One-year countdown to Dubai Expo starts today
World-leading innovations to draw 25 million to Dubai ▶ ‘Greatest show on Earth’ aims to transform lives and inspire entrepreneurs
The one-year countdown to Expo 2020 Dubai, billed as the greatest show on Earth, begins today.
The global event aims to inspire creative thinkers to transform lives by tackling critical issues ranging from global warming to poverty. Under the banner Connecting Minds, Creating the Future,
more than 190 nations will come together to showcase cutting-edge technologies.
Among the innovations will be a UAE-designed, low-cost wind-up LED light, aimed at revolutionising parts of Africa without access to a regular electricity supply.
“We have targeted off-grid communities in rural areas where people don’t have reliable electricity,” said Omar Mohamed Ghanem, co-founder of the U-Light project. “Now a family that lived with a kerosene lamp or candle can sit with a light at the dinner table.”
The full spectacle of Expo 2020 Dubai will begin on October 20 next year, when leading businesses, universities and scientists will descend on the emirate to soak up the very latest in groundbreaking ideas and design.
Celebrations to mark the oneyear countdown will be held at the Louvre Abu Dhabi today, and in downtown Dubai.
“I am proud of our teams who earned this victory for Dubai with two years of hard work and commitment,” Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, Vice President and Ruler of Dubai, has said. “The event will bring together the world’s greatest minds to discuss how we can shape the future.”
The one-year countdown to Dubai Expo 2020, billed as the greatest show on earth, begins today.
Organisers hope the global meeting of minds will put the Emirates firmly on the map of world-leading innovators.
Under the banner Connecting Minds, Creating the Future,
more than 190 countries will come together to showcase the latest in cutting-edge technology.
The event aims to inspire entrepreneurs as well as transform lives as creative thinkers push to tackle issues ranging from climate change to plastic pollution.
“Our once-in-a-lifetime celebration – the largest event ever staged in the Arab world – is set to welcome millions of visitors,” organisers said.
“They will experience warm Emirati hospitality at its finest, as well as the UAE’s values of inclusion, tolerance and co-operation.
“Expo 2020 aspires to create a meaningful legacy that will benefit generations to come, both locally and globally, spanning everything from innovation and architecture to friendships and business opportunities.”
Expo 2020 Dubai will kick off on October 20 next year, with organisers expecting about 25 million visitors over six months.
World-leading businesses, universities and scientists from Silicon Valley to India’s tech hub, Bengaluru, will descend on the city to soak up its vision and insight.
The first World Expo was held in 1851 at London’s Crystal Palace and was known as The Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations.
It displayed about 100,000 objects, many of which owed their origins to the Industrial Revolution.
Since then, other global fairs have unveiled dozens of groundbreaking inventions that the world now takes for granted.
Alexander Graham Bell first demonstrated his telephone at the Philadelphia World Fair in 1876. And in 1889, Alexandre Gustave Eiffel’s namesake tower was chosen as the monument at the centre of Paris to mark the exhibition’s elaborate entrance.
The most recent Expo, held in Milan, Italy, in 2015, included the launch of solar trees and energy saving elevators.
Next year, organisers will be showcasing wind-up LED lights to transform communities without electricity in Africa, as well as new affordable software allowing blind computer users to better understand what is on the screen in front of them.
Dubai was announced as winner of the bid to hold next year’s event back in 2013.
Hundreds of fireworks filled the sky surrounding Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest tower, as the victory was made public.
Next week, marking the oneyear countdown, even more celebrations are planned.
Live shows will be held at Louvre Abu Dhabi as well as a variety of other entertainment events that will be staged in Downtown Dubai.
“I am proud of our teams who earned this victory for Dubai with two years of hard work, dedication and commitment,” Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, Vice President and Ruler of Dubai, has said.
“The event is one of the largest global gatherings that will bring together the world’s greatest minds to discuss how we can shape the future.”
World-leading businesses from Silicon Valley to India’s tech hub, Bengaluru, will descend on the city
With exactly a year to go before millions of visitors flock to Dubai for Expo 2020, the latest iteration of the global fair serves as a timely reminder of what the world can, and should, look like in the future. The six-month-long event presents a golden opportunity for those who live in the UAE to come together and play an important role in an ambitious project that is both local and global in nature. The expo is also an opportunity to present a different narrative about this region. There are many misconceptions about the Arab world and parts of it are indeed mired in uncertainty as some countries face numerous challenges including war, sectarian strife, terrorism and problems of weak governance. Yet next year’s exposition, the first of its kind in the region, is set to showcase the immense potential the Middle East has to grow and make progress with the right will, vision and enterprising spirit.
We live in a paradoxical world, in which the ideals of globalisation and multilateralism are being tested by opposing forces like ultra-nationalism and nativism. These are knee-jerk responses from some quarters to issues such as interconnectedness and migration. But the trouble with nationalistic movements is that they threaten to dismantle established institutions and norms, have a tendency to look inwards and lure their followers with the promise of returning them to the mythical “good old days”. It is in this context that the role of Expo 2020, with its goals to “create, collaborate and innovate”, cannot be overstated. Since the 1851 Great Exhibition in London, expos have always promised a brighter future made possible by human collaboration.
It was at expos, held every five years, that inventions like the telegraph, television and mobile phone were first put on display. Expo 2020 Dubai aims to inspire entrepreneurs and transform lives as creative thinkers seek to tackle issues such as climate change – under the three pillars of opportunity, mobility and sustainability. But more crucially, it is the overarching theme of the expo – “connecting minds, creating the future” – that will resonate with visitors most. As they rub shoulders with people from other parts of the world, they will, hopefully, take with them the message that international co-operation and ingenuity have never been more important in challenging times.
It is also important to emphasise the role expos play in further enhancing the profiles of the countries they are hosted in. Expo 2010 in Shanghai provided the ideal platform for a rising China to project soft power. Similarly, the UAE will further burnish its reputation on the world stage, as a bulwark of stability in a fluctuating region, whose social compact enabling citizens from 200 countries to co-exist in peace and harmony is a model for societies around the world. It is this wealth of human resources already available in the country that will help make the event a resounding success. Over 80,000 applications have been received to fill more than 30,000 volunteer positions. Given the scale and significance of the event, this will be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to be a part of a great moment in time.