Estonian company takes international exhibitions to Internet
An international company OnlineExpo International launched its international online exhibition platform in Tallinn. Preparation and sales of the first exhibitions have also been launched in Latvia, Lithuania, Sweden, Czech Republic, and Russia, with the first international trade show set to take place in early spring of 2016.
“The OnlineExpo portal has been, above all, created based on the needs of an entrepreneur,” said Margus Tamm, the board member of the firm. “If a company participating in an exhibition actively takes advantage of the virtual opportunities, it can multiply its visibility by several times in the course of an exhibition,” he added.
Tamm, one of the founders of the new platform in Estonia, said that an online exhibition usually lasts five days. The exhibition begins on Monday, ends on Friday and may continue over the weekend similarly to a traditional exhibition.
"Various formats of an online exhibition have been tested in several countries. Such experiments are often created by web designers whose portals are beautiful and playful, but complicated and inconvenient for visitors of the exhibition. There are also several catalogue-type exhibition environments available on the internet. However, no interactive, entrepreneur-centred and active communication-oriented solution have been offered so far. We believe that no exhibition portal can become functional merely as a result of good intentions. We are physically present and available in each country and offer both the visitors and the exhibitors support to get the best possible exhibition experience,” Tamm explained.
According to Tamm, the number of visitors of many local exhibitions is clearly decreasing today, and the interest from companies in taking part is low. "Their brands have become sufficiently well-known domestically, the price of a contact for the exhibitor keeps increasing, but participation in foreign exhibitions is, however, time- and resource-consuming," he said.
Yet, Polina Goldshtein, Head of the International Department of OnlineExpo, believes that the rise of online exhibitions does not mean the end of traditional exhibitions. “Online exhibitions provide opportunities for drawing more attention to traditional exhibitions. By organizing exhibitions on the internet, we reach many more people. Even those who would not make it to a regular exhibition – due to time or location constraints or other reasons. We are not competing, but complementing one another,” she said.
The first exhibition of OnlineExpo, Travel Expo 2016, will take place simultaneously in several countries in the early spring of 2016.
Editor: M. Oll