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EWI on Expo 2010
A fixture of trade shows and corporate events since 1979, EWI Worldwide has lived up to its name in recent years, taking on the extraordinary challenges of the Olympics and now a world’s fair. Establishing itself in China five years ago, the Livonia, MI-based live-communications agency helped The Coca-Cola Co. create its pavilion for the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. EWI also became one of just two recommended service providers from the United States for the 2010 Expo. We caught up recently with Ben Einer, president of EWI’s international section, and Matt Hubbard, president of EWI’s Exhibit Works division, to get an overview of the challenges and opportunities the company faced working on what has become the largest world’s fair in history. |
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Photos: Manfred H. Vogel - eventPhotography
Exhibitor magazine: How did EWI get involved in Expo 2010?
Matt Hubbard: We first established a presence in China five years ago. We had worked with Coke for the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing. Our team there helped Coke create its Olympic pavilion. We assisted them in developing several interior spaces, while heading up the production and installation of all interior and exterior graphics, signage, exhibits, thematic elements, and interiors. Huge as that was, though, we began to recognize that Expo 2010 might even dwarf the Olympics effort. Some estimate the Chinese may have spent twice as much on the expo as they did on the Olympics.
 Ben Einer: Around that time, China started accepting applications for recommended service providers. This was an absolutely vital designation to get. Exhibitors coming to the expo can use anyone they want. But developing countries, with their smaller budgets, could access hundreds of thousands of dollars in assistance from the Chinese government — if they used approved service suppliers. With some of the countries we worked with, that aid amounted to $650,000. But, again, you could only get this help if you worked with a recommended service provider. It was a way for the Chinese to exert quality control on the pavilions they assisted with.
MH: The process itself was grueling. The amount of documentation was nearly an inch thick by the time we were done. It was amazing. We deal with RFPs at Fortune 500 and Fortune 100 companies, but the Chinese were painstaking in making you document your experience creating programs that were of the scale and sophistication they wanted. Overall, the process took almost five months. We even put together designs and creative scenarios to show what we were capable of. Tough as it was, it was worth it: By asking for the most from us, the certiification process brought out our best.
EM: What projects was EWI involved in at the expo?
MH: We worked on several pavilions: Germany, Colombia, Belarus, the World Wide Fund for Nature, the International Council of Museums (ICOM), and a polar exhbit in the European Union’s and Belgium’s pavilon. We worked with several other agencies on these, such as the Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology and Nussli (Deutschland) GmbH, which installed the German pavilion. We were also the general contractor for the Belarus pavilion, and provided design support for the Colombian pavilion, then ended up also doing the interior finish-out and some exterior branding.
 EM: Was working with exhibitors at Expo 2010 similar to working with exhibitors at trade shows?
BE: They’re certainly similar in that you have the ever-present deadlines. But they’re dissimilar in some significant ways, too. Because these pavilions are outdoors, you’re forced to meet every one of Shanghai’s building codes. You know how, for instance, you have to get your floor plan approved and height restrictions and the like dealt with for an exhibit at a regular trade show? Well, here you have those basic problems and on top of all that you have to address how the pavilion will stand up to winds, earthquakes, and fire. You’ve also got to provide samples of all your materials and, depending where they came from, you have to have them tested in private labs to make sure they’ll meet China’s fireproofing standards. The process was long and the paperwork was longer. I mean, the red tape had red tape.
MH: Expo 2010 and trade shows are much more similar in terms of content. In both, exhibitors have the same goal: to tell a story clearly and coherently. Here that story was to create, as the Expo 2010 theme put it, a “Better City, Better Life.” Almost every pavilion used leading-edge video and presentation technologies — like augmented reality. But just like trade shows, some use technology for technology’s sake while others used their stories to drive the technology. The best exhibitors at Expo 2010 are no different than the best at any trade show: those who find a way to tell their stories with a strong sense of clarity and purpose.
EM: Can you give us an example?
