MeetingPlanners Russia: 15 minutes business lessons

Europe Congress, the leading MICE organizer, gathered business travel professionals at the first MeetingPlanners Russia forum. The event took place on September 9-10th in Intercontinental Tverskaya Moscow hotel.

During the two days corporate buyers had an opportunity to meet Russian and international business travel service providers: host agencies, MICE-agencies, air carriers, hotels and congress centres. More than 50 largest companies, including Visit Monaco, Radisson Blu Latvia, India Tourism Board India, Kerzner Hotels South Africa and others were glad to participate in such a large-scale project. The Russian Association of Business Travel (ABT) provided active informational support and facilitated organization of the forum.

The forum was opened by the greeting speech of its organizer and Europe Congress managing director, Alan Pallas, who wished the participants a good day and told everyone about the unique format of the event. All business contacts at MeetingPlanners lasted not more than 15 minutes and had been scheduled in advance. Thus, every participant was able to meet a large number of business partners and plan his day in the most efficient way. In conclusion Alan Pallas expressed his hope that thanks to MeetingPlanners Russia the suppliers would definitely find new clients and serve as reliable business contacts for event managers.

Alan Pallas’s greeting speech was the keynote for the whole event and all the participants were very much interested in the unique opportunity to communicate with their colleagues face to face.

«I lay great hopes on MeetingPlanners Russia, as 15 minute contacts are much more efficient than ordinary events. All of my colleagues’ and my own meetings were scheduled in advance. Thus, we all use our working time in an efficient way and take the most advantage of communication», Victoria Dovgal from the KIY AVIA group said.

She was fully supported by Julia Minina, the representative of Sshicom creative team: «I am very glad that our travel and event specialist have had an opportunity to get acknowledged with the European way of organization of events like that, and all this thanks to MeetingPlanners Russia. At first it may seem that 15 minutes is a too short period of time to make useful acquaintances and learn about new offers in the travel and event market. Actually 15 minutes is common practice in the world and this time is really enough to get acquainted and to establish a stable business relationship.

The participants lively discussed world practices of holding events like that before the forum, as well as during the breaks between business contacts. The industry professionals were glad to note the establishment of a modern platform for active dialogue and stable business relations in Russia. MICE dramatic growth, new promising destinations for work and leisure, current and competitive price offers were the main topics of informal dialogue.

«We are now facing rapid growth of the travel and event industry. The Russians have always loved good travel and leisure. I don’t think there are many places on the earth our tourists have not been to. In the meantime, Russian tourists and business travellers have only started discovering Singapore. This is why participation in MeetingPlanners Russia is so important for us. Thanks to this event we can efficiently promote our destination and find partners not only in Russia, but also in the CIS», Olesya Popova, Singapore Tourism Board representative noted.

MeetingPlanners Russia has gathered travel and event specialists from various cities of Russia, the Ukraine and Kazakhstan in one place. The forum allowed to bring together corporate buyers from Russia and the CIS and business travel service providers from all over the world.

«The business travel industry has been growing rapidly, so you have to take active part in events like that to keep in touch with the latest events. There is a high demand for services of business category in the regions as well as in the capital, that is why MeetingPlanners Russia for us is a milestone event», AllaOmelchenko, Samaraintour, shared her impressions of the meeting.

The second half of the day included educational sessions. Winfried Barczaitis, independent consultant and ABT development director spoke about European MICE experience and shared his secrets of efficient event management. Besides, the participants learned how to significantly reduce risks, to effectively control revenues and costs and how to organize strategic communication with every staff member of the company. A detailed review of the latest research allowed the participants to get focused on industry development and to use the knowledge they got in their work. The second report of the speaker was devoted to cross cultural communication.

«It is always interesting to know the opinion of a foreign expert. If you are willing to be a travel or an event specialist, you should keep in touch with world trends and practices. Of course, some adjustments for our mentality, working patterns and opportunities are necessary, but in any case it is great that MeetingPlanners Russia has given us a chance to learn something new and to look at certain aspects of work from a different angle», Irina Boykova from SBM noted.

MeetingPlanners Russia has proved that events like that arouse great interest on the part of professional corporate buyers as well as of business travel service providers. All guests and forum participants came to the conclusion that the business travel industry in our country is a promising and rapidly growing area of industry. It is the very area where you would like to try new innovative strategic developments, world experience and knowledge.

Thus, according to Irina Bylym, SOLBY CENTER, business travel is a very special field that has a vast growth potential. MeetingPlanners Russia has gathered people who are interested in promoting this brunch of industry and forming a single corporate policy".

MeetingPlanners Russia is a great opportunity not only to establish new business contacts, but also to look at the business travel industry at a completely different angle.

Sofya Dukorskaya