Which international investment exhibitions should St Petersburg attend?

Pavel Goncharov, Vice-President of the Russian Guild of Managers and Developers, Director-General of PROEstate Events Company:
“St Petersburg does attend the key events taking place from Asia, an area of concentrated investment potential, to Europe with its traditional sites. The city participates rather actively in international exhibitions and congresses, including foreign ones. We duly address the main “fronts” in this area. For example, last year our city took part in the diversified Hannover Fair in Hamburg, ExpoReal-2013 real estate exhibition in Munich, MIPIM real estate investments exhibition in Cannes, France, Dubai international Air Show, UAE, and Z-Subcontracting Fair machine building exhibition in Leipzig, Germany.”

Valentin Zastavlenko, Springald group of companies’ Vice-President:
“If we wish to develop St Petersburg as a major tourist megacity, we must not miss any of the international exhibitions, no matter how small. Despite the seeming insignificance of such events, they are one of the attractions for the investors since they create for them the effect of presence. If nobody knows you, you won’t have a chance of getting your candidacy in the investment projects’ long-list. But if you make your presence felt in the information field, declare your intention to attract the investors to the city, present your city in the right light, and answer the queries of potential partners, then sooner or later the investors will appear in your city.

Pavel Morozov: managing partner of the ID-réel territorial marketing company (France):
“Participation in international exhibitions is just one of the components of the well-thought-out marketing strategy, and not the most essential one. If one is set to participate, he must know which product to offer, how to pack it, and who to invite.”

Natalia Suslova: Reputation communications agency Director-General:
“The city’s image in the eyes of alien (i.e. not from St Petersburg) investors is created, among other things, by participation in major dedicated exhibitions. Therefore, a well-considered presentation of the city at MIPIM, ExpoReal and other investment functions is a must. The impression is formed by several factors: the display stand arrangement, participation in business programs and organization of own events.  
Which exhibitions must be attended, depends on the general strategy of the city authorities. Overall, this is a standard marketing task, i.e. the city needs investments, and, hence, it must familiarize the potential investors with its capabilities. It could be most efficiently done where the concentration of such investors is the highest. In Europe, for instance, this is the MIPIM exhibition.”

Alexander Veselov, director for development of ASTERA in alliance with BNP Paribas Real Estate:
“In the sphere of commercial real estate it is necessary to single out such major international exhibitions as ExpoReal, MIPIM and MAPIC.”
Aleksey Shaskolsky, Deputy Director of the assessments department, the Institute of Enterprising Issues:
 “Petersburg won’t profit by attending any exhibitions because everybody needs a specific event to satisfy his specific needs. For example, the builders and developers set their sights on such and such exhibitions, while the architects and officials couldn’t care less for them. Therefore the usefulness of such visits is very low, considering, in addition, that the visitors usually don’t know the foreign language for learning what might useful. However, we monitor the situation and speculate on how to build and develop. Perhaps, in 50 years or so we’ll become what we must be.”  

Arseny Vasilyev, UNISTO Petrostal state-funded company Director-General:
“The city ought to attend the events oriented to developing St Petersburg’s chief economic activities, such as construction, tourism, machine-building, marine transportation, forestry, and power engineering.
Today, the most attractive segments of investments in St Petersburg are the commercial space and real estate. Such a situation forms the expected pricing pattern in these market segments. The experts believe that in the coming year the prices and rates will grow especially fast in the residential and commercial real estate sector.”