Attractions Management Issue 1 2011 - TourismInsights

At the IAAPA Trade Show in Orlando,
the Themed Entertainment Association
granted the China Pavilion a THEA award
for Outstanding Achievement in respect
of its exhibit The River of Wisdom. Well
deserved, as it was possibly the fi nest
thing to be seen at the expo.
The exhibit was based on a famous
scroll painting Along the River During the
Qingming Festival. The main painting was
projected as a steady background image,
but the figures within it were animated and
you could see them walking up and down
the streets and going about their business.
In the Pavilion of City Being (one of
seven theme pavilions at Expo 2010) there
was an excellent “in the round” multiscreen
show called City Plazas based on
scenes in Buenos Aires, Nairobi, Bombay,
Wenchuan and Edmonton. Using seven
15m (50ft)-wide screens, it demonstrated
that not only has film projection been
replaced by electronic image projection,
but that electronic projection effectively
removes all limits to image size.
This was clearly demonstrated, not only
by the Saudi and China examples, but
also by the ceiling image projection in City
Plazas, which would have been extremely
difficult to achieve with film. Among many
other spectacular projection displays at
Expo, one I particularly liked was the Blue
Planet in the Pavilion of the Urban Planet.
(Above) Urbanian Pavilion’s 13m-high
library symbolised the wealth of
information we can access; (below)
Germany Pavilion’s sphere swung in
response to the crowd’s cheers
This consisted of the
top part of a hemisphere
32m (105 ft)
wide. On it was projected
a six-minute
fi lm showing views of
the earth from space,
and aerial landscape
photography.
Shows that engaged and entertained, and
exhibits that stirred emotion appealed
most to visitors. So, in the excellent Spain
Pavilion (40,000 per day, 20-minute dwell
time) they enjoyed the fi lms, but loved the
6.5m (21ft)-high animatronic baby Miguelin.
In the Oil Pavilion, a splendidly politically
incorrect 4D fi lm elicited shrieks of enjoyment.
The Germany Pavilion’s Energy
Source show got everyone cheering, as
an imaging sphere swung ever higher in
response to the audience reaction, symbolising
the idea that people give life to cities.
There were many interactive exhibits.
Obviously in busy pavilions, only a proportion
of visitors could enjoy them. One
solution to this problem was the creation
of giant gesture driven displays, such as
the Sailing City Construction exhibit in the
Shipbuilding Pavilion that allowed several
family groups to participate simultaneously.
At expos, the theme pavilions are often
less well patronised than the national pavilions,
yet actually contain some of the most
interesting exhibits. One of my favourites
was the Urbanian Pavilion, built on a grand
opera scale with huge set-piece exhibits.
The Learn exhibit was in the form of
a vast library (more than 13m (40ft)-high),
presumably symbolising how much accumulated
knowledge is now available to us.
Expo 2010 was fun to visit, if hard work.
There wasn’t anything radically new, but
there were many developments in old formats
and many stimulating exhibit ideas.
Robert Simpson is founder director of
Electrosonic. Electrosonic did the AV
installations in the USA Pavilion, the
Shipbuilding Pavilion and the Information &
Communications Pavilion at Expo 2010
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