Director of destination marketing at Expo 2020 Dubai, Sumathi Ramanathan, said that events showcase technology and innovation that enable people to envision a better future for the planet
SPONSORED
What do broadcast television,
X-ray machines, cellphones, ice cream cones and Heinz Ketchup have in common?
They were all first unveiled at a World Expo, one of the longest-running and
biggest mega-events in the world.
Director of destination
marketing at Expo 2020 Dubai, Sumathi Ramanathan, told delegates at the opening
plenary on the first day of Meetings Africa on February 24 that big events
organisers were all “in the business of connecting people”.
She told delegates from
the meetings, incentives, conventions, and exhibitions industry at this annual
event organised by South Africa Tourism, that events brought people together.
“The power of events is not in the filling of hotel beds and [serving of]
conference meals; events, when they are done properly, actually have a real
purpose and have the ability to touch humanity and individuals,” she said.
The World Expo is held
every five years and attracts four times as many visitors as the Olympics and the
Fifa football world cup, she said. Throughout its 168-year history, World Expos
have “contributed a lot towards humanity” with the unveiling of new inventions.
Ramanathan said the
upcoming Expo 2020 Dubai will run over six months and so far has the confirmed
participation of 192 countries, including all African countries. The Chinese
have confirmed that they will be revealing something very special in terms of artificial
intelligence and big data, and will be looking at a satellite that will enable
them to communicate with extraterrestrials.
“This
might sound far-fetched, but I’m sure in 1970 people didn’t think they would
have a phone they can put in their pockets,” she said. The mobile phone debuted
as a design for the first time at the World Expo in Osaka that year.
Ramanathan said the Dutch
were looking at how to convert mushrooms into building materials and tiles,
while the UK has a “poem pavilion” inspired by physicist and cosmologist
Stephen Hawking. “Before he died, one of the last pieces of research he did was
how we can communicate with extraterrestrials if we are ever to meet them,” she
said. At the UK’s pavilion at the Expo 2020 Dubai, visitors can type in any
word they like in any language, and a user-generated poem in that language will
be transmitted into outer space.
“It’s about showcasing
technology and innovation that will actually enable people to envision a better
future for the planet, and for humanity,” she said.
The economic impact is
also crucial. Expo 2020 Dubai is expected to attract 25 million visitors and is
projected to contribute $33-billion to the United Arab Emirates’
economy over a seven-year period, from the time Dubai won the bid to host the
Expo in 2013 until the end of the exhibition, she said. The Al Wasl Plaza that
is being erected for the Expo is set to become a new landmark in Dubai, just as
the Eiffel Tower did when it was erected for the 1889 event in Paris.
Chief officer of the
South African National Convention Bureau and Meetings Africa organiser Amanda
Kotze-Nhlapo encouraged delegates in her opening address to network and “come
together as Africans” and “wow the world”. She said the world was standing at
Africa’s doors, ready to do business. “I don’t understand why people go to
Thailand when you can come to Africa,” she said. “We have the oceans, we have
the mountains — and we also have elephants.”
She said Africa, and in particular Gauteng, was the place where humanity started, with reference to the Cradle of Humankind. “We can sell to the world a better world, a better people, that’s what meetings are about: for us to come together and drink from the fountain of humanity, drink from this source where all innovation starts, because if it wasn’t for people, there wouldn’t be innovation.” — Carien du Plessis