What is crucial when choosing a destination? Meeting and Congress Planners seek context and connections in their business segments; they look for innovation and quality in infrastructure and appreciate smart attitude of “officials” to be able to create best matching meetings and congresses and to cooperate with local experts in their field!
Before we portray the impressive local knowledge of the city, we would like to show the high quality infrastructure and excellent venues. One of them is LITEXPO, the Lithuanian Exhibition and Congress Centre. During Johanna’s and my visit in Vilnius, I’ve talked to LITEXPO’s Director Mindaugas Rutkauskas about the venue and about his visions for the future.
LITEXPO is the largest venue in the whole Baltics – by number of events, visitors and exhibitions. Over the course of one year, LITEPXO holds more than 20 international exhibitions and organizes about 1,500 different events: congresses, conferences, seminars, presentations, trainings and more. Over 3,000 participants and 350,000 visitors can be counted per year. The venue offers 5 exhibition halls and 10 conference halls that comprise 18,500 sq.m. and outdoor spaces with 15,100 sq.m.
Yearly, there are several international events that are initiated by Lithuanians. They are mainly related to the fields of business development, life sciences, technologies and innovation. For example the Life Sciences Baltics 2016 – the only international forum in the Baltics for world-class biotechnology, pharmaceutical and medical devices experts from all around the world. Other events include: #SWITCH!, the biggest ICT and entrepreneurship event in the Baltics, showcase the digital revolution, and GameOn – the biggest game expo in the Baltics with 14,000 people attending last years’s edition. LITEXPO is also host of some international events that are organized by initiatives from abroad. Mindaugas’ aim is to increase these kinds of events in the upcoming years.
To get some support when organising events, LITEXPO maintains strong partnerships with different institutions, organisations and associations. (e.g. Ministry of Transport and Communications of the Republic of Lithuania, Lithuanian State Department of Tourism, Lithuanian Tourism Association, Lithuanian Culture Institute and many more. Mindaugas also emphasized that LITEXPO is a very fast growing company. During the past 4 years he has worked at LITEXPO, the revenue has doubled (to 6.2 Mio).
His goals for the upcoming years: 1. A growth in revenue and profit and 2. Provide more services (such as catering) outside LITEXPO to avoid boundaries.
For the aforementioned reasons, LITEXPO established the LITEXPO events company, a professional conference organiser that provides all the services required by such business – from the location of an event and project management, to its full implementation. During my visit, I took the chance to speak to Eglè Mikailaite, Head of Business Development of Litexpo Events. Eglè explained why LITEXPO is so successful: “We put double efforts because we run behind big centres. We’re giving our best. Smart technology, congress apps, IT – these are fields we can compete with. We take nothing for granted. We take the challenge.”
Mindaugas as well as Eglè agreed that LITEXPO offers many advantages in comparison to other European venues, if only because of its good strategic location: LITEXPO is located only 6 km away from the city center, in 15 minutes you can reach all hotels with a shuttle bus. There is also the city park nearby.
As previously mentioned, the city’s infrastructure is developing enormously and two major city constructions showcase the positive trend – the Vilnius Congress Centre and the Modern Art Centre, slated to open at the beginning of 2018 and 2019 respectively.
Milda Ivanauskiene, Acting head of Modern Art Center – whom I also met in Vilnius – told me about the new Center. There will be a considerable exhibition space as well as a multifunctional event hall and a rooftop terrace. The conference room offers space for 200 people. With 3,000 sq. m. of total floor space, the Modern Art Centre will function as both an important Lithuanian cultural institute and a versatile events venue.
Milda Ivanauskiene: “It is a plus to have a convention centre inside the heart of the city which is boutique, which is something special. The architecture will attract many people!” As you can see in the picture, it will be a highly modern gallery showcasing once again the dynamic development of the city. If you step out of the Modern Art Centre, you will step on the stones of the old town: Old and new Vilnius combined together.
In our next article you can read more about Vilnius Airport and its reaction to the development of Vilnius.
Please read all stories from our story line:
- Vilnius recognises great economic value in supporting the meetings industry!
- Convene in Vilnius: modern, efficient and personal
- Doing business in Lithuania – definitely not a bad choice
Your contact in Vilnius:
Jolanta Beniuliene
Head of Vilnius Tourism and Convention Bureau
Go Vilnius | The official international economic
development agency of the City of Vilnius
jolanta.beniuliene@vilnius.lt
tel. +370 5 212 1833
www.vilnius-convention.lt
Your contact at tmf:
Ulrike Kiesel
Project Manger Content & PR
u.kiesel@tmf-dialogue.com
+49 931 9002 114
