RUSSIA’S profile as an exhibitions venue is getting a boost with the appointment of Sergey Alexeev of ExpoForum-International appointed as the incoming president of UFI for 2014/2015.
Welcoming Alexeev’s appointment, currently UFI president Renaud Hamaide of Comexposium/ViParis said: “Sergey brings 30 years of exhibition-related experience to our UFI presidents’ trio! As the first Russian UFI president, he will certainly provide valuable insights for the development of UFI programmes in this country.”
Russia is represented in UFI by 38 members, the third largest number after China and Germany. The country has more than 20 venues offering a minimum of 5,000m2 of indoor exhibition space and a combined total of almost 600,000m2.
This places the country 10th in the world in terms of exhibition infrastructure capacity and UFI ranks Russia 8th for exhibition activity for the three million square metres of net exhibition space rented yearly.
Commented Alexeev: “Joining the UFI presidential trio is a reflection of the prospects and professionalism of the Russian exhibitions industry. Over the past 20 years Russia has taken its place among the world’s exhibition leaders.”
Hamaide will thus take his place in the Triumvirate as outgoing president, while the new current president is Andrés Lopez-Valderrama of Corferias, Colombia.
These appointments will take effect after the 81st UFI Annual Congress in Bogota, Colombia which will be held between October 29 and November 1 this year, for the term 2014-2015.
Alexeev will become president for the 2015/2016 term.
In the meantime, Lopez-Valderrama will lead a UFI that has since welcomed 15 new organisations, bringing membership to 650 in 83 countries, and 28 more audited international exhibitions.
The UFI presidential trio is meant to provide for greater management continuity within the association and enable UFI to represent the exhibition sector in a greater number of international industry events and activities.
