Communicating the Benefits of Future World's Fairs: Look to the Past

I had a bit of a revelation today.

I read a lot of news articles about world's fairs -- both past ones as well as proposed ones. Many of these articles feature comments afterwards.  I think I've discovered an interesting pattern, at least in the United States and Canada.

In articles about past world's fairs, people lament that we don't have events like those anymore -- ones that bring a community together with a shared purpose and to celebrate. Oftentimes, people will mistakenly says something along the lines of "It's a shame they don't have world's fairs anymore." Sometimes you'll get the sentiment that people had more vision in the past and that we should be grateful for what was left behind.

In articles about proposed future world's fairs, comments tend to concentrate on the cost of the events: how we can't afford to have these events or that it would end badly with cost overruns and the like. Sometimes, oddly, they talk about how we should concentrate on creating infrastructure instead -- forgetting (or not realizing) that world's fairs are a good way to create civic buildings, transportation options, or even totally new communities.

How does this add up in my mind? Well, I'm still trying to figure it out, but we seem to think that we can no longer do what our predecessors did. We don't seem to think that it's appropriate to dream about possibilities in our communities.

In some ways, we think that dreaming is for "other countries" now. If we really believe that, then sadly, it will become true.

So, what can we do about it? We need to get more people to understand how we benefit, every day, from these events in the past -- not just physical infrastructure, but also world's fairs' immaterial benefits to a community. We then need to communicate that we can STILL do this today.

Ekaterinburg's Expo 2020 In Trouble?

It's been interesting to see the movement against Sochi, Russia's 2014 Winter Olympics start to focus on the 2018 FIFA World Cup... and now to the Ekaterinburg, Russia's bid to host Expo 2020: a world's fair with the theme of "The Global Mind." The Expo 2020 bid is mentioned in Monday's New York Times article, but what's NOT mentioned is that there are two other cities (in addition to Ekaterinburg, Russia and Dubai, UAE) that are bidding for Expo 2020: Izmir, Turkey and Sao Paulo, Brazil.

It's been my impression from talking to insiders that Ekaterinburg and Dubai had the best chances at winning, but I wonder if many countries will start looking at the Izmir and Sao Paulo bids with renewed eyes.

The decision on who will host Expo 2020 will be made in November. Delegates from the 167 member nations of the Bureau International des Expositions (BIE) will vote in Paris.

So far, Expo 2015's confirmed participants represent 86% of the world's population. I put this map together tonight to show the countries that haven't confirmed yet. The ones with percentages are countries who represent more than 0.5% of the world's population:

- United States, 4.46%
- Philippines, 1.38%
- United Kingdom, 0.89%
- South Africa, 0.75%
- Ukraine, 0.64%
- Poland, 0.54%
- Canada, 0.50%

Expo 2015 opens in 652 days. I hope we don't have a repeat of Expo 2010's United States Pavilion, which was put together at the last minute... or worse, a repeat of Expo 2000's United States Pavilion which was canceled.

We need to find a way to do this better here in the United States. We need an ongoing organization dedicated specifically to fund and authorize our participation in world's fairs.

Astana, Give Me an "A!"

I was rather fond of the existing Expo 2017 bid logo, but apparently there are plans to use a different logo for the event itself. They've narrowed down the designs to seven.

My personal favorite is the fifth one, a stylized "A." I think it's unique, addresses the theme in a broad way and feels appropriate for Kazakhstan and Central Asia in general.

The first one, to me, is a little too "on the nose" for an energy theme and seems to limit the theme to a narrower definition of "energy."

The second and fourth ones are pleasant, but I could see both used for lots of uses. They seems very generic. Is it a world's fair? A software company? A shipping company?

The third one is just too obvious and relies too much on an overdone typographic trick.

The sixth one is a bit too simple for my tastes... and also looks very much like Aichi, Japan's Expo 2005 logo.

The seventh one is nice, too, but again, I think it seems to narrow the theme too much a specific definition of "energy." It would make an excellent solar power company logo, however.

You can vote here:
http://www.expo2017astana.com/ru/voting/

“Where’s the Fair?” Reminds Us What We’ve Lost in Recent Decades

In 1983, when I was sixteen years old, I would try to seek out everything I could about world’s fairs and their history. I’d gone to the 1982 World’s Fair in Knoxville the previous year. I knew it was, in the grand scheme of things, a smallish version of the medium, but I’d gotten a taste and I wanted more.