 BE: In helping Germany tell its story, you could do a quick take, or dive down deep into it. In the section of its pavilion called the Energy Source, visitors would see a huge sphere covered with 400,000 LEDs. Now the sphere’s movements and images are activated by the visitors, who can then watch a story of diversity and contrasts about the country. In essence, the visitors choose their own adventure by controlling the amount of info they want to take in. They don’t have to be a passive receiver of one-size-fits-all presentations.
MH: The Chilean pavilion was one of the best at this. There’s a point where you walk between the walls of a sphere. In the center of it, there are four video screens showing people reaching out and touching the screen, as if they were on the inside looking and reaching out. You can see hundreds of visitor around you experiencing this and their first instinct is to reach out and touch back. It wasn’t a Chamber of Commerce video or an industrial film, but a purely human one. Maybe I’m a sap for that, but it was an emotional hook that drew you in. As an industry, trade shows have gotten away from that emotional element. They don’t take the risks to create these emotional experiences.
EM: That makes it sound like the large pavilions with even larger budgets have the advantage over smaller ones.
 BE: Not at all. There are a lot of great small exhibits which were successful because they focused on telling a story well. Luxembourg’s pavilion looks like a modernist castle surrounded by medieval-like towers and a small forest of greenery. It has a fairytale look but it’s made from recyclable steel, wood, and glass — so right there you have the Green “Better City, Better Life” story told in architecture. Inside, you can chat with people from Luxembourg through satellite video link and feel that ”It’s a small world” connection between people.
The World Wide Fund for Nature pavilion, which we helped design and fabricate, was relatively small but packed a tremendous impact as well. Its exterior and interior walls are decorated with giant children’s drawings, which interpret the exhibition’s ecological theme. Inside, we used the traditional Chinese elements of tai chi and yin/yang as well as a two-meter-diameter fish tank to help tell the story about reintroducing the sturgeon back to Chinese waters. Even with a small budget relative to others, it makes a distinct impression.
MH: Monaco has a small pavilion, but they did something from out of left field. They had a CGI video telling the story of that country going back to the Dark Ages, then took it forward to what Monaco might look like far in the future 1,000 years from now. It was an unexpectedly thoughtful look at itself from a country mostly known for its gambling and royalty.
EM: What practices did you see at Expo 2010 that were influenced by trade shows?
 BE: Telling a story. You know how in a trade show something will attract you in and get you to linger? Exhibitors at Expo had the same desire to make people come in and stay. It's universal to exhibiting, whether it's China or Chicago.
MH: You also have an interesting mix of B2B and B2C marketing. Most pavilions have VIP areas where they promote their economic interests to government and corporate officials, and business gets done. Columbia, for example, has a deck/patio that overlooks the United States pavilion.
BE: They also have an excellent coffee shop on the ground floor and serve it, of course, in the VIP area as well, to demonstrate one of their most popular exports.
MH: Monaco has a VIP area that felt like it was the Peninulsa Hotel, with elegant art on the wall and servcie like a five-star restaurant. I guess you do that when you have a country with kings and queens.
EM: What was the toughest challenge of working on Expo 2010?
BE: Bureaucracy. The rules can — and sometimes do — change every day, but the communication hurdles are even more taxing. We had a Chinese crew, and project managers from Switzerland, Germany, Canada, and the United States. You know how great the difference in language just between Americans, Canadians, and the British can be? Well imagine it in country where the mother tongue is incomprehensible to many of us. You had to reiterate every verbal communication in written form to avoid disaster. It created a massive amount of extra work, but it had to be done because you only get one shot to get it right at Expo 2010.
 MH: For sure. The language barrier affected how we told stories. We tended to use as many images as possible and ambient sound for effects that reinforced what we were trying to communicate. When you did use language, such as for graphics, you used three: Chinese, English, and that of the pavilion you were in, such as German for the Germany pavilion. For many interactive displays, you gave users the choice of selecting a particular language.
EM: If there's one lesson exhibit and event professionals should take away from Expo 2010, what would it be?
MH: Have a sense of purpose in telling your story. Expo 2010 is the place to come to see how it's done. This is the place where they show you how to draw a line in the sand and say, "This is the story we want to tell” and not fritter the opportunity away. That's why 50 years from now, people will remember these exhibits.
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