from various age groups: plasticine modeling, gouache monotyping and water color, pastel and acryl painting for the youngest, and scrap booking, ceramic painting, bijouterie making from polymer clay, making New Year decorations were for older children.

The East was mostly represented by the Chinese culture – here guests tried Chinese teas, learnt to play the old strategy of Go, saw Evgeny Avramenko’s photo exhibition “The Wind from the East”, tried themselves in the arts of Chinese ink wash painting. Vitaly Bliznetsov, a representative of the Dialogue Chinese Cultural Center, said that usually grown-ups as well as children who had known Chinese culture from their birth, were trained in Chinese painting. “It’s better for children to start training in painting from the traditional West European school. But the “World New Year” festival gave everyone a chance to try himself or herself in this kind of creative work. We taught children to paint traditional Chinese motives – plum tree flowers, peonies, bamboo, panda and certainly the rooster as its year has come”. And together with Chinese Father Frost children sent greetings to the Chinese dragon, painting hieroglyphs with the help of a magic disc – all those who took part in the process took the disc by multi-colored ribbons and drew a hieroglyph together. That’s how Father Frost taught children to be friendly and listen to each other.

In the West everything was state-of-the-art – 3D-scanning, cryo-ice-cream, light tables for drawing with space sand as well as innovative material for children’s creative work –
“chewing-gum” for hands. A whole workshop for 3D-pen drawing was in the “Coffee and Technologies” area, where children created figures from plastics – snowdrops, three-dimensional postcards, goggles and even phone cases. ”3D-pen painting is in essence 3D-printing by hand – flat or three-dimensional”, said Sofia El Haffaf, the organizer of the area. “A fishing line
from multi-colored corn plastic – PLA polyamide, which melts at 185 degrees and is
not dangerous for children – is inserted in the pen. It is possible to shape plastic as you like within 2–3 seconds, after that it freezes. The technology was developed in the USA, then it was copied by the Chinese. Such a pen costs about 3,000 rubles and allows to make figures of
any size, for example, I presented a two-meter tall alien from ultraviolet plastic at the 3D EXPO”.

Each child could feel himself or herself a real scientist at the research and entertainment shows “Entertaining Chemistry” and “Entertaining Physics”. The professor-presenter demonstrated children such substances as dry ice and liquid nitrogen as well as told them about the air and its components. He conducted chemical and physical experiments in front of curious spectators, demonstrated the laws of physics and interesting features of various substances, magnet levitation, foam fountain from dry ice, the process of volcano eruption and making artificial blood.

The master class “The New Year Gadget” was especially interesting for young technicians. The presenter told what electric current and resistor were, helped children to assemble their first circuit as a New Year decoration. They learnt to program robots and raced along the Robo-Races route with various hurdles and the timer switched on.

The sports and entertainment area operated specially for active families – pony-cycles, electrical motorcycles, trampolines, dry pool, giant family skies, rope maze. It was a part of
the Vysotny Gorod, the biggest indoor extreme-park in Russia, the area of which
exceeds 3,000 m². Tickets to matches in the Yubileyny Sports Complex were given free of charge at the Dinamo ice hockey club stand. Scientific and educational films and cartoons about planets, stars and other objects in the Universe were shown in the spherical movie theatre.

Those who hadn’t yet bought presents, did that at the Christmas Fair where author’s and wooden toys and decorations, ceramic products, sweaters and T-shirts, honey and handmade sweets were offered. Everyone could try traditional dishes of Russia, Germany, Spain, China and Africa in the gastronomic area.

Musical show for children “Vitya and Masha” was the key event in the park. Every day it revealed secrets of the magic forest for small spectators and helped the main characters to win over the fairytale evil characters – witch Baba Yaga, evil Cat and Koshchey the Deathless.
The theatrical performance was full of wonderful music and bright-colored dancing. “Vitya and Masha” is a story about adventures of two primary school pupils who went on this difficult journey to save the Snow Maiden and the New Year holiday.

