It might be four years away, but already the city of Milan is gearing up for Expo 2015. In October, at the Flag Display Ceremony, the flags of all the confirmed official participants to the event were unveiled and will be permanently displayed in the centre of the city until the end of the Expo.
Following in the tradition established by London in 1851 and including, over the years, New York City in 1939 and Shanghai last year, Milan be using the Expo to explore an important issue, which affects the whole of humanity. The theme in Milan will be food, in particular, “Feeding the planet, energy for life”.
“The United Kingdom, like every other participant, will be invited to call on the best minds, leaