Motor Show 2006 will be held at Crocus Expo

exhibition activities

Yesterday it became known that the Crocus Expo exhibition complex will become the venue for the international motor show this year instead of the Expo Center. The former organizers of the auto show, ASM Holding and ITE Group Plc, received the status of partners of the exhibition, and Crocus itself is the operator. The Expo Center believes that Crocus obtained the exhibition by offering dumping prices to participants.

Executive Director of the Association of Automobile Manufacturers of Russia (AAR), Igor Korovkin, said that the AAR has confirmed the international status of the auto show at Crocus Expo, of which an official notification has been sent to the International Automobile Manufacturers Association (OICA). And the director of the auto exhibition at Crocus Expo, Pyotr Kirchev, said that the space at the 2006 Motor Show was purchased 100%. According to him, the convenient timing of the Russian auto show (from August 30 to September 10 in even years, when it does not overlap with the Frankfurt Motor Show) and the participation of all the largest Russian and foreign auto companies in it allow us to hope that real world premieres will finally be brought to Russia .

The 2006 Motor Show will be held for the first time according to the scheme adopted at international motor shows. In the first two days, August 30 and 31, the exhibition will be open only to the press, on September 1 - for dealers, and from September 2 it will be open to everyone and will run throughout the weekend of September 2, 3 and 9, 10. The exposition will occupy 90 thousand square meters. m (the Expocenter had 60 thousand sq. m) and will be divided into two parts - cars and auto components. There will also be two programs - public and business. Free parking with 15 thousand spaces is planned to be expanded by summer. Free buses will run from the metro to Crocus.

Let us remember that a year ago the OAR voted to move the Moscow auto show from the Expo Center outside the Moscow Ring Road to Crocus Expo, and this position was conveyed to the OICA. Automakers were not satisfied with Expocentre's too high prices (€250 per 1 sq. m) and the low quality of services. Around the same time, the car dealership was included in the consolidated plan of events of the Ministry of Industry and Energy that benefit from state support. By order of the ministry, an exhibition organizing committee (mainly consisting of officials) and a working group were created, which in September held a tender for the right to become the operator of the exhibition. The winner was ASM Holding, which proposed to hold a motor show at the Expocenter. However, almost all Russian and foreign automakers have stated that they will exhibit at Crocus, regardless of the status of the exhibition.

And yesterday ASM-Holding announced that it had agreed with Crocus Expo to hold the 2006 Motor Show. Those few organizations that submitted applications to ASM Holding for space in the Expo Center were offered places in Crocus. According to the head of the board of directors of ASM Holding, Alexander Kovrigin, his company, as an official partner of Crocus, will receive 15-20% of the space in the auto components section for subsequent rental to exhibition participants. Petr Kirchev clarified that both ASM-Holding and ITE act as contractors and were given some of the places in the business section of the exhibition. But their prices for participants will be the same as those of Crocus: ASM-Holding and ITE will receive discounts as wholesalers.

The Expocentre believes that they lost the car show due to the fault of the organizer, ASM Holding. “When the Expo Center itself organizes exhibitions, it is responsible for every little detail,” assures the head of the Expo-Advertising company, Vladimir Gubernatorov. According to him, Expocenter will not suffer financially from the loss of the car showroom; other exhibitions are already planned for this period. The management of the Expo Center also stated that after the tender they offered a compromise: to hold the car show on two sites at once. “But our opponents achieved their goal with dumping prices. Whether this is good or bad, time will tell,” the Expo Center believes. The Ministry of Industry and Energy only noted that the competition for the right to host a car show was organized not on the initiative of the ministry, but only with its support - the UAR has the right to make the final decision on this matter.

EKATERINA YEMELYANOVA

Automakers have chosen their parking space