Media, exhibition organizers gather for roundtable discussion
A roundtable discussion on the issue “Media Role in the Exhibition and Congress Activity” was held at the presentation hall of the 5pEXPO 2016 International Exhibition Industry Forum. The event was attended by Head of the RESTEC Exhibition Company Igor Bychkov, Head of the Rhythm of Machinery magazine project Zinaida Satskaya, Head of the special projects department of the Neftegaz.ru communication group Kirill Boltayev, representatives of the Expocentre press service.
The discussion moderator, Director General of the ExpoEffect Exhibition Consulting Agency Nikolai Karasev, said, defining the theme of the event, that the media and the exhibition organizer have their own vision of the problem, vision of the content that is presents to the visitors and readers. Therefore, the main purpose of the meeting was an attempt to find a field of interaction for mutually beneficial solutions to this problem.
The media objective is to increase the number of readers to make the publication popular, then monetize this popularity through advertisers. To this end, it is necessary to generate the right content that forms readership’s loyalty. The organizer’s goal is to attract visitors to the event, form a correct image of the event and attract exhibitors to the event.
What content needs to be formed so that it could simultaneously fulfill the tasks of each side?
The roundtable discussion participants were looking for answers to this question. The topic was relevant for both sides, so the presentation hall of the 5pEXPO 2016 forum was filled to capacity, and by professional affiliation the audience was divided about equally – the media and exhibition organizers.
The forum participants expressed a number of ideas for increasing the mutual interest in exhibition events. In particular, it was proposed to invite to the exhibition newsmakers, to take a more careful attitude to making press releases, give wider coverage of the upcoming event in the trade press, to more carefully select media partners, to improve the work conditions at the exhibition for the media, like it is done at European exhibition venues, and much more.
The discussion participants were unanimous in one thing – the exhibition needs an interesting content. Then the event will certainly become newsworthy.
Representatives of the Expocentre press service informed that more than 20,000 materials about the activities of the exhibition center were published last year. About 600 media outlets became the information partners of their own exhibition projects of Expocentre. It is therefore logical that the roundtable discussion ended with awarding diplomas and valuable gifts to the media representatives for active coverage of Expocentre’s congress and exhibition events.