Educational fairs as a form of promotion of higher education institutions

The upcoming decline in birth rates combined with increasing numbers of high school leavers deciding to studv abroad force Polish universities to engage in intense marketing activities. Educational Fairs are one of the instruments allowing for effective communication with future students. However, in order to take full advantage of the participation in educational fail's, universities need to be well prepared by applying the rules of exhibition marketing and taking into account the specific character of education-oriented exhibition events. The main goal of this paper is to identify the characteristic features of educational fairs. A good understanding of the character of educational fairs will help universities to significantly improve the effectiveness of exhibition activity. Another crucial factor determining the effectiveness of fair events dedicated to higher education is the behaviour of exhibitors. In view of the above, this paper sets out to define conditions for effective communication with high school leavers on the one hand and to identify typical mistakes made by the exhibition personnel. Additionally, the work offers an overview of educational fans organized in Poland including ways in which they have been impacted by the rise of the Internet. Event marketing as one of the forms of marketing innovation in scientific and research institutions Aneta Olejniczak. Institute of Aviation. The history of marketing events is long. However, despite a fast development of the market, event marketing in Poland and above all in scientific institutions is not as developed as in Western countries. Many institutions don't know what they can really achieve thanks to organizing events. The organization of various events, as well as promoting them both among employees and external recipients is a pan of marketing strategies of many scientific and research institutions. Skillful utilization of the instruments of marketing communication makes it possible to provide the stakeholders with the necessary information about our institutions, it also makes it possible to receive information from the market. Regardless of whether we organize small or big events, we have to remember that to make an event successful, we need to take care of the details. Preparing a detailed schedule of all activities will facilitate work not only for the event manager, but also for all involved in the implementation of the whole event. A well-organized and attractive event will surely be remembered bv the participants and can certainly contribute to the success of an institution. Rules of event organization are described in this article.