World Expos - are they worth it?

I recently had the fortune of attending EXPO 2015 in the elegant city of Milan alongside an Indonesia Investment Forum I was in town for. Having arrived at Milan's Malpensa airport after an 18 hour journey from Jakarta, I proceeded to the city centre to drop off my bags and then headed straight back out of the city to the EXPO site for what I was sure would be a stimulating afternoon and evening, with an orchestra of sounds, smells and sights to awaken my senses and jet-lagged state of being.

I was not disappointed. From the moment I entered the EXPO site, I was surrounded by throngs of people eagerly buying various types of street-food, the scent of multiple world cuisines wafting in the evening air, while others were gift-bag laden and enthusiastically studying site maps to decide which country to visit next. To begin with, it may have been less an orchestra than a charming cacophony: the anticipated arrival of the Italian Prime Minister along with U2's Bono ensured a massive crowd had gathered around the space where they were due to arrive, thus creating a manic bottleneck of people, and yet the crowd soon dispersed and we were free to explore the rest of the EXPO. 

My first stop, even though it was right at the other end of the EXPO site, was of course the Indonesian pavilion, where an impressive angklung orchestral peformance led by the famous Pak Udjo of Bandung delighted visitors. Inside the pavilion, visitors were also invited to see, hear and even touch and smell some of Indonesia's finest products. Among the displays was a cleverly-designed map of Indonesia onto which samples of various agricultural products from the archipelago were placed. So visitors could feel and smell fine coffee beans from Sulawesi, nutmeg from the Moluccas, or Muntok white pepper from Bangka. Some of Indonesia's favourite dishes were also on sale in the pavilion, including the ubiquitous Nasi Goreng and Beef Rendang, one of my favourites.

It was then time to move on and consider which of the other nearly 100 pavilions from the around the world to visit! Alas time was not on my side as I had only arrived at 6pm. I therefore paid a whirlwind tour of the pavilions of Iran (where I learned that it is one of the world's leading producers of pistachio nuts and saffron); the USA (where the theme was American Food 2.0 - showing US innovations in food and agribusiness); and of course my native UK (which focused on the role of the bee in the global ecosystem). Countries large and small, rich and poor were represented here. This was refreshing and reassuring, and while some might question how appropriate it is for very poor countries to spend money on pavilions on the outskirts of a wealthy European city, it was good to see a variety of pavilion designs and styles on display, from the opulent to the modest: for many of the poorer countries, basic, cheaper, uniform pavilion structures were being used, and yet they managed to pack them with their national treasures and customs.

So what does this highly expensive, 6-month initiative achieve, and is it worth it? Skeptics might argue that in a digital age where all types of information are a click or phone swipe away, the idea that the world needs to be on physical display in one place is dated. It's true that the internet and social media have transformed our access to, and even understanding of the world. We can have highly-developed insights into a location before we even visit it, thanks to TripAdvisor; music, TV shows, films and all sorts of wonderful customs from around the world can be viewed on YouTube; and if the inner geeks in us want to know about global pistachio nut production and trade, data sets and reports from a host of international bodies are readily available on line.

But is this enough? For all the internet offers, there's no substitute for dipping your hand in jar of roasted coffee beans and savouring their smell; there's no substitute for being surrounded by dozens of batik-wearning angklung muscians wowing their audience with a uniquely Indonesian version of Bohemian Rhapsody, and there are no street food markets in the world that offer you the chance to savour such a rich range of cuisine. How many nights can you say you had Italian cured meats, followed by an Iranian goat curry, washed down with a pint of English ale before sneaking past the gelato stand on the way back to the exit?

World Expos are educational, and they're fun. They enable countries to display some of their proudest national brand assets and treasures, and also some of their most unknown and unusual ones. I believe they make us think in a connected way about the world that few locations in isolation can do, whether travelling for business or pleasure.

While I didn't get around to visiting the Swiss pavilion, I particularly appreciated their concept. In short, the pavilion was made up of four towers, full of local food products which visitors can take away. These products were limited however, and so the obvious implication is that by taking too many products, you would be depriving future visitors.

By the look on many of the faces of children and young people I passed, they'd also had a fun evening; their EXPO passports doubtless full of stamps and their hands laden with goodie-bags. If EXPOs help us think about the world, its assets and challenges in a more connected way, then I am sold.

Roll on the next World Expos in 2017 and 2020!