Annual congress of the Global Association of the Exhibition Industry (UFI), industry’s largest global meeting of the year, was held on 31 October – 3 November 2018 in St. Petersburg (Russia).
As the leading global association UFI brings together those who support the world’s exhibition market: tradeshow organisers, exhibition centre operators, service providers, national and international associations of the industry, venue owners and other partners within exhibition sphere. Main goal of the Global Association of the Exhibition Industry is to represent and promote the business interests of its members and the exhibition industry in general.
Over 450 event professionals representing UFI members in more than 50 countries met at the ExpoForum Convention & Exhibition Centre in St. Petersburg to review UFI’s work throughout 2018 and confirm plans for the year ahead.
Main topic of the UFI Global Congress 2018 was the dynamics of transition – exhibition industry’s complex future. Professionals had the opportunity to gain insight into industry trends and challenges that the exhibition market is currently facing.
85th UFI Global Congress was opened by Corrado Peraboni, UFI 2018 President. TOHOLOGY visited Official Opening ceremony, panel discussions and UFI exhibition at the ExpoForum centre. Photo shoots of the UFI Global Congress are available in our photography coverage of the event (photo slider below).
Photo gallery of the 85th UFI Global Congress at the ExpoForum Convention & Exhibition Centre
The photography slider shows:
Kai Hattendorf, UFI, Managing Director & CEO; Corrado Peraboni, UFI 2018 President; Oleg Markov, Vice Governor of St. Petersburg; Sergey Voronkov, ExpoForum-International, General Director; Howard Klein, tradeshow industry expert, member of the Executive Committee of UFI; Sergey Ryazanskiy, Cosmonaut (Russian Federadion); David Zhong, VNU Exhibitions Asia (China), President; Graziano Messana, Fiera Milano (Brasil), General Manager; Anbu Varathan, Bangalore International Exhibition Centre (India), CEO; Darya Ostrovskaya, R&C Market Research Company, General Director; Matthias Tesi Baur, MBB-Consulting Group (UK), Founder and Senior Consultant; Stephan Forseilles, Artexis Easyfairs (Belgium), Head of Technology and Digital Transformation; Daniela Stack, Deutsche Messe AG (Germany), Director Marketing & Communication at CEBIT.
Photography: Andrey Ivanov / TOHOLOGY Production
On September 17 the traditional gala dinner for the participants of the international tennis tournament ATP 250 St. Petersburg Open 2018 was held at the five-star Lotte Hotel St. Petersburg. The event was organized at The Lounge, main restaurant of the hotel, MC of the party – artistic Alexander Belov.
Annual event for providers of MICE and business travel services and their customers International MICE Geography Show Russia 2018 was held in Moscow on October 25-26, 2018. The agenda of the first day included individual meetings of exhibitors and hosted buyers and final cocktail at The Ritz-Carlton, Moscow.
Recently, “Dans Le Noir?” restaurant in St. Petersburg, which is located in the Sokos Hotel Palace Bridge, celebrated its first birthday, on which occasion TOHOLOGY recalls a visit to this restaurant a year ago.
Moscow never sleeps! Together with the announcement about opening of the Four Seasons Hotel Lion Palace St. Petersburg, Canadian-based five-star hotel company introduces the plans for the opening of the second property in Russia in 2013 – Four Seasons Hotel Moscow.