IMEX 2019, a major specialized international event in the sphere of event industry and incentive tourism took place on May 21-23, 2019 in Frankfurt (Germany). For the second year Russia is taking part in the event with its collective exhibit entitled "RUSSIA OPEN TO THE WORLD." The Russian exhibit was organized by the Russian Convention Bureau. The partners of the exhibit included Roscongress Foundation and Congress International Company, and Sverdlovsk Region (City of Yekaterinburg) served as a partner region.

A total of 12 companies presented the RUSSIA OPEN TO THE WORLD joint exhibit. They came from Moscow (Z Brothers, Roscongress Foundation, Congress-International, Russian Convention Bureau), Yekaterinburg (Ural Congress Bureau, Angelo Hotel, Yekaterinburg-EXPO IEC, Yeltsin Center, USTA Group), Kaliningrad (Baltma Tours), Sochi (Rosa Khutor Resort), and Ufa (Congress Bureau of Bashkortostan).

"The format of the national exhibit, which brought together representatives of various regions and directions of the Russian event industry, has once again allowed us to demonstrate the scale of Russia's capabilities in the area of holding international events. Our country is becoming a major actor on the global arena of the meetings industry, and this has been proven by the interest expressed by professionals in the field. This is why the proactive position in the part of promoting event capabilities of the country and its regions is an important factor on the way to integrating this country into the global meetings industry and developing the event sector as a component of Russia's non-resource exports," said Alexander Stuglev, Director of Roscongress Foundation.

During the three days of IMEX 2019 more than 1,500 specialists from the international meeting industry visited the national exposition of Russia.

The foreign guests enjoyed an extensive business program. There were 18 presentations held on the sidelines of the Russian exhibit, including presentations on event capabilities of our country, and its regions, as well as separate companies participants of the exposition. Russian companies have held some 300 business meetings and negotiations.

Alexander Porodnov, head of the Sverdlovsk Region Agency for Attraction of Investments, noted: "This was the first time our region took part in the national exhibit as a partner region. Participating in exhibitions is undoubtedly a very important issue in promoting the event potential of Sverdlovsk Region. Our delegation has had a number of meetings with potential event customers who are interested in gaining access to new regions with the necessary infrastructure. We enjoyed the opportunity to present Sverdlovsk Region at the international level not only as a region with unique capabilities for holding events of any scale and a major center for metallurgical and innovative production, but also as a "treasury" of Russia – the land of natural beauty and wealth of the Ural Mountains. I am sure there will be new projects ahead for us in cooperation with the Russian Convention Bureau.

"The interest in Russia as a country hosting large-scale international events is growing. This was once again demonstrated at IMEX 2019," says Alexey Kalachev, Director of the Russian Convention Bureau. "On the sidelines of the exhibit, the Russian Convention Bureau held more than 60 meetings with the participants of the market of the event industry, buyers from different countries, including Greece, India, China and Cyprus, as well as professional international associations. We are hopeful that as a result, Russia will have new international events coming to this country. We have held negotiations with the International Congress and Conference Association ICCA, where we discussed the issues of cooperation and participation of RCB in ICCA, the future of the sector in the country, and the position of Russia on the global market."

The Organizing Committee would like to thank the participants of the Russian exposition for their effective work and contribution to the development of the Russian meetings industry, and their foreign partners for their interest and readiness for cooperation.