Evgeny Kovtun: "The hybrid format of business events has shown that it can result in more registrations of participants and visits to the platform"

In 2022, the Omsk Region Development and Investment Agency will act as a site for hosting the main operational center of the 2022 Hockey World Youth Championship. In total, more than 150 business events were held at the regional Congress Hall in 2021.

It should be recalled that the Omsk Region Development and Investment Agency is a regional specialized organization for working with investors, and also performs the functions of the regional Congress hall, carrying out work in the following areas: organizing congress and exhibition events, promoting the Omsk region as a venue for large-scale events, organizing the participation of the region's SMEs in Russian and foreign business events.

Thus, the sanitary and epidemiological situation in the region and the country as a whole has made adjustments to the organization of congress and exhibition activities and annual mass events. During 2021, more than 150 business events were held at the Agency's site. All events were organized in compliance with the sanitary and epidemiological norms and requirements of Rospotrebnadzor, the Decree of the Governor of the Omsk region on providing an "entrance filter" for employees and visitors, a mask regime and distancing.

With the support of the Ministry of Economy of the Omsk Region, the Agency for Development and Investment, together with the unified Service Delivery Center "My Business", organized two business events: the annual entrepreneurship forum "Your Business is your Success" in face-to-face format, and the forum for entrepreneurs "I'm in Business" in online format.

The business events are organized within the framework of the national project "Small and medium-sized entrepreneurship and support for individual entrepreneurial initiative".

Thus, the forum "Your business is your success" was attended by more than 700 people. The speakers at the business event were successful Omsk entrepreneurs: Viktor Shkurenko, Andrey Korovin, Dmitry Kibkalo, as well as the famous athlete Alexander Shlemenko. Both events on the Agency's YouTube channel attracted more than 2,500 unique online participants.

"It is already a familiar job for our team to develop a concept and organize events in a hybrid format. Since the beginning of the pandemic, the Agency's specialists have studied all the nuances of online events, and the world has not yet become the same, but we have adapted to these conditions - we see only positive aspects. It's great that now it's possible to add virtual space to the physical space, and an unlimited number of online participants can join people who are offline. The hybrid format has shown that it can provide more registrations of participants and visits to the platform, wide coverage, and significantly reduces the logistics costs of speakers. But each format has its own characteristics that should be taken into account," said Evgeny Kovtun, the Agency's General Director.

It is worth noting the successful holding of events with an international agenda. The main results of 2021 in the field of convention and exhibition infrastructure were the following events: The X International Forum of Social Entrepreneurs and Investors "INNOSIB-2021" and the International Rally "Silk Road" 2021.

The Silk Road International Rally is the world's largest rally raid competition. 90 vehicles went to the start in Omsk: SUVs, including ATVs, trucks, ATVs, motorcycles. In addition to Russian athletes, racers from America, Mongolia, Finland, Italy, France, Belarus, Portugal, Spain, and Germany took part in the race. The Regional Congress Hall and the square in front of it became the location of the Rally's operations center, a site for administrative and technical checks for participants, as well as a service park.

In the new year 2022, the Omsk Region Development and Investment Agency will continue to support small and medium-sized enterprises: to develop their own businesses, gain new knowledge and commercial benefits. Together with Omsk, the Agency's specialists will prepare for the Ice Hockey World Youth Championship, which will be held from December 26, 2022 to January 6, 2023. The Regional Congress Hall will serve as a venue for the main operations center of the Championship.