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China Welcomes Internet World Expo 2010 |
In an effort to attract youth and those unable to attend the largest fair on the planet in person, the Swedish government and the main organizing unit have decided to take the World Expo online.
“With the Internet World Expo, we will be able to reach audiences who cannot access the fair in the traditional format,” said Staffan Bjorck, Project Director at the Swedish Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The organization responsible for managing the exhibition, the Bureau International des Expositions (BIE), headquartered in Paris, will support the project with $234,000, and the Swedish government is expected to invest a similar amount. It is anticipated that the Internet World Expo will attract more than 100 countries worldwide to register for virtual booths and about 40 million visitors, primarily aged 15 to 24, to the site each day.
“The site will become an encyclopedia of the culture, traditions, and music of various countries,” Bjorck, who is also the Deputy Director of BIE, expressed confidence. “This project will open the exhibition to people around the globe, making it very difficult to tally how many people ‘visit’ the Expo.”
The World Expo is held every five years and lasts for six months. Approximately 22 million visitors attended Expo 2005, which concluded last September in Aichi, Japan. The next fair will take place in Shanghai, China in 2010, with an estimated 70 million visitors expected.
