Expo 2020 has begun a worldwide search, backed by a social media and an online campaign, to find the brains behind the most innovative gadgets and digital games on the planet in time for the next World Expo in 2020.
“We want to wow and delight our visitors with take-home keepsakes that could only come from a World’s Expo,” said Gillian Hamburger, Senior Vice President, Commercial at Expo 2020. “Our ambition is to offer a product range that people will want to buy not only because they are offered by Expo 2020 but because the items are unexpected, unique and innovative.”
According to Hamburger, the gadgets would be available for sale not only at the Expo site during its six months from October 2020 to April 2021, but also through Expo 2020’s exclusive online shop and selected Expo 2020 approved retailers far ahead of the event opening.
“These are products that consumers all over the world will want to get their hands on; new ideas and concepts that the world hasn’t seen before and become a ‘must-have’ for those who love innovative products,” she added. “They need to be creative and trendsetting, and should ideally fit in with our core Expo subthemes of opportunity, mobility and sustainability.”
The games section will include online, network, PC and consoles, mobile, and other forms of digital games as well as traditional, such as a new version of chess or snakes and ladders. Expo wants games-makers of all kinds to submit their ideas.
The first telephone (1876), television (1939), the mobile phone (1970) as well as ASIMO, the humanoid robot (2005), were all products that were first introduced to the public at World Expos.
Expo 2020 will be giving companies an opportunity to use such a large global gathering as a launchpad for their new innovative ideas and concepts. Through its licensing programme, Expo 2020 Dubai will accept tenders for more than 5,000 products in total.
The tender process to become a licensee for this new product category 2020 is open now to businesses of any size from anywhere in the world. The initial stage – when companies can register their interest – will close on 19 November 2017.