“Our two families really had a New Year cruise round the planet. All of us are impressed, both children and grown-ups”, Svetlana Khlebnikova, one of the park visitors, shared her impressions. “We spent three hours in the park and went through all quest stages and took part in master classes: we danced, modeled, painted and got a postcard from Father Frost as a present and our family photo at the finish. Thank you for the warm reception, organizers and responsive volunteers! The musical show deserves special attention – costumes, dances, singing and actors’ performance are at the top level”.

Family Entertainment Park “World New Year” was opened in the ExpoForum Convention & Exhibition Center, it waits for guests every day from January 2 to 8. This is a giant interactive area for recreation of children and grown-ups with master classes, attractions and other entertainments.

In order to make visiting various areas and master classes even more captivating, it is offered to go through them in quest format: each child gets his/her itinerary list with stages marked, to which a seal is affixed at every quest point for the correctly done task. Their complexity varies depending on age. Everyone who passes all quest stages successfully, gets a surprise from Father Frost.

The park space is divided into four parts according to the cardinal points and the subjects.
In the South area you can learn African dances and jump on a giant trampoline “Madagascar”.
In the North it is impossible to miss a chum (raw-hide tent) with fluffy, friendly husky dogs.
A Russian hut stands by it, and little cooks learn to cook axe porridge (as a character of one Russian fairytale) at the big table, supervised by a chef, and later they eat it with special pleasure. There are two more tasty master classes close-by, the results of which can be taken home and eaten – real caramel modeling and painting on ginger spice cakes with multi-colored glazing.

Representatives of peoples of Russia teach various people’s handiwork – weaving on lace bobbins, making snowdrops using the Vologda lace making technology, creating
Chukotka bands from leather and beads. Instructors from the Nevskaya Palitra workshop give master classes for children from various age groups: plasticine modeling,
gouache monotyping and water color, pastel and acryl painting for the youngest, and scrap booking, ceramic painting, bijouterie making from polymer clay, making New Year decorations are for those who are older.

The East is mostly represented by the Chinese culture – you can try Chinese teas here, learn to play the old strategy of Go, see Evgeny Avramenko’s photo exhibition “The Wind from the East”, try yourself in the arts of Chinese ink wash painting. Vitaly Bliznetsov, a representative of the Dialogue Chinese Cultural Center, conducts lessons in painting. “Usually we train grown-ups or children who have known Chinese culture from their birth in Chinese painting, common children should start training in painting from the traditional West European school. But today everyone has a chance to try to paint traditional Chinese motives – plum tree flowers, peonies, bamboo, panda and certainly the rooster as its year has come”. Chinese Father Frost is close-by and offering to send greetings to the Chinese dragon, painting hieroglyphs with the help of a magic disc by a whole family.

In the West you’ll find everything state-of-the-art – 3D-scanning, light tables for drawing with space sand as well as innovative material for children’s creative work – “chewing-gum” for hands. A whole workshop for 3D-pen drawing is in the “Coffee and Technologies” area, where children create figures from plastics – snowdrops, three-dimensional postcards, goggles and even phone cases. “3D-pen painting is in essence 3D-printing by hand – flat or three-dimensional”, says Sofia El Haffaf, the organizer of the area. “A fishing line from multi-colored corn plastic – PLA polyamide, which melts at 185 degrees and is not dangerous for children – is inserted in the pen. It is possible to shape plastic as you like within 2–3 seconds, after that it freezes. The technology was developed in the USA, then it was copied by the Chinese. Such a pen costs about 3,000 rubles and allows to make figures of any size, for example, I presented a two-meter tall alien from ultraviolet plastic at the 3D EXPO”.

Each child can feel himself or herself a real scientist at the research and entertainment shows “Entertaining Chemistry” and “Entertaining Physics”, where children will get acquainted
with the idea of air and components, dry ice and liquid nitrogen. The professor-presenter
will conduct chemical and physical experiments in front of curious spectators,
demonstrate the laws of physics and interesting features of various substances, magnet levitation, foam fountain from dry ice, the process of volcano eruption, making gold and artificial blood.

