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"The Making of a World Expo" Special Fall/Winter/Spring Essay Series

Milan Expo 2015: "Feeding the Planet, Energy for Life"

     The "World's Fair Express" began in the summer of 2014 as a part of the summer theme "The Art of Progress." Each of the major pages on the site is themed to a particular World's Fair/World Expo, beginning in the City of Light, Paris, in 1889. The path of each of the pages listed in the links above finishes with the last World Expo which was held in China in 2010. All this leads up to the celebration of the next World Expo which will open in Milan, Italy, in May of 2015. Modern World Expos last for six months and attract millions of viewers, but they also have evolved from their World's Fair roots. The Milan Expo will have a very focused theme, "Feeding the Plant, Energy for Life." The essays which will appear on the site between now and may will delve a little deeper into the content of the Expo and how the event will be addressing the theme. The schedule of the articles that will appear through May 2015 is included below.

• November/December 2014 - Introduction to the 2015 Milan World Expo

• January - March 2015 - Monthly Expo-related topics

• April/May 2015 - News of the opening and early reviews of the 2015 Milan World Expo

November/December 2014 Essay

"Feeding the Planet, Energy for Life:"
An Introduction to World's Fairs/World Expos and Expo 2015 in Milan, Italy

     In the official blog for Expo 2015, blogger Urso Chappell said in September that "In 1999, 2004, 2009 and now 2014, I've had the opportunity to experience an Expo city within a year of its debut on the world stage. In all four cases . . . you get the feeling that the city doesn't quite know what to expect just yet. In all four cases, much of what is going to happen in the next year is still a mystery. What is this big event that has been in the planning [and] construction stage for years?" (n1)

     Those unfamiliar with World's Fairs (what the events used to be called) and World Expos (what the events currently are called) might be asking the same question. Like the preparations prior to any large-scale international event, the grounds for the 2015 Expo are still being built. Regular drone flights over the facilities are recording the progress of constructions on the Expo grounds, and an October 27, 2014 drone video, "Belvedere in Citta," can be viewed at www.youtube.com/watch?v=yBwv2nNX6Ds (videos are updated weekly and also may be accessed from the Expo home page). As this year draws to a close, the first in the series of essays on "The Making of a World Expo" will present readers with the basics and background of World's Fair/World Expos in general, and more specifically about Expo 2015. The expo will be held from May 1 - October 31, 2015 in Milan, Italy.

World's Fairs to World Expos: A Brief Background and History

     The first World's Fair, or the Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations, was held in 1851 in London, and the building built to house the event was called the Crystal Palace (pictured below). The Bureau International des Expositions (BIE, www.bie-paris.org), the international governing body for the events, says in its history that upon viewing the 1851 World's Fair, Charles Dickens said, "I'm not saying there's nothing to see, but that there's too much to see." (n2)

     In a time when communications, information technology, foreign travel and transportation were far different than what they are today, the events brought a certain "wow" factor to the millions of those who attended. Visitors to World's Fairs over the years included everyone from Thomas Edison to Walt Disney, and those who went were able to experience foreign cultures (through pavilions and programs developed by each participating country), see the newest in technological innovations, revel in the most modern amusements and view a wide variety of entertainment all in one place. The significance of the World's Fairs was remarkable for the time periods in which they were held, and they often were opened by Presidents or other heads of state. The number of people attending was usually in the millions, even in periods when transportation was much less accessible than today (and the last Expo in Shanghai, China, in 2010 was the best-attended ever, estimated to have been visited by 73 million people).

     For the most part, the early World's Fairs were the product of, and hosted by, the countries of the industrialized Western world. Prior to World War II, only one event was held outside of the United States or Europe, in Melbourne, Australia, in 1880. Since World War II, Expos also have been held in Haiti (1949), Montreal, Canada (1967), Osaka, Japan (1970) and Shanghai, China (2010). Following the 2015 Milan Expo, the 2020 Expo will be the first to be held in the Middle East, in Dubai.

