The Italy Pavilion at Expo Dubai 2020 closes an extraordinary six months of events and initiatives, exceeding 1.6 million in-person visitors and 13 million online accesses from all over the world.
At the first Universal Exposition held in the Arab world, Italy confirmed and reinforced its leadership position in the enlarged Mediterranean, bringing to Dubai’s global platform best practices and projects for the future drawn from its Regions, its companies, and its political, scientific, cultural, and academic institutions.
“Expo Dubai has offered Italy a unique opportunity to promote innovation, technologies, and new practices, to develop technology partnerships, as well as foreign investment opportunities, and international cooperation between companies and academic and scientific organizations,” said the Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Luigi Di Maio, in a video message sent to Italy Pavilion at the close of the Expo Dubai 2020.
On the eve of the closing of the Universal Expo, the Italy Pavilion, a crossroads between tradition and innovation following the theme “Beauty Connects People”, received two important awards: best Pavilion at the UAE Innovates Awards for the most innovative project in the “Best innovation that achieves sustainability” category, and a bronze medal in the awards of the Bureau International des Expositions (BIE) – the Expo’s governance body – for the “best interpretation of the theme”.
The BIE prize rewarded the uniqueness of the Pavilion’s exhibition itinerary whose highlight was the 3D reproduction of Michelangelo’s David, which was admired and reported in all major international and Italian media.
In the last months, the Italy Pavilion had already obtained The Exhibitor Magazine (USA) award for the “Best element in a Pavilion’s exhibition itinerary at Expo Dubai”, again thanks to the reproduction of the statue of David, and the “Best entrepreneurial project of the year” award from the Construction Innovation Awards (UAE).
“Italy leaves Expo 2020 Dubai with its head high, with international honorable mentions and commendations for having shown in its Pavilion its points of excellence in the field of innovation, sustainability, and creativity,” said the Italian Commissioner General for Expo Dubai, Paolo Glisenti.
A high point in our Country’s participation in Expo Dubai was the theme of education, which was the subject of more than 123 initiatives during the 6-month Expo – ranging from labs to international conferences – addressed to students, teachers, and researchers from all over the world.
It is no coincidence that Italy’s legacy in this Expo is focused on the development of education and research projects: the realization of an Arab-Mediterranean campus and an advanced education research center for the digitalization and reconstruction of cultural heritage destroyed or damaged in zones of war, and a research and training campus on food processing. All these projects are already financed through Italy’s National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR).
The Country’s Institutions, including 16 Regions and one autonomous province (the largest number of local authorities ever brought by Italy to an Expo), were key players in the Pavilion’s vast program of activities, which included 150 events with 7,000 participants and over 17 thematic exhibitions set up along the exhibition itinerary.
Companies in particular engaged in more than 4,000 B2B meetings, in partnership with the Italian Trade Agency, while the Italy Pavilion hosted 15 Innovation Talks with 100 speakers, nearly 1000 in-person participants, and 276 delegates from 36 foreign countries, in addition to Italy.
Moreover, through a wide-reading cultural diplomacy effort, Italy brought on the stages of Expo and inside the Pavilion 180 cultural, entertainment, and sports events: 40 large music and dance shows; 22 Forums, workshops, and meet&greet events with sports champions, including Italian medalists at Tokyo 2020 and the Beijing Winter Olympics; 16 theatre performances; 56 concerts with 23 artists in the weekends dedicated to the public of Expo in “Piazza Italia” and approximately 30 screenings of auteur films.