Master class “The New Year Gadget” is given for those who want to know electronics, circuitry engineering and gadgets. The presenter tells what electric current and resistor are, helps children to assemble their first circuit as a New Year decoration. Small engineers learn to program robots and race along the Robo-Races route with the timer is switched on.

The sports and entertainment area operates specially for active families – pony-cycles, trampoline, dry pool, giant family skies, rope maze. It’s a part of the Vysotny Gorod, the biggest indoor extreme-park in Russia, the area of which exceeds 3,000 m². Lots are drawn for tickets to matches in the Yubileyny Sports Complex at the Dinamo ice hockey club stand. Scientific and educational films and cartoons about planets, stars and other objects in the Universe are shown in the spherical movie theatre.

There is a big choice of souvenirs and products for the holiday at the Christmas Fair: author’s and wooden toys and decorations, ceramic products, sweaters and T-shirts with New Year applications, honey, handmade sweets. Traditional dishes of Russia, Germany, Spain, China and Africa are in the gastronomic area.

Every day a musical show for children “Vitya and Masha” is presented in the “World New Year” park. All little and grown-up spectators will see a fairytale full of wonderful music and bright-colored dancing. This is a story about adventures of two primary school pupils in a magic forest. They went on this difficult journey to save the Snow Maiden and the New Year holiday from evil spirits: witch Baba Yaga, evil Cat and Koshchey the Deathless. They are so different – Vitya is interested in various gadgets and machines and Masha sincerely believes in magic. Many amazing things happen on the New Year Eve, but the main miracle is their friendship which will become the key to save the holiday. The performances begin at 12.00, 14.30 and 17.00.

Tickets to the “World New Year” can be bought in the VKontakte social network or on the entertainment park website. On the days when events are held there are free shuttle buses running to the ExpoForum from Moskovskaya and Leninsky Prospect metro stations.

“The member companies of the Union hold more than 1,000 trade and industrial exhibitions and 2,000 big conventions and conferences annually. More than 100,000 domestic and foreign companies take part in them, and 7.5 million people visit them annually”, said Sergey Alexeev, President of the Russian Union of Exhibitions and Fairs (RUEF), Vice-President of ExpoForum-International LLC.

He summed up the results of the association’s operation not only during the reporting period, and that’s 3 years, but also during the 25 years the Union exists: “In the course of one quarter of a century, RUEF united 87 highly professional organizations specializing in organization and holding exhibitions and being in accordance with the world standards, from 35 cities of Russia, representing 7 federal districts. The total revenues of RUEF amount to more than 20 billion rubles, and if we take the tourist effect the destinations get and which goes in the form of cash to regional budgets into account, the revenues amount to 1 trillion rubles”. The speaker mentioned that contracts and deals concluded at the events were not taken into account in the above said figures, they amount totally to billions of USD.

“All that allows to say that the convention and exhibition industry is one of the leading industries of the Russian economy. Besides, according to UFI research, Russia is one of the ten leading exhibition holding countries in the amounts of exhibition areas’ sales, more than 100 Russian exhibitions are UFI approved events and carry its seal of quality”, said the RUEF President.

Sergey Pavlovich spoke not only about achievements but also about the problems of the industry, connected with the economic crisis, geopolitical situation, new challenges proceeding from new technologies, insufficient investments into the sector, personnel problems: “The recent years were not easy both for separate RUEF members and the association as a whole, and were characterized by reduction of the main statistical figures for the events. In 2013–2015, the exhibition area decreased by 13.3%, the total number of exhibitors decreased by 26%, including domestic by 25.7% and foreign by 27.2%”.

According to RUEF, this year reduction slowed down, and some parameters demonstrate growth. Analysis of preliminary results of activities of RUEF members in the three quarters of2016 incomparison with the respective period of 2015 revealed an uptrend in rented areas by 3.5%, at the same time the net exhibition area stayed the same. The total number of exhibitors reduced by 1%, with the number of domestic exhibitors increasing by 2%, and foreign exhibitors reducing by 10%.

