Expo 2020 Dubai: one year to go. How will we talk about Poland?

By the decision of the World Exhibitions Office, Expo 2020 in Dubai has been postponed for a year and will last from October 2021 to April 2022. However, the preparations are not losing momentum, all the countries have maintained their declaration of participation in this, the largest promotional and economic event in the world, and most of the infrastructure prepared for Expo 2020 Dubai will be ready by the end of this year.

– We have been working very intensively over the last few months, on the composition of the visitor’s path and what our gusts will experience in the Poland Pavilion. The concept, which has been approved by the Ministry of Development, is the result of the work of many teams – creators, architects, artists, representatives of institutions and substantive partners. All of whom, I wish to thank you very much for their efforts. Creating a universal and original story about Poland, that will engage a foreign, culturally diverse audience, is a great challenge. I am convinced that the effect will be spectacular and that the Poland Pavilion at Expo 2020 Dubai, will become the basis for building a message about our country, on the international arena, not only in the context of the next World Exhibition – says Adrian Malinowski, the General Commissioner of the Polish Section of the World Exhibition Expo 2020 in Dubai.

Poland’s preparations for participation in Expo 2020 Dubai are entering a key phase. The WXCA studio, is responsible for the architectural and thematic concept of the Poland Pavilion. The construction is being carried out by a consortium of, Międzynarodowe Targi Poznańskie and FM Aldentro. The narrative concept as well as the comprehensive experience of the Poland Pavilion was prepared by the consortium of Science Now, Stellar Fireworks and Tellart.

The creators of the exhibition assume that every experience, interaction or contact, with the content within the Pavilion, should be an opportunity to present how inspiration from nature, but also its richness, thanks to human creativity and the ability to cooperate, leads to the creation of specific products, which then translate into  economic success and international expansion.

– The narrative chapters provide a series of compelling and positive associations with Poland manifested in the exhibition content, form and emotions. We will present a modern and dynamic country that is ambitiously developing new areas of economy, science, culture and tourism.  The key messages and experience of the pavilion create opportunities to achieve wide-ranging communication goals and establish a modern platform for exciting storytelling about contemporary Poland – say Jan Pomierny, Łukasz Alwast and Nick Scappaticci, representing consotrium Science Now, Stellar Fireworks, Tellart.

The content implementing the theme, broken down into thematic paths, will be included in several hundred pieces of multimedia materials, which will form a total coherent, narrative.

The pavilion hosts, will guide visitors through the story of the Poland Pavilion. In this way the experience of the Polish exhibition will be built not only through the multimedia content, but also, while maintaining the principles of sanitary safety, through contact with the Polish hosts. This is way we will manifest our Polish hospitality, introducing the unique advantage of our country, which is our people – open and ready to cooperate with everyone, well educated, creative and always smiling.

The Poland Pavilion will be the result of a collective effort of creators, partners, Polish entrepreneurs and coordinating teams from public administration. Artists, craft workshops, research and development units, content partners and commercial partners will be involved in subsequent phases of work on the exhibition in the Poland Pavilion.

Despite the change of the date of the World Exhibition, the organizers of Expo 2020 Dubai strive to maintain the assumed number of visitors. In order to ensure safety, they are focusing  on the most innovative ways of fighting the spread of the pandemic, including the use of wearable technology devices, a new approach to queuing and recommendations for participants countries regarding the creation of exhibitions in their  pavilions, especially  where there are tactile experiences. The organizers attach great importance to building an online message that will be complementary to that, which will appear in the organizer’s thematic pavilions, as well as in the pavilions of participants. Expo 2020 Dubai will define a new quality of organizing global stationary events, and Poland as an active and outstanding participant of World Exhibitions will be an important link in the process of setting new standards for economic promotion and the building of  a country’s  image on the international arena.

– It is worth emphasizing that the Polish exhibition will be almost entirely non-contact – we are efficiently adapting to the new circumstances, so  through the form of the exhibition, we want to show our innovation and adaptability to new situations, including that created by the COVID-19 pandemic. Both in the work on the narrative of the Pavilion, its multimedia content, as well as in the economic program as in all other areas of our preparations for EXPO 2020, we are  taking into account the epidemiological context - said Adrian Malinowski.

World Expo is a periodic economic, promotional and cultural event, the prestige of which is comparable to the Football World Cup or the Olympic Games. Expo 2020 in Dubai will take place between October 1, 2021 and March 31, 2022 and will be the first World Exhibition to be held in an Arab country. More than 200 countries and organizations will take part in the six-month long event, the slogan of which is „Connecting minds, we create the future”. The organizers estimate that the Dubai Exhibition will be visited by 18 million visitors who will pay 25 million visits.

The decision-making process to change the date of the Exhibition was a multi-stage process. The recommendation of the United Arab Emirates Government and the Expo 2020 Dubai Steering Committee was confirmed by the General Assembly of the World Exhibitions Bureau. 113 countries participating in Expo 2020 took part in the vote.

The main topics of the exhibition recommended by the organizers – sustainable development and mobility – are expanded on  by Poland in three thematic ways, technology, international cooperation and nature. The slogan of the Poland Pavilion is: “Poland. Creativity inspired by nature „. Poland will be presented as a strong center of cooperation which, through the development of science, offers the world sustainable, environmentally friendly technologies inspired by nature.

The goals of Poland’s presence at the Expo in Dubai include both strengthening the image of Poland on the international arena and economic promotion. We assume a multidimensional presentation of technologies and companies, which represent strategic industries, from the point of view of export potential to the Middle East markets, and thus a real increase in business transactions. Poland’s participation in Expo 2020 in Dubai will be a unique promotional context for Polish entrepreneurs struggling with the economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Poland’s participation is accompanied by a wide offer for Polish entrepreneurs who can apply for financial, organizational and promotional support, using Poland’s participation in Expo 2020 in Dubai as an opportunity to build relationships with business partners in the United Arab Emirates and the entire Persian Gulf. In connection with the change of  date of the World Exhibition, the Expo 2020 Dubai team at the Polish Investment and Trade Agency together with the substantive partners of the project are working on updating the offer for entrepreneurs, which was reflected in the update of the new Program Concept submitted to the Council of Ministers.

More information: www.expo.gov.pl