     Party of the difficulty in depicting or discussing World's Fairs is their transitory nature. Though the grounds for World's Fairs were sometimes the size of small cities, the events were largely temporary, with most of the venue(s) dismantled shortly after the conclusion of the event. Though one of the world's best-known landmarks, the Eiffel Tower in Paris, was built as the gateway for the Paris Exposition Universelle in 1889, little remains of most World's Fairs. In the summer of 2014, www.dorothyswebsite.org celebrated the theme "The Art of Progress" through a look at some past World Fairs, and the current pages still contain information, images or links to videos from the events. The video in the introductory page text above is a compilation of images from the 1889 Paris Exposition Universelle; other sections of the site show information from Chicago (1893, Poetry page), New York (1939, Concerts page), Brussels (1959, Site Book Preview page), Seattle (1962, Arts/Special Events page), and Shanghai (2010, About the Site page). Other historical depictions, videos, and information on past events may be viewed on the BIE history page at www.bie-paris.org/site/en/home/history-of-expos. Many early World's Fairs celebrated/commemorated special events in the host country's history: the first U.S. World's Fair in Philadelphia in 1876 celebrated the centennial of American Independence, the 1889 Paris event commemorated the 100th Anniversary of the storming of the Bastille, and the 1904 World's Fair in St. Louis was called the Louisiana Purchase Exposition. Since 1990s, the events have been referred to as World Expos, and they take place every five years for six months.

Modern World Expos and Public Diplomacy

     As times have changed, so have the content and format of the World Expos. World's Fairs began in the Industrial Age when communication, information, transportation and entertainment technologies and practices were much different than they are today. In a world in which information is instantaneous, products and even industries can rise and fall in the five-year period between Expos, and global travel is much more common and widespread, the Expos also have evolved into showcases of public diplomacy and a means of concentrating on issues that effect all of humanity. In an article published prior to the Shanghai Expo and reprinted in the Winter 2010 issue of the USC journal Cultural Diplomacy Magazine, Vincente Gonzalez Loscertales, Secretary General of the BIE, wrote the following:

     "The concept of public diplomacy has always been part of the DNA of these events since their inception . . . Although the concept of an international platform for communication and exchange of industrial developments was in itself new and powerful, governments and cities continued to expand the scope and the contents of [the] early Expos. Originally conceived to promote industry, Expos began to connect cultures and present national achievements in all domains of human activity . . . Today's repositioning of the Expos as a special type of public diplomacy platform is based on the awareness that these events can no longer be the default presentation stage for new products. Product innovation now proceeds at a faster pace than the staging of Expos and communication is becoming more immediate and specialized. People learn about new products from other more flexible platforms and about world cultures and destinations through mobility, television and the Internet . . . Recent Expos have placed greater emphasis on selecting a specific theme as their central core and organizing principle. So, Expos have come to support the dual goals of public diplomacy. On the one hand, Expos represent a key asset for governments and international organizations in their efforts to communicate the major issues at the top of their global agendas. At the same time, the host city and country can serve as a catalyst for bringing global attention to a key issue for humanity . . ." (n3)

     In 2010, one of the most rapidly-growing and dynamic cities in the world, Shanghai, took as the theme for its Expo "Better City, Better Life." (To view an animated GIF of just how much Shanghai has grown and changed in just over a quarter century, visit www.theatlantic.com/infocus/2013/08/26-years-of-growth-Shanghai-then-and-now/100569). For 2015, the Milan Expo will be organized around the theme "Feeding the Planet, Energy for Life." The primary focus of the Expo will be nutrition, more specifically, human nutrition, and exhibits and activities will in many ways be both asking and attempting to answer the question "Is it possible to ensure sufficieint, good, healthy and sustainable food for all mankind?" A video introducing Expo 2015 is included below.

Expo 2015 Milan - "Feeding the Planet, Energy for Life"

     The website for the Milan Expo is www.expo2015.org. Links in the upper right hand corner of the home page allow the viewer to go back and forth between the Italian and English (EN) versions of the site. As said before, the event will take place in the city of Milan, Italy, from May 1 - October 31, 2015. Participants in the event to date will include over 140 countries plus international organizations, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and a number of corporations. The list of participating countries can be found at www.expo2015.org/en/participants/countries. The theme is intended to permeate and be expressed through every aspect of the event, including the physical structure of participant pavilions, the content of programming and presentation of educational, scientific, cultural and "best practices" information, and even the many restaurants, where visitors will be able to sample foods from around the world. The role of women also will be highlighted in thematic content, as it is often women who play crucial roles in managing households and ensuring a family's nutrition as well as handling food production and preparation. In addition to the public spaces, promenades and areas for entertainment (Cirque de Soleil, for example, will be creating a new production specifically for the event), the core of the Expo will be divided into three sections: thematic areas, country pavilions and clusters.