Because of that the main goal of the association is to help companies of the industry to overcome negative crisis effects in the economy of the country. The RUEF Presidium worked out the Development Strategy of Convention and Exhibition Activities, including offers for cooperation with state authorities, chambers of industry and commerce, the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs, sector associations, lobbying company interests, promotion of the industry on the national and international levels. The Unions does a lot of work in all the said focal areas.

Sergey Pavlovich also mentioned the importance of the personnel issue: “About 5,000 people with a lot of professional experience are engaged in the exhibition industry in our country.
But in order to train new employees RUEF worked out professional standard “Specialist in exhibition and fair activities in the field of trade and industrial exhibitions”. This will
allow to solve the matter of introduction of a common standard for training and appraisal of employees of exhibition companies and industrial enterprises presenting their products at exhibitions”.

The President of the Union also mentioned the necessity of organizational strengthening of the association and offered to discuss inclusion of sector associations in RUEF in order to make the discussion more goal-oriented, exclude duplication of thematic exhibitions and understand exhibitors’ requirements better.

Sergey Selivanov, Head of the Exhibition Section of the International Cooperation Department of the Ministry of Industry and Trade, told about state support measures for the Russian exhibition industry: “The convention and exhibition activities are an important tool of the trade and economic policy of the state and help to promote domestic products on the home and foreign markets, technological updating and growth of industrial export, strengthening of economic potential, improvement of investment climate and strengthening of Russia on the international arena”.

Sergey Viktorovich mentioned that the development concept for the convention and exhibition activities was implemented as a part of the state support of the sector. An offer was sent to the Government of the Russian Federation as to protection of exhibitors’ rights to intellectual property, offers were prepared to develop material and technical facilities and infrastructure of the sector, a draft resolution of the Government of the Russian Federation was worked out on creation of the Russian National Convention and Exhibition Bureau. 

The Russian Union of Exhibitions and Fairs is an association of Russian organizers of exhibitions, owners of exhibition complexes, enterprises assisting exhibition business as well as representatives of exhibition business of Moldova and the Ukraine. It was set up in 1991, it has been a UFI – Global Association of the Exhibition Industry – member since 1994.

Over 25 years RUEF, uniting more than one third of the leading national organizers of exhibitions, owners of exhibition complexes, enterprises assisting exhibition business, has become the consolidating link of the exhibition business of Russia, and members of the Union form the main indices in the area of exhibition, fair and convention activities in Russia. The highest reward for an exhibition event in our country is the RUEF Mark.

The general meeting of RUEF members held to hear reports and elect officials takes place in St. Petersburg for the second time in a row – in 2013 it was held in the Lenexpo Exhibition Complex.

Sergey Georgievich was hailed as one of the city’s best managers for development of the project for the biggest exhibition space in St. Petersburg and promotion of the city as a business tourist centre.

Led by him, ExpoForum hosted more than 200 events in the two years of its operation, visited by more than 1.5 million people. In 2016, ExpoForum International became the operator of the Ice Hockey World Championship (St. Petersburg stage). In the first six months of 2016, the total number of events at the two venues (Lenexpo and ExpoForum) increased by 13% – up to 79. The number of visitors increased by 17% in comparison with the first six months of 2015. 1,179 companies became exhibitors (16% growth). In 2015, the value of the venue’s event portfolio increased by 28%, and the company’s share on the market of specialized venue operators in terms of leased space increased up to 10%.

The RBC St. Petersburg 2016 Award is intended to advance the prestige of civilized entrepreneurship in St. Petersburg, assist in public recognition of outstanding entrepreneurs and managers and demonstrate the contribution of business to the development of St. Petersburg. The Award provides an opportunity to appraise talented businesspersons and company managers carrying out their activities in St. Petersburg and Leningrad Region objectively and as they deserve it. Their professionalism is a guarantee of the successful development of an entrepreneurial environment in contemporary society.

