It is impossible to write a column this month without mentioning the opening of Expo 2020 Dubai. The postponement last year is, to me, a blessing in disguise, as it makes this world event coinciding with the Golden Jubilee of the UAE.
I recently celebrated 12 years in this country and I saw it growing, improving and leading in many ways that the rest of the world is green with envy. The expo is a catalyst that represents what the UAE is about.
Being based in Dubai, one is used to associating any project with an adjective ending with ‘est’, such as biggest, largest, tallest… or first. Numbers are mesmerising with 200 participants, a record of 190 countries (note that even some countries were included prior to some political changes that have happened over the last year).
The event, with its new date in 2021, is the first one in the Arab world, exactly 170 years after the first-ever world exhibition was held in London. Some constructions such as the Al Wasl Plaza are as wide as two airbus A380 wing-to-wing, taller than the Pisa Tower and the site is spread over 438 hectares, the exact size of Paris in the 13th century or one current neighbourhood district of Manhattan. 300,000 volunteers share this tremendous and unique experience and become part of this story telling that they will keep alive to their children and grand-children. Needless to underline the hard work of up to 40,000 workers who have made possible this great event to happen.
So we ought to carry on a long list of superlatives but beside being the largest, the biggest expo ever, it is by far the smartest.
When Dubai won the bid in November 2013, the project was carrying a vision dear to the ruler of Dubai: showing what next with the themes of Connecting Minds, Creating the Future. It is a fundamental part of the DNA of the UAE to work hard on, not only anticipating the future, but immediately working and making it to paraphrase HH Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum.
What the Expo showcases is a brilliant example of a positive universalism. Not the ugly globalisation what tend to erase individualism but an ode to a different and distinctive identity of the human kind. It proves as well that in a challenging world, one can be inclusive, understanding and welcoming to its neighbours’differences.
With a strong focus on new technologies, Expo 2020 Dubai will demonstrate that one should not be afraid of the future, but embrace it. The world expo was the birthplace of many new technologies in the past… from the first washing machine (1862), typewriter (1876), phonograph (1878), X-ray machine (1904), nylon or even the mobile phone in Osaka in 1971.
When I mean inclusive and smart, I should also mention this brilliant initiative called ‘Expo Live’. $100,000 was granted to people anywhere in the world working on solutions to improve lives (140 projects over 70 countries). Sustainability is also effective on the ground of the event with 4 gigawatt hours of alternative energy that is produced (enough to charge 900,000 mobile phones).
Finally, the true success of an Expo is not only the six months of its public activitation, it is definitively its legacy. A vast majority of the buildings will be reused, making the site an example of past sites that turned into ghost towns and the future ones like Osaka in 2025 whose theme is ‘Designing Future Societies for Our Lives’.
Dubai has thought it all through already as the Expo 2020 is part of the UAE’s 2071 Centennial Plan. Who can do better than next?