If you plan to start business in the Baltic States, Central and Eastern Europe, Lithuania’s exhibition and congress centre Litexpo is an ideal place to make the first step. Litexpo has the most modern exposition and conference spaces and attracts the most important exhibitions of the Baltic region. Upon arriving at Litexpo you will find yourself among the leaders.

Litexpo is the largest and most modern exhibition and conference centre in the Baltic States. The area of the centre covers 16,6 thousand square meters “under the roof” and open-air grounds cover 13 thousand square meters. This year modernisation of the conference centre has been completed and 11 renewed conference halls in which from 30 to 1800 participants can work opened their door. 

“Our main activity is organisation of exhibition and conference business, we devote all our attention to the improvement of this activity”, speaks Aloyzas Tarvydas, Director of Litexpo. “Recently we have made great investments and have created best conditions for organising international congresses and conferences in the Baltic region”.

This year Litexpo is celebrating its 50 anniversary of organising exhibitions. During the entire period of its activity almost a thousand various exhibitions have been organised there; one fifth of them was held abroad. 

International exhibitions and events

Every year more than 20 various exhibitions are held at Litexpo; the largest part of them are international exhibitions, which contain the component Balt. These are the agriculture, food and packaging industry exhibition AgroBalt, mechanical engineering, industrial equipment, electronics and electrical engineering, measuring control devices and ecology exhibition BaltTechnika, construction and renovation exhibition Resta, transport and logistics, intellectual systems and services of transport TransBaltica, textiles and apparel raw materials, the exhibition of products and innovations Baltijos tekstilė ir oda, the exhibition of shop, hotel, restaurant facilities and gastronomyBaltshop. Balthotel. Baltgastro. Leading companies in Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and other countries participate in these international exhibitions.

Annually Litexpo hosts about 450 different events, which take place during exhibitions and at the time when exhibitions are not held. Some of them are of a really high level, for example, the meeting of NATO Defence Ministers held at Litexpo in 2008. This year Litexpo will be hosting two important events: the international summit meeting of the Baltic Development Forum and the International Internet Management Forum. The International Internet Manage-ment Forum is organised by the United Nations Secretariat. As many as 1,5-2 thousand participants from all over the world will arrive at the Forum. In 2011, it is planned to convene a meeting of the Council of Ministers of the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) and the international art fair Art Vilnius. In 2013 events of Lithuania’s presidency of the European Union are planned to be held.

Litexpo also contributed to Lithuania’s participation in the world exhibition World Expo 2010 in Shanghai. The representatives of the Centre assisted in organising mounting of an exposition, training of the personnel and serving the pavilion, made selection of the guides. 

The period of intensive development

The intensive development of Litexpo began after Lithuania had re-established independence. Since 1996, the area of exhibitions has increased by as much as three times, the number of participants has doubled, and the number of visitors has tripled. After Lithuania became a member of the European Union in 2004, much wider possibilities were raised for developing business. Joining the European Union opened up the competitive Western markets to the companies of the Baltic States. New possibilities set new requirements: more space, flexibility and creativity were needed to meet the needs of the participants.

Litexpo noticed new tendencies – foreign companies paid more and more attention to the exhibitions held therein, and at the same time an increasing need to organise international congresses, conferences, seminars and other events alongside exhibitions or separately from them. Therefore the development and modernisation of Litexpothat has begun is a timely response to new changes in the market of exhibition business”, spoke Aloyzas Tarvydas.

In 2004-2006, a new multifunctional pavilion of exhibitions, congresses and conferences was built. The new pavilion was connected with the former modernised infrastructure and the parking lot, a modern visitor access control system was installed. In 2008-2010, a modern and functional conference centre with its own infrastructure and being able to function independently, was equipped. The conference centre houses 11 modernised and newly equipped halls provided with state-of-the-art conference equipment, a new restau-rant and an open air café, separate cloak-rooms, an information centre and rest zones. Up to 3000 participants can work at the conference centre at a time, the area of the conference halls covers 4100 square metres. A video and audio commutation system installed enables the same image and sound to be transmitted to different halls at the same time. Also, there is a possibility to provide Internet video conferencing services.

The halls of the conference centre can be used for different purposes. For example, the oldest 240-seat conference hall that has preserved the interior of retro style was provided with the most advanced audio and video equipment intended for cinema theatres and with a discussion system, which can be used by as many as 120 participants in the conference at a time. The largest 1800-seat multifunctional hall contains powerful video projectors, has improved acoustics, a mobile professional lighting system, and the eight-channel system of simultaneous translation.

A third stage of the development is also planned during which pavilion 4 is going to be reconstructed and modernised, and to be adapted both to exhibitions and conferences. Also, it is planned to further improve infrastructure, build a 1,6-hectare parking areas for about 1000 motorcars. 

The leader – to the leaders

After completing this development and modernisation project, Litexpo will not only become an absolute leader in organising exhibitions in the Baltic region but will also be a modern centre of international congresses and conferences. It is not only well-equipped areas of expositions and eleven modern conference halls but also well-ordered infrastructure, the convenient approach and the unique landscape that will help assure the position of the leader.

“We invite business people from all countries, from China, in particular, to make use of the possibility to become acquainted with the market of Central Europe, to establish contacts and examine business possibilities. The fact that Lithuania is a small country should not disconcert anyone. Lithuania is a perfect stepping-stone to the markets of the Baltic States, as well as to those of Central, Western and Eastern Europe”, underlined Aloyzas Tarvydas.

He also drew attention to the fact that though Lithuania has lots of Chinese goods, these goods represent China as a manufacturer of cheap and not especially high quality products. “We hope that this is not a full image and we want China to reveal its other side to Lithuania and the entire region”, continued the Head of Litexpo.