I imagined how the medium could be made better… and saw examples or when it really reached its full potential… like in 1939 in New York, 1958 in Brussels, 1967 in Montreal, or 1970 in Osaka. I longed to see a full-fledged expo, and be a part of one.

As I was poring over my worn copy of the 1982 World’s Fair Guidebook at that age, I ran across two items that would keep me connected to world’s fairs throughout my life: an ad for Alfred Heller’s (now defunct) World’s Fair magazine and a feature showing two poster images that were available for purchase. I immediately ordered both.

Designed by New York-based designer Leonard Levitan, one poster featured a montage of world’s fair landmarks from 1851 to 1982. The other had souvenirs from expos of the same time period. I guess you could say I was a weird kid because I had them tacked up on my bedroom wall throughout high school and on my dorm room wall in college. Thirty years later, they’re in nice frames and still on my wall.

Why do I mention these posters? Well, to many Americans, this is perhaps how they see World’s Fairs. They might as well have an epitaph that says “1851 – 1982” on them.

Filmmaker Jerry Ford was one of those Americans who assumed expos were a think of the past until he chanced upon a collection of old world’s fair View-Masters. That experience spurred the creation of a documentary that debuted this past month at the Cape Fear Film Festival.

In the documentary, he goes step-by-step talking about the different issues involved: Why we don’t have world’s fair in the United States anymore, why we sometimes don’t have a pavilion at foreign world’s fairs, and why the ones we have created in recent decades have been rushed, mostly uninspired, and clouded by an opaque process. What does this say about the United States as a country?

The filmmakers are currently looking for distribution. A trailer for the film can be found at: WheresTheFair.com and their Facebook page is at https://www.facebook.com/WheresTheFair.

For those interested, I also wrote a bit more about the film on the BIE's web site.

The Current State of World's Fairs in the United States

In my second article in the Bureau International des Expositions' blog, I talk about the current state of world's fairs in the United States.

http://www.bie-paris.org/site/en/bie-blog/entry/the-current-state-of-expos-in-north-america

Dispatch from Milan: Expo 2015's International Participants Meeting

Expo 2015, the next world's fair, is 923 days away, but from what I've gotten to witness here in Milan, folks are busy as if it were sooner. It's a testament to just how much there is to do in creating a world's fair.

This week, Milan has played host to over 1000 international visitors (from 100+ countries) in Expo 2015's International Participants Meeting. This is the first time I've had the opportunity to witness the organization of a large-scale exposition in person.


PARTICIPATING NATIONS

At this stage, countries are still signing on (it just hit 100... and Iraq is the most recent addition). Since many developing nations have their participation subsidized by the Expo authority, the list includes many of these, but I've also noticed another trend: Countries that are bidding for future world's fairs also feature prominently. Unfortunately, many larger countries have not officially signed on, but I suspect they will soon. The United States, notably, has unofficially said we're here, but there has been no official agreement yet. Also absent, so far, is the entire English-speaking world. I suspect that will change in the coming year.


CLUSTERS

In our recent World's Fair Podcast, we spoke with Stefano Gatti, the director of international affairs and he did a fantastic job describing one noteworthy distinction of Expo 2015: Smaller and developing nations, which in the past would typically be grouped by geography, will now be grouped based on an association with a food theme. Those themes (Fruits and Legumes, Spices, Bio-Mediterraneum, Arid Zones, Rice, Cocoa, Coffee, Cereals and Tubers, and Islands) will be developed in clusters of countries, often involving countries with no geographical connection.


QUESTIONS

Here are some questions I hope to answer in the coming days:

- Presumably, Expo 2015 will have a mascot. How will this be determined and when?

- How much of a marketing effort will be made to foreign countries? When I talk with Americans about Expo 2015, they're typically interested when they hear that world's fairs still happen... and the next one's in Milan with a food theme. It sells itself... more so than Shanghai's lackluster advertising campaign for Expo 2010 in the United States.

- Corporations have a very low profile here as compared to past ones. There seems to be no plan (or room on the map) for corporate plans. Might that change?

- They expect 130 nations to participate: 60 in self-built pavilions and 70 in the pavilions clusters I mentioned earlier. Is there a plan if more nations wish to participate? The much smaller Expo '98 in Lisbon ran across this problem and had to add more space to accommodate more countries.

- What kind of connection might be made between Expo 2015 and the 100th anniversary celebrations of San Francisco's 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition? 


PHOTOS AND VIDEO

Naturally, I've taken lots of photos and video of this year's International Participants Meeting. I'll be posting those in the near future.