     For those in Southern California who may have attended the 2013 Solar Decathlon in Irvine, the physical layout of the Expo may feel somewhat familiar, just on a larger scale. At the Solar Decathlon, the solar homes were created on either side of one long promenade running through the center of the event, with other exhibition and presentation spaces sitting just outside of or to either side of the core. Similarly, at the Milan Expo, the many country pavilions/national exhibition spaces will be constructed along one long, central boulevard, World Avenue, referred to in much of the Expo documentation as the "Decumanus." A perpendicular axis to the Decumanus, the Cardo, will be where most Italian participants will be located. Clusters will be located both along the Decumanus and areas outside the Decumanus, and the five thematic areas will be located outside the Decumanus, some near important entry/exit points for the event. Some of these features are already identifiable in the drone videos, and most pages on the Expo website provide links to a 3D map of the Expo grounds. The following video provides an introduction to the thematic areas, country pavilions and clusters, which will be explained briefly below.

Thematic Areas: The five thematic areas of the Expo will be areas in which "the unifying narrative thread of the Event will be developed." (n4) They will be: 1) Pavilion Zero, an introductory space situated near the main entrance which will "focus on some of the basic questions raised by the theme, . . . and [look] at the history of mankind through food; (n5) 2) Biodiversity Park, "a huge garden spread over 14,000 square meters" (n6) using greenhouses arranged in blocks to "show the different forms of life on all levels, from genetic diversity to various types of ecosystems;" (n7) 3) Children's Park, 4) Arts and Foods, an area including a variety of art forms "exploring the relationship humans have had throughout history with food as an object of symbolic reflections;" (n8) and 5) The Future Food District. The Future Food District will "allow visitors . . . to understand how the food chain will work in the future. A wide range of information technology will be used to explore food preservation, distribution, purchase and consumption, with particular attention paid to the individual choices of each consumer and how these will impact on commercial and private food provision." (n9)

Country Pavilions: The country pavilions offer each participating nation the "opportunity to express its own particular 'take' on the Expo Theme to an international audience and the global media using the means, methods and formulas that best illustrate its position . . . Each exhibition space is physically composed of a complex system of scientific, artistic and cultural content based on: an architectural setting and an exhibition itinerary, a collection of highlights - discrete units of exhibition content . . . , a programme of entertainment and experiences (especially gastronomic) that could be part of a 'hands-on' nature and part of a larger cultural program, and a digital interface where all the . . . elements are present in the Cyber Expo system." (n10) As an example, the plans for the U.S. pavilion are explained at greater length in the next section.

Clusters: According to the Expo website, clusters will "play an important role at the event, offering an innovative way for countries without their own pavilion to participate in the exhibition in a shared theme. Every country (in a cluster) [will have] its own individual space for presenting its particular characteristics along with a public area which is shared with other countries." (n11) There will be six food-chain oriented clusters focusing on a crop or group of crops, and they will be: rice, cocoa, coffee, cereals and tubers, fruit and legumes, and spices. There also will be three thematic/ecosystem clusters: Bio-Mediterranean, Arid Zones and Islands.

     The explanations above can be expanded upon by visiting the "Explore" and "Learn More" pages of the Expo website. Also, a 88-page pdf of the Expo Theme Guide explaining how the theme will be iterated throughout the Expo grounds can be downloaded from the pdf link on the Expo website page www.expo2015.org/en/learn-more/the-theme, or by going directly to www.expo2015.org/cs/expo/1392228650643.121001_GTM_ENG_R.pdf.

The U.S. Pavilion: American Food 2.0

     As said above, core features of the Expos include pavilions designed and built (in most cases) by individual countries. Over the next few months, more information (and possibly some advance photos) of the pavilions will be included on the site. (To get an idea of the diversity of the pavilions constructed for the Shanghai Expo, see the virtual tour video on the "About the Site" page). The United States will be participating in the Milan Expo with the pavilion/program moniker "American Food 2.0." The pavilion website is www.usapavilion2015.net. According to the program summary, the pavilion will be privately funded through the "Friends of the USA Pavilion Milano 2015," a collaborative effort of the James Beard Foundation, the International Culinary Center and the American Chamber of Commerce in Italy, with a growing list of partners including GE, 3M, DuPont, and many others. (n12) An artist rendering of the USA Pavilion, including a large vertical living wall which will be harvested daily, is available on the website listed above. A link to an "American Food 2.0" video is included below.

