Author: Catarina Esteves, Director of Marketing and Operations
This month, we're changing gears and switching up the style of blogs we usually bring you. Instead, I am giving you a first-hand account of what was Expo 2020 in Dubai that ended on this past 31st of March.
When we travel to Dubai, it is usually for business and the agenda is often fully packed with meetings with clientes and partners. However, when I boarded the plane on Sunday the 20th May, I was hoping I would have at least a day free day to explore Expo.
We combined our trip to Dubai with GISEC Global, a leading cybersecurity conference - https://www.gisec.ae/home. So after three intense days visiting stands and catching-up, I managed to sneak out and get full three hours to go and visit Expo. Here's so what I thought:
I wished I had more time!
Three hours were DEFINITELY not enough (not that I actually thought they would suffice)!
I left feeling I should've spent at least a week to ensure I had time to cover all pavilions, even those with over 2 hours of waiting times to enter...
Everything was clean (as expected from Dubai!), organised and the entry process was relatively painless considering the amount of people making their way there every day.
About those waiting times...
Pavilions such as the Korean one, Japan, UAE and Germany had long waiting hours, between 1 to 3 hours in total, so I definitely gave those a skip.
Not only did I not have the time to wait, standing in the sun at over 30º Celsius with little to no shade, would not be something I would put myself through.
Perhaps saving these pavilions for very early in the day or at night could have been better?
Congrats to all the countries for their hard work to present interesting exhibitions
I had time to visit the pavilions of Malaysia, Portugal, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Cuba, and had a blast!
Some were better than others of course, but from this list above I would have to highlight the Saudi Arabia pavilion for the beautiful architecture of their building and their "from the past to the future" exhibition, and the pavilion of Malaysia for their insightful presentation on their precious rainforests and the brilliant effort they make in preserving them for humanity
I also want to give a shout out to the Portuguese pavilion (my home country) - I thought they did a beautiful job portraying the diversity of our country and all we have to offer. I even got emotional at some point thinking of home!
Overall, I enjoyed my three hours a lot. In these darker times, it reminded me of the beauty of humanity and how fascinating and diverse our planet is.
So thank you Expo Dubai for an amazing time, I look forward to the next one in Osaka, Japan in just under three years.
About the author
Catarina Esteves leads on all things Marketing at United Channels and is our in-house expert on communications, social media, story-telling for compelling sales pitches and business strategy.
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