Tips on getting a high quality conference

TALLINN - According to Maive Kose-Petrov, from Incoming and Conference Department at Reisiekspert Ltd., the conference organizing business seems to be growing not only in Estonia, but in all the Baltic States. Kose-Petrov said she sees big growth and fast development of this industry in the future.

“Regarding the future, what we see is an increase of international conferences to be held in Estonia and the Baltic region due to the fact that the Baltic States are still a new and affordable destination for many people and organizations.”
Kose-Petrov said that competition between other companies offering conference services in Estonia exists, which she finds useful as, due to high competition, the quality of work and services will increase.

“Competition between the companies is only good and makes us put even more effort into our work and think of new solutions and ideas, making the seminars/conferences attractive first to the organizers, and then to the participants,” Kose-Petrov said. “Reisiekspert has been offering services as a professional conference organizer (PCO) since 1996, and Conference Expert is their brand name for these services. Conference Expert helps our clients to organize their conferences, conventions or seminars in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania.

Kose-Petrov said that organizers need to offer full conference services, a wide range of help in project management, documentation and marketing, venue selection and management, accommodation and catering, social programs, entertainment and all other conference services, to entertain the broadest customer market.
Kose-Petrov said that their company offers affordable prices in comparison with other companies offering the same services. She also pointed out that one of the most important factors in this business is professionalism and a good knowledge of the business.

According to her, having long-term experience in arranging conferences and seminars Conference Expert can assist with its knowledge already in the very first stage of planning of its clients’ events.” Conference Expert is a Professional Conference Organizer. Thanks to our collaborating partners and competitive prices we can offer to our clients the best solutions. Our advantage in the field of conference arrangements is professionalism and complexity of services.

“We offer our services as conference organizer and service provider. Having shifted all details of practical arrangements to us, our clients can focus on actual content of the event. According to our clients’ expectations and specifications we find and book the necessary conference rooms, furnished with necessary presentation and translation equipment. Our database of conference venues includes locations that we truly can recommend to our customers. Reisiekspert has contract rates in hundreds of hotels in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Russia, Ukraine, Scandinavia, elsewhere in Europe and in many leisure destinations like Bali/Indonesia, Malaysia, Kenya, Mauritius, Maledives.”

According to the company, it arranges correspondence with delegates and speakers to agree translating, copying and printing of conference materials and arranges all necessary equipment matters. “We provide catering services according to a client’s wishes during the conference, at receptions and other events related to the conference. Among other services, we organize pre-tours and post-tours in surrounding countries, offer sightseeing to locations that may be of professional interest to our clients, we also arrange extra incentive tours, or simply provide theatre or concert tickets to a show that will entertain our clients.”

According to the management of Bonnier Group, the main topics of their seminars and conferences are law, accounting, management and marketing. “Estonia has a number of conferences every year. The first conference took place 10 years ago. Our objective is to expand our operations and become more effective in consistently organizing high-quality seminars for our customers.

Conferences like Gazelle, Security and IT Security, Tourism, Finance, Construction and Real Estate, Service Quality, Insurance, Development conferences in counties, Business Plan are major conferences every year. Additionally there are a few smaller seminars per month. We use a wide range of topics to cover different economic sectors and provide varied and useful information to the audience. We have had high-level keynote speakers in our conferences. Besides Estonian prime minister and other public figures, we have had Bill Clinton as a keynote speaker in Economy Forum in 2002.

The Seminar and Conference Department of Aripaev employs seven project managers who organize seminars and conferences, one project manager who deals with advertisements and advertisers, an assistant and the head of department. We are one of the largest seminar and conference organizers in Estonia. Our goal is to organize 5 to 6 major conferences each year and 6 smaller seminars per month during our 11-month season,” says Anders Eriksson from Bonnier Group.

According to Hotel Hermes management, they offer their customers conference services with the best prices. “We provide conference facilities ranging from 10 seats to 400 seats. The price of the auditoriums includes the use of a paper board and graphic projector. Moreover, the clients can order a computer with a printer, a DATA-projector, an LCD screen with a graphic projector, equipment for simultaneous interpreting, a video system, a video camera, a TV set, a graphic projector, a slide projector, a convex monitor, a monitor with a tripod or a small monitor and so on.

At training events and conferences clients can order coffee break services and soft drinks to be served in the auditoriums. We also offer our clients lunches and dinners, and they may organize a banquet to end the conference,” says the manager of the hotel. “Hotel Hermes is an ideal place to organize several day training sessions: we offer a full range of services – accommodation, catering and conference services. Our affordable prices give us a good competitive edge.”