Dubai: Escalators. Diesel engines. Ferris wheels. Talking films. Edible ice-cream cones. Telephone. Commercial typewriter. Heinz Tomato Ketchup. Mobile phones. The Eiffel Tower. The Atomium.
What do these all have in common? The list above includes seemingly unrelated items yet they are, in fact, very related in nature. They are all products of man’s ingenuity which debuted in a global audience called the World Expo.
Since 1851 when the first World Expo was held in London to the most recent Expo held in Shanghai, China in 2010, World Expos have delivered a long list of technological breakthroughs and ideas for the socio-cultural realities of their time.
Now that the World Expo is coming to Dubai in 2020, Gulf News spoke to Expo historian, writer, and consultant Urso Chappell from the United States on how the Expo seven years from now will help shape the world during our lifetime and for generations to come.
Chappell said the thrust of this global meeting of visitors, participants, and great thinkers has gone beyond introducing a particular invention to a global audience but more on establishing partnerships and connections for the global good.
“As expos have progressed over time, they’ve become more of a showcase for ideas and forums for less material forms of progress. It’s no longer as much about the latest technology, but about advancing concepts such as progress and international dialogue,” Chappell, who has been attending and chronicling world fairs since 1982, told Gulf News.
“As a planet, we’ve come to realise that real progress happens when there is dialogue between people and all are given respect. I think that’s the true power of the world’s fair in the last half-century,” he added.
Having physical structures designed specifically for the Expo is good at one point but shouldn’t be the ultimate goal of future World’s Expos.
“It’s great to have physical benefits from an Expo, but I sometimes think that’s an overemphasised benefit of events such as these. Cities can build them without having them attached to a large public event, but they take on additional meaning in the hearts and minds of the population when they’re associated with a large grand undertaking such as an Expo,” Chappell explained.
“They take on an even greater significance simply because they’re part of mass undertaking: they become imbued with the ideas and ideals of the Expo.”
Hence, while physical items or structures left behind by an Expo are the most concrete examples of an Expo legacy, Chappell said that judging from past examples, an Expo’s legacy lies on its being an important national event that holds untold dividends in the future. One of which is critical thinking.
Chappell said World Expos foster convergence of ideas-- on the steps to achieve that so-called Utopia—among its audiences.
“World Expos inspire people, particularly younger people, to see outside of their everyday lives and question why the world outside can’t be like the idealistic world inside the gates of a world’s fair,” Chappell said.
Dubai’s theme for the Expo, ‘Connecting Minds, Creating the Future,’ sits perfectly with Chappell because, he said, it allows for a great many different ways of interpretation.
“I think that [theme] leads to the kind of dialogue we like to see at an Expo. We can see the advances of technology in our day to day lives, but it really takes an event like this to explore the greater ideas and concepts that we wrestle with in the contemporary world,” Chappell said.
“It is my sincere hope that, the city, nation, and region will use it [Expo] as an opportunity to connect with people and ideas from other lands and reassess some of its own assumptions. Hosting a world expo is a wonderful opportunity to open up to the larger world.”
And Dubai said it plans to do just that. Since the Expo in Dubai will connect the world fair to new audiences in the Middle East, North Africa, and South Asia (Menasa) region for the first time, it aims to address many of the world’s global challenges.
Three of these are Mobility, Sustainability, and Opportunity, the Expo’s subthemes, which will continue to be relevant in the years to come as global space shrinks and resources dwindle through time. Participating countries will be challenged to find a way to address these themes and showcase them to the world.
For example, Expo participants will have to collaborate and come up with answers to enhancing the flow of people and goods through smart systems; to improving access to water and energy and effectively manage existing resources; and to tackling new ways to promote the flow of intellectual and financial capital.
But all resulting bright ideas shouldn’t just be on paper or developed within the walls of the Expo. They should translate into something doable for the real world outside — a checklist countries can challenge and implement.
“An exposition shouldn’t just talk about the themes but also demonstrate them in real life. An expo site becomes an experiment: a microcosm of the world as a whole. If we can find ways to address an issue in that microcosm, it becomes easier to imagine how we can do it in the world outside the gates,” Chappell said.
One way to see this, Chappell explained, is through the ripple effects an Expo will have on a city, a country and its neighbouring countries in the region. For Chappell, Dubai’s ‘can do and can excel’ track record has been proven to the world. But the emirate has to spark the same spirit in the region to keep everyone right on track.
“Dubai captures the attention of the whole world as being a city that is very much about the present and about the possibilities of the future. In some ways, though, the region is seen as one that needs to “catch up” with the rest of the world,” Chappell stressed.
Dubai over the next seven years will have its biggest opportunity to as a host city and nation to explore the different ways to present and open itself to the world. But once the Expo begins in October 2020, tables will turn.
“Once the Expo opens, the dynamic will change. When opening day happens, the host city and region becomes the audience and the invited nations of the world become the hosts,” Chappell said.
