RUSSIA - A new 50,000sqm venue has opened in Ekaterinburg, which combined with a new international airport hopes to usher in a new era of international exhibitions.
The first phase of construction at Ekaterinburg-Expo, built to coincide with the launch of the Ural International Exhibition and Forum of Industry and Innovation Innoprom 2011, completed last month becoming one of one of Russia's largest venues for international events.
The venue, built with investment from the surrounding Sverdlovsk region, now hopes to be entirely finished by the end of the year, offering three 12-metre high 10,000sqm exhibition halls and one 15-metre high 20,000 exhibition hall with 100 metre open spaces on either side. Ekaterinburg-Expo also has five 230sqm conference halls, two 750sqm conference halls and one main plenary hall with an area of 1,500sqm.
The venue was designed by German architect firm Wulf & Partner, the company that designed Stuttgart Messe, in collaboration with Spanish architect Jose Asebilo Marine.
The exhibition centre is located near to the new Koltsovo international airport, 15 minutes from the city’s downtown district.
Chairman of the Russian Union of Exhibitions and Fairs (RUEF) Sergey Alexeev told EW the airport is a timely addition to the city. “It’s a good incentive because the old one was not so good,” he said, adding that despite difficulties such as lack of investment and attention, “the exhibition industry in Ekaterinburg is not staying in one place; we’re developing our industry”.
He gave the Asia-Pacific Economic Corporation (APEC) convention being held in Vladivostok for the first time as one example of Russian winning increasingly high-profile international events. The event includes delegates from around the Pacific as well as China, Vietnam, Japan, USA and Canada.
“I recommended Vladivostok because the Government invested more than a billion US dollars to develop infrastructure there and it’s a very interesting region,” he said, adding there are also plans to complete a new convention centre in Vladivostok this year.
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