     The key objectives for the US Pavilion as outlined in the program brochure are: 1) To showcase U.S. leadership in the global food arena as responsible and diverse, 2) To celebrate our nation's rich agricultural history and regional food cultures, 3) To underscore America's role in advancing food security and sustainability through science, technology, innovation and free trade, 4) To foster awareness of and enthusiasm for American cuisine, chefs, products and purveyors, 5) To highlight American talent, products, ingenuity and entrepreneurship and the U.S. as a premier business and travel destination, 6) To connect people and businesses in the U.S., Italy, and throughout Europe, building on strong historical ties, and 7) To provide a fun, engaging, informative and delicious experience to all. (n13) To accomplish these objectives, American Food 2.0 will include the main pavilion, designed by award-winning architect James Biber, virtual tours showing the path of food from farm to table and beyond, cultural programming, a "food truck nation" in which U.S. food trucks will serve food in Milan during the Expo months while replicas will be constructed at the pavilion to serve iconic American street foods to visitors, social and digital media programming, the James Beard American restaurant (a showcase restaurant which will be located on the Expo grounds separate from the pavilion), a student ambassador program and "Food for Thought," a series of talks, salons, workshops, conferences, hackathons and other gatherings before, during and after the Expo to facilitate conversations about issues confronting the future of food. (n14) The program summary pdf can be downloaded from the "USA Pavilion" link on the pavilion website or by going directly to www.usapavilion2015.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/USAP-Expo-Brochure-10-7-14.pdf. [PLEASE NOTE: AS OF 2015, THIS DOCUMENT IS NO LONGER AVAILABLE ON THE U.S. PAVILION WEBSITE.]

A Work in Progress

     As the information above indicates, Expo 2015 is still a work in progress. In May of this year, the first building accessible to the public, the Expo Gate, opened as a point bridging the city and the Expo grounds. It serves as an information center for the event and as an office for advance ticket sales (tickets also are available online, at a cost of 32 Euros, which at an exchange rate of $1.25 to one Euro works out to about $40 for a ticket valid for one day). As time passes and the grounds continue to spring to life, there will be much more to see and learn about the event. Visit this page again after the start of the new year to continue tracking the progress of preparations for Expo 2015 and to learn in greater detail about some of the global issues involved with the theme "Feeding the Planet, Energy for Life." Happy holidays to all!

FOOTNOTES - The footnotes are indicated in the text in parentheses with the letter "n" and a number. If you click the asterisk at the end of the footnote, it will take you back to the paragraph in which the citation was located.

n1 - Bureau International des Expositions (BIE), BIE/World Expo Blog, viewed online October 2014 at www.bie-paris.org/site/en/bie-blog/expo-world-m. (*)

n2 - Bureau International des Expositions (BIE), BIE History of World Expos, viewed online October 2014 at www.bie-paris.org/site/en/home/history-of-expos. (*)

n3 - Gonzalez Loscartales, Vincente, "Advancing Public Diplomacy Through World Expos," Public Diplomacy Magazine, Issue 3, Winter 2010, pp. 79 - 82. Available online at www.publicdiplomacymagazine.org; viewed October 2014. (*)

n4 - Expo 2015 S.p.A., Theme Guide, Milan, Italy: Expo 2015 S.p.A., September 2012, p. 36. (*)

n5 - Ibid., p. 38. (*)

n6 - Ibid., p. 40. (*)

n7 - Ibid., p. 41. (*)

n8 - Ibid., p. 45. (*)

n9 - Ibid., p. 43. (*)

n10 - Ibid., pp. 71 - 73. (*)

n11 - Expo2015.org website, "Explore/Clusters," viewed online October 2014 at www.expo2015.org/cs/Expo/en/explore/clusters. (*)

n12 - Friends of the USA Pavilion, American Food 2.0: Program Summary, The USA Pavilion at Expo Milano 2015, Milan, Italy: Friends of the USA Pavilion, 2014, p. 6. (*)

n13 - Ibid., p. 2. (*)

n14 - Ibid., p. 4. (*)

LINKS LIST - The list of links external to the website found in the essay.

BIBLIOGRAPHY - The bibliography for the November/December 2015 Essay will be included with the January 2015 essay.

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