Expo links for the week of 5 August

- Jackson firm's work host to millions
"2005 World Expo Aichi is the "greenest" in terms of impact on Earth with recyclable cups and biodegradable plastics. And Japan's a very clean country, with 17 different classifications of garbage. David Ford would get a Coke and candy bar, then fret "OK, how am I going to throw this away?" Often as not, he'd pack in his laptop bag, back to his hotel room, "where there's only one trash can."
Yep, welcome in Japan. :)

- Canadian Architect, O (No) Canada!
"Despite its agenda of diversity, the lack of poetic imagination in Expo 2005's Canadian pavilion severely disappoints."
"In contrast to the blandness of Canadian pavilion, the Spanish and Croatian pavilions offer delight to the eye and to the senses."
One of the rare really well-written articles about this world expo, written from an architectorial point of view. I might make an overview of my best Expo articles one of these days...

- Yuki's Aichi Expo 2005 Review
"If you are planning to go, it is definitely worth it to go for the smell. Each pavillion smells differently: some are scented, some smell like wood, others plastic, some smell like digital machineries, like rotten water, the smells left by people, smell of nan and curry rice, and all the other different kinds. It'll be nice to discover their scents first hand."

This 19-year old Japanese girl spend one day (the typhoon day) at the expo, but put a hell of a job ("just for the record.. it took me several hours to write this post! longest time ever for a blog entry.") later in giving her short honest comments on all the pavilions she saw that day.
"Pakistan Pavilion - There was a statue of a starving Buddha, which I like for some reason. The nan-baking guy was very flirty."
"Korea Pavilion - Too crowded so I passed."
"United States of America Pavilion - Too crowded. Bad exterior design = not really alluring."

And look at the huge number of pictures she took. A remarkable piece of work.

Those personal blogging initiatives reinforce my idea that future world expositions (any bigger events by the way) should do a lot more with 'citizen journalists' (folks out there who are willing to share and publish online their opinions). A one way multilingual website is clearly not engaging enough anymore. Zaragoza? Shanghai? Old official "press release" PR might be dead when your event starts. Focus more on the bloggers in your communication strategy. Bloggers should be your future embassadors...Unbiased and honest voices... Free publicity...Think about it.