Roscongress Foundation CEO and Chairman of the Board Alexander Stuglev and his deputy G. Velikikh met with the heads of Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University. During their working visit to SPbPU, the guests were shown cutting-edge scientific and technical innovations and infrastructure and discussed the possibility of cooperating with the university.
Today it is globally accepted that congresses and exhibitions are one of the most effective platforms for business collaboration. It has turned into a promising and vibrant sector of the economy. It is currently becoming an important tool for mobilizing intellectual potential when discussing issues of national development, as well as in the socio-economic, scientific and cultural spheres. Exhibitions stimulate manufacturing and trade, innovation, and businesses in a variety of industries, and affect how goods and services markets are formed and saturated by new products and innovations. Now, as the business community faces political and economic challenges, exhibitions and congresses have become a platform for business networking, which leads to new business connections, projects, investments, jobs, etc.
The largest Russian organizer of world-class congress and exhibition events is the Roscongress Foundation (see: “For reference”). When it comes to the Polytechnic University, thanks to the work of our specialized subdivision for congress and exhibition engagement, the University regularly participates in large events, thereby facilitating a direct dialogue between developers and consumers, relevant ministries, and agencies. These events include the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, the International Industrial Trade Fair INNOPROM, the annual national exhibition VUZPROMEXPO, the Moscow International Education Fair, the annual scientific and technical Open Innovations forum, the St. Petersburg Innovation Forum and others. “Our priorities when it comes to the University’s engagement with congresses and exhibitions in order to ensure and popularize our scientific and technological research include: improvement of the methodology and modalities of the university’s subdivisions; outreach, marketing and advertising; and implementing strategies to improve the Polytech’s representation at large-scale international and national scientific and technological events,” explains head of the SPbPU Congress and Exhibition Engagement Office Dmitry Karpov.
During their tour of the university, the guests were shown that the Polytech, while built on the foundation of a 120 year long history and academic schools, is a new type of university – a high-tech training ground for national industries, a world-class scientific and academic sci-tech powerhouse. Consequently, active engagement in large-scale thematic events, ones that correlate with the university’s specialisations, helps identify the university’s national research potential when it comes to industrial technologies, mechanical engineering, the energy sector, construction industry, and others. “Roscongress is a professional in the field of exhibition organisation that uses field-tested, effective exhibition management methods and has a lot of experience solving the unique challenges of planning and holding exhibitions,” continues Karpov. “That’s why we’re very interested in establishing this very important relationship, identifying potential areas for cooperation, and creating a system for collaboration and the sharing of best practices. We’re ready to build on and improve our work for the good of the entire exhibition community.”
After a tour of the Main Academic Building, the heads of the Roscongress Foundation were shown the Supercomputer Centre “Polytechnic”, modern laboratories, and academic centres. The guests paused at the model of the Polytech’s “Tech Valley”, which will gather together specialists from a whole range of new industrial technologies in the automotive, engine, ship, aircraft, energy and other sectors.
The Vice-Rector for Innovative Projects, leader and co-chair of the TechNet National Technological Initiative (NTI) working group, founder of Computational Mechanics Laboratory, LLC, and head of the SPbPU NTI Centre Aleksey Borovkov presented on behalf of the NTI Centre at the SPbPU Institute of Advanced Manufacturing Technologies. As a reminder, SPbPU was selected, from a number of universities and research organisations across the country, as the winner of the national Ministry of Education and Science competition for creating an Advanced Manufacturing Technologies NTI centre. It was not just SPbPU’s experience in the advanced manufacturing technologies sector and its active cooperation with the world’s largest high-tech companies that cinched it this victory. Also important were the contributions of four NTI working groups (AeroNet, AutoNet, MariNet, and TechNet) to the NTI Centre programme and the wide support for the application from heads of high-tech companies and corporations, policymakers and the professional community. Mr. Borovkov explained the purpose and goals of the Advanced Manufacturing Technologies NTI Centre, detailed the formation of the Centre’s Consortium, and demonstrated some of the Centre’s first results. During his presentation, ALEKSEY BOROVKOV touched on some of the most relevant and promising directions and tools for the SPbPU NTI Centre and modern manufacturing – a smart digital double, a smart digital shadow; described his take on modern business processes and business models, and described the development of the “Factories of the Future” Megaproject.
Alexander Stuglev, for his part, presented on the Roscongress Foundation’s most recent figures and forecasts for development in the field of exhibition organising. He described current projects, which combine key economic development trends and Russian and global strategic priorities, and which serve as platforms to gather Russian and international business leaders, experts, the media, and representatives of government agencies, creating the ideal conditions for discussing and furthering new ideas and projects. Mentioned were the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum – one of the leading global platforms for discussing key global economic issues, the Eastern Economic Forum (Vladivostok), the Russian Energy Week International Forum (Moscow), the Russian Investment Forum (Sochi), the ‘Arctic: Territory of Dialogue’ International Arctic Forum (Arkhangelsk), the International Financial Congress, and the International Maritime Defence Show, events where the focus is specifically on innovations. “At SPIEF we already have a designated demonstration zone and will expand it at all events,” explained Mr. Stuglev. “Each event’s organising committee is focused on identifying several prospective areas, which include research developments, innovations, and youth entrepreneurship – as a whole and in the scientific and technical sector specifically. We will gladly collaborate with you in finding content for these zones, and also in planning sessions, because the ideas you described will allow us to save time and resources, making our event organisation process more efficient”.
The Rector of SPbPU and member of the Russian Academy of Science Andrey Rudskoi thanked the guests for visiting and for inviting the university to the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, which was held on 24-26 May and was, as the rector noted, “one of the main events in the university’s plans for 2018”. “It’s currently really important to understand the importance of transforming your work from different points of view and shifting it to modern technological platforms. Global contracts get signed at Roscongress events, so it’s vital that the formats for cooperation between science, education, development, industry, international contacts at these events be harmonized”, states the Rector.
The two sides agreed to cooperate in the congress and exhibition sector. There was talk of hosting joint events on SPbPU’s campus and of SPbPU representatives’ ongoing participation in Roscongress Foundation events. Another subject of discussion was the attraction of Polytech students, including those from the Higher School of Biotechnology and Food Technology, as volunteers in the event catering services division. This would allow students to, first of all, gather practical skills and experience serving at large events, especially high-level events with up to 15 thousand attendees. Moreover, the Higher School of Biotechnology and Food Technology, with its modern equipment and innovative culinary laboratories and workshops might be useful in developing menus and recipes.
“We were impressed with the developments we saw today, the achievements and successes that are already evident and the goals that the university as set for itself”, noted Mr. Stuglev at the end of his visit. “Of course, we’ve been developing our own best practices, technical and technological solutions, data bases, thereby simplifying the general process of event planning. But we’d be delighted to collaborate with the Polytechnic University when it comes to the content portion of events: attracting participants, planning the exhibitions, as well as engaging with the intellect and talent of your academics and students.”
Источник фото: Медиа-центр СПбПУ
