Ukrainian organiser Premier Expo, Part of PROExpo (Europe) Ltd, is a UFI member and has been running trade shows since the year 2000. Realising how important exhibitions are for the economy, even during times of war, the company tells EW how it kept its shows on the road - or in a bomb shelter to be exact
Premier Expo’s staff returned to work as soon as the Kyiv Capital Region was freed from Russian forces and, for nearly a year now, like most of the country, has been living and working under threat of rocket attacks.
All activities have been moved to bomb shelters during air raids. Russian attacks on the power grid have meant businesses must balance between power cuts to carry on working – a bit like trying to stay dry while running between rain drops…
Premier Expo stayed close to its clients. There was a clear understanding that the trade show was the most cost-effective marketing tool, more so in such challenging times. We would like to tell our story of successes, challenges, and unorthodox decisions, hoping though that no one ever has to repeat the experience.
The first two wartime exhibitions took place in November 2022, namely the Public Health Forum and Pro Beauty Expo. The latter provides the core of the Premier Expo story to follow:
The following factors were taken into careful consideration when planning:
- Safety and security
- Legal acts allowing public events to take place
- Demand by the trade –the key factor that would guarantee visitors on the show floor
- Readiness of the vendors to be present on site with stands to showcase their products and services
- Financial viability.
Obviously, risks were present. However, knowing how to manage and minimise them helped us cope with the task.
Safety and security
We approached our traditional exhibition venue in Kyiv – IEC and they turned their vast basement with its reinforced concrete ground floor into an air raid shelter with 2,000+ seating capacity, Wi-Fi, a First Aid room and tea-coffee facilities. The Kyiv City Administration and emergency services gave us permission to run the show.
We estimated there would be a reduction of visitors by at least 80% compared to a normal event.
We ordered a second multimedia kit for the shelter so we could continue running meetings and seminars there during air raids. A reserve mobile 120 kWt diesel generator was rented to back up the power supply.
Wi-Fi on site was also backed up by a Starlink unit.
The Premier Expo team worked on a variety of scenarios and published clear instructions on our website and forwarded them to every exhibitor, contractor and co-organiser of onsite content.
Our clients were convinced the economy must keep working for our victory’s sake. Our women also want to stay beautiful and staging a beauty show gives strength and inspiration so that they can put up with inevitable hardships of war.
One might think that with the sound of an air raid siren, everyone moves to the shelter. Well, everything depends on timing. For instance, on the last day of the show, the air raid alarm started one hour before the opening time when many exhibitors were still travelling to the venue.
The trains on the underground, which connect to the venue, must stop during air raids as the line comes out onto the surface at some point. That caused many exhibitors to be stuck. Then, five minutes before opening, the air raid alarm ended, and we were obliged to open the gates. Fifteen stands were unpopulated still and our own staff took charge of those stands. We mobilised everyone who we could take off from less critical duties, even the MD of the company.
Our exhibition managers called each exhibitor to check on their ETA and to reassure them that their stands were safely manned by Premier Expo people. Within one hour every stand was passed back to the grateful exhibitors.
Blackout
There were, inevitably, some challenges that we couldn’t foresee. When there is no power, mobile phone networks don’t work. As a result we were not able to receive air raid and all-clear signals.
Some online speakers were also affected by a lack of power at their end. These issues became obvious during our first show in November, so for the beauty show we decided to avoid running any online content, relying only on offline.
Another issue was the toilets in the basement. Those operate by electric pumps which did not function during blackouts. So, we decided to use the facilities on the ground level of another pavilion, which was empty at the time, with signage swiftly made.
Exhibitors were asked to bring power stabilisers for their sensitive aesthetic medicine equipment to avoid any damage by voltage hikes.
Finally, another unforeseen ‘surprise’ was the freight gates of the pavilion that would not operate without electric power – yet the generator had already been returned to the owners at the end of the day. Luckily, one small gate could be operated manually, and the remaining trucks exited there.
Sales and post-sales activities
Naturally, the sales process had its own specifics:
- We predicted considerably lower than usual number of visitors and decided to reduce the number of
- exhibition days to two from the usual three.
- We had to reflect the current state of economy and levels of income in the price.
- We refused any custom build stands to ensure our exhibitors kept their costs down. All stands were Octanorm to a height of 2.5m. Image and flag-waving exercises were not considered appropriate.
- The sales and show preparation period got reduced to three months.
- Decisions about participation were made quickly. It was either a firm yes or firm no, unlike the usual lengthy consultation processes.
- Communication with participating companies was intense and there were numerous questions and plenty of anxiety, all caused by war.
There were 108 exhibitors in total and 4,394 visitors, of which 27% came to the show for the first time.
Visitors
Visitors were much more proactive than the exhibitors. Normally it is the other way round.
Onsite visitor polls showed that there was a 180-degree shift in the dominant relationship between the Seller and the Buyer. Previously the distributers and manufacturers had to make serious marketing efforts to become a supplier for beauty salons and now the salons are keenly searching for a reliable supplier and sometimes for any supplier that is still in the market. Demand is now much higher than supply. Beauty salons still operating have reduced competition, but some sellers didn’t catch this trend and were still offering discounts and incentives.
The decision to visit was generally being taken within a week of the show. Online registrations compared to previous shows were a cause for concern.
Our thinking was as follows: Standard visitor numbers for our three-day Pro Beauty Show were 21-25K trade professionals. Taking the lower bracket of 21K we estimated 2/3 for a two-day show being 14K. Taking into account that the size of this year’s show is about 20% of a normal one, we estimated that we had to bring at least 2,800 unique trade visitors over two days.
Imagine how we felt 10 days before opening with just over 1,500 registrations. Moreover, constant power cuts took offline our web-based registration system. However, just two days before the show and on site we saw a phenomenal result which was 1.5 times better than our estimations.
The team
And last, but by far not the least, was the team behind the project – a bunch of fantastic individuals for whom work on the project was like a psychological lifebuoy, taking our minds off the hardships of life during the war. We were working as a compact and driven team ready to extend a helping hand. One for all and all for one was our motto. We received only positive feedback.
We believe in our victory and we thank every citizen of the world for their support of Ukraine and your faith in us!
Our next project is dedicated to rebuilding our economy and is called ReBuild Ukraine which will take place in Warsaw, 15-16 February 2023. Another unusual event which we hope to talk about another time.
