Future is now at Expo 2020 Dubai
Visitors at the Expo 2020 Dubai. Kamal Kassim, Gulf Today
Spotlighting historical figures from the Arab region whose innovations helped navigate the world, Alif - The Mobility Pavilion features larger-than-life, photo-realistic, nine-metre-tall giants of mobility whose discoveries paved the way for today’s technologies. Visitors can explore the concept of mobility, its power and far-reaching influence, and discover the role of Arabs in advancing human exploration. The pavilion journey also looks to the skies, reaching for space and encouraging everyone to explore uncharted territory.
For those keen to explore the smart mobility systems of the future, the Belgium Pavilion sees thinkers and entrepreneurs join forces to create collective vision for the year 2050 based on today’s creative innovations.
Challenging current perspectives of space and movement, the kinetic Korea Pavilion interacts both with its audience and its surroundings, demonstrating how the real world is simulated by virtual reality to move and change.
The Slovakia Pavilion describes the nation’s rapid development and technological growth, particularly in transport. Visitors can explore a hydrogen-powered passenger car, a technology the nation perceives as the fuel of the future.
Meanwhile, the Estonia Pavilion will introduce e-solutions that are part of the people’s daily lives, illustrating how Estonians are digital trailblazers that do nearly everything online. Visitors will also be able to walk under data clouds - a unique feat of interior design.
Inspired by one of the late Professor Stephen Hawking’s final projects, “Breakthrough Message,” the UK Pavilion explores what humanity would communicate to other advanced civilisations, with the opportunity for visitors to add their voice to a continuously changing, collective message. The pavilion also explores everything from the commercialisation of space, to artificial intelligence.
A virtual reality experience of the Black Forest takes centre stage at the Baden-Württemberg Pavilion, where an “Innovation Cloud” - an artificially created blanket of mist - also awaits, as well as the opportunity to greet the Apollo Robot.
Discover how nature and technology can help humanity face challenges at the Belarus Pavilion, which features an interactive “Tree of Mind” installation.
Witness Chinese innovation at its finest at the China Pavilion, which showcases the country’s rich history by artistically integrating Chinese elements with modern technologies. Here, visitors can experience 5G, artificial intelligence and smart travel.
Featuring a giant digitised waterfall and dramatic installations, the DP World Pavilion focuses on how innovation and artificial intelligence are transforming the realities of yesterday into the opportunities of tomorrow.
The ‘Tomorrow, Today’ visitor journey is accessible on the Expo 2020 Dubai app, alongside other journeys relevant to Expo 2020’s Travel & Connectivity week, which seeks to address how humankind will balance the impact of the digital world expansion with physical reality. Travel & Connectivity Week runs from Jan.9-15, 2022.
Expo 2020 Dubai’s upcoming Travel and Connectivity Week from Jan.9-16 January will convene leading industry figures, innovators and policymakers around digitalisation and connectivity as a universal human right and force for good in a changed world.
Highlights include the Travel and Connectivity Week Business Forum, which kicks off at 0900 GST on Tuesday, Jan.11, at Dubai Exhibition Centre, Expo 2020. Speakers at the hybrid event will include Tewolde Gebremariam, Group CEO, Ethiopian Airlines and Andres Sutt, Estonia Minister for Entrepreneurship and Information Technology.
Hamad Buamim, President and CEO, Dubai Chamber of Commerce; Issam Kazim, CEO, Dubai Corporation for Tourism and Commerce Marketing (DCTCM), and Mohannad Samara, Director, Business Development & Strategic Projects, Etisalat are also slated to appear.
The sixth of 10 Theme Weeks under Expo 2020’s Programme for People and Planet, Travel and Connectivity Week comes almost two years after the COVID-19 pandemic began to upend global travel, transforming our approach to connectivity in the 21st century.
Underpinned by the belief that connectivity not only brings us all closer together but is the bedrock of healthy and empowered societies, the Week is co-curated with Expo 2020 Premier Partners Emirates and Etisalat, its programming targeting key issues for global policy-makers, business and agents of change alike.
The Nexus, home to the Programme for People and Planet, of which the 10 Theme Weeks are a key pillar, will see numerous events throughout the week - from a three-hour tech innovation session titled ‘Age of Disruption’ (Tuesday, 12 January) to ‘Cultures in Conversation: A Cloud is Nobody’s’ (Friday, 15 January).
The Women’s Pavilion will also host various events, including a World Majlis on ‘Closing the Digital Gender Gap’ (Monday, 10 January) and a two-hour event ‘Super (S)heroes: How Arab and Muslim Women Use Media to Connect and Shatter Stereotypes’ (Thursday, 13 January). Expo 2020’s Programme for People and Planet offers an exchange of inspiring new perspectives to address the greatest challenges and opportunities of our time.