The Forum was opened by the plenary meeting “Socio-Economic Development of Russia’s Arctic Zone.” It was mentioned that the strategic importance of the Arctic zone as a macro-region is growing in the contemporary world. “This is a giant territory where more than 2 mln Russian residents live, there are inexhaustible fresh water and mineral resources. In the near future, the Arctic has every chance of becoming the storeroom of resources required for Russia’s efficient economic development,” stressed Artur Nikolaevich Chilingarov, Chairman of the Association of Polar Explorers, when he read Deputy Chairman of the Russian Government Dmitry Rogozin’s welcoming address.

Comprehensive development of the Arctic will be impossible without preservation of the unique Arctic wilderness and way of life of the indigenous population. It is important for the interests of said people to be taken into account in the federal draft law on the development of the Arctic zone, which is not socially directed according to Artur Chilingarov and Grigory Petrovich Ledkov, President of the Association of Small-Numbered Indigenous Peoples of the North, Siberia and the Far East. “The indigenous population is the soul of the Arctic. These people are inseparably interwoven into the ecosystem of the macro-region. When specially-protected natural areas, border areas and industrial areas are created, it is necessary to integrate this ancient ecological system in order for it to develop in tandem with contemporary society as a whole,” emphasised Grigory Petrovich.

Grigory Petrovich Ledkov thinks that traditional Northern trades – reindeer breeding, coastal fishing, peltry trade – are a possible basis for the territorial zoning stipulated for by the draft law. Nomads can create a unique, Arctic-type of agriculture that will remit taxes to the state, provide food and employment for the people. But comprehensive support measures should be taken into account: ”In the Soviet period, there were state support measures, and a lot of them: access to bioresources (wildlife, aquatic world), old-age pensions, free higher education, free and 100% provision with residential housing, and other measures. The whole complex of these support measures is not operating properly and sufficiently,” noted Grigory Ledkov.

The business programme of the Forum is complemented by the exhibition of projects and technologies for the development of the Arctic zone. For example, one can learn at the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous District stand about the railway construction project known as the Northern Latitudinal Route, which will connect oil-and-gas regions with the capital city of the district as well as building a plant for liquefying natural gas, “Yamal LNG” in the village of Sabetta, a supplier of liquefied natural gas to the countries of the Asia-Pacific Region and Europe. There are other projects as well – cleaning of Bely Island from scrap metal, a programme for the restoration of warships and some of their parts found in the course of expeditions to the Kara Sea.

More than 30 sessions and roundtables will take place as part of the Forum. The Arctic regions’ plans for the development of support areas, state support mechanisms and practical aspects of operation in the Arctic are among the key issues. The Resolution will be the main document of the Forum and constitute a summary of public proposals and initiatives for the development of the Russian Arctic zone. It will be sent to the State Commission on the Development of the Arctic. The Forum will operate until December 7.

This is the 25^th time that the largest international exhibition for security support has been held in the Northwest region of Russia for security support. For a quarter of a century the project has helped to provide security in all spheres of life and promote innovative technologies to protect the interests of the state, society and citizens.

Over 150 Russian and foreign developer companies, manufacturers and resellers presented technical devices and equipment for security and fire-fighting protection. Different areas of the exhibition include security TV and observation systems, communication and warning, fire safety, hardware and software for information protection.

During the EXPOFORUM business programme, the 8^th scientific and practical conference “Information Security. Nevskiy Dialogue”, the 5^th professional conference “Technologies of Security in Retail Trade”, the professional competition “Standard Security”, the competition of professional master installers, training seminars and presentations by participating companies will be held.

The Securika exhibition, based on the results of the All-Russian rating of exhibitions, is considered the best regional Russian exhibition on the topic “Safety, fire safety and occupational safety”. It is being held in five major Russian cities: Moscow, St. Petersburg, Novosibirsk, Krasnodar and Yekaterinburg.

For the tenth time in the Northern Capital the specialists in the field of security have gathered at the sites of the company Expoforum-International: from 2008 through 2013 the exhibition was held in Lenexpo, but with the opening of the EXPOFORUM Convention and Exhibition Centre it transferred to the modern new site.