The General Meeting of members of the Russian Convention Bureau was held in Moscow in Expocentre on March 29, 2019. The meeting discussed the important organizational issues and current projects of the RCB. Expocentre JSC served as the partner of the event.

The meeting was opened by Alexander Stuglev, Chairman of the RCB Board and Director of Roscongress Foundation, who said that meetings of Association members have become a platform for key decision-making in the process of developing the industry as a whole. Active participation of each RCB member with their experience, professional expertise and sincere interest in finding optimal solutions makes an important contribution to emergence of the Russian national event industry.

One of the key issues discussed at the event was the RCB work plan for 2019, which spanned all the areas of the Association’s activities, including attraction of new members, government and professional community relations, and representation of Russia at international exhibitions.

The General Meeting also adopted a decision to create a new industry section, the Destination Management Company (DMC). The section will bring together professional service companies, which, using their knowledge of local environments and resources specialize in creating and implementing events, active programs, tours, etc. at certain geographic locations. The DMC section will focus on accumulating professional expertise, creating high-quality event programs by RCB members and assisting the development of local expertise in Russian regions. The members of the Association also approved creation of “Education” work group, which will be responsible for training staff for the needs of the event industry.

One of the key issues discussed at the General Meeting was the presentation of the development strategy for the Russian Convention Bureau through year 2024. The text of the Strategy takes into account the strict conformance of the Russian Convention Bureau’s activities with the strategic objectives as established by Order No. 204 of the President of the Russian Federation, adopted on May 7, 2018, “On National Objectives and Strategic Development Goals of the Russian Federation Through 2024.”

For instance, as part of the International Cooperation and Export National Project, the RCB can become a part of the system of institutions for promotion of Russian export and development of service export on international markets, helping attract international events to various locations in Russia. By year 2024 the RCB has set the goal to attract into Russia events with the total number of foreign participants up to 18,000. The volume of services provided to this category of participants will amount to more than USD 200 million, and the total sum of tax payments into the Russian budget will reach up to USD 28 million.

The activities of the RCB will have a positive impact on the development of the tourism industry in Russia, first and foremost through increasing the number of business tourists, visiting international events organized by the Russian Convention Bureau (on average the share of foreign participants in international events exceeds 70%). The volume of services provided to event delegates by local companies (hotels, restaurants, museums, etc.) can reach USD 170 million by 2024.

The Russian Convention Bureau can also contribute to developing the Science National Project by means of attracting international events to Russia, of which 80% are science-themed events.

After the presentation the participants decided to create a work group discuss and work on the strategy. The group will include heads of various industry sections of the RCB.

After the event program was completed, Trekhgorka Community Club hosted a ceremony of adopting new RCB members, with LINIST Company serving as partner. The event was held in the Stand-up format, which allowed to maintain a creative atmosphere and led to bold improvizations.

Aleksey Kalachev, Director of the Russian Convention Bureau, said: “As usual, we tried to create an atmosphere that would be comfortable for communication between representatives of different companies-members of the RCB. RCB events serve as a venue for exchanging opinions, establishing business contacts and implementing partnership projects. This is our own event ecosystem that helps representatives of various areas of the event industry develop their businesses and support the national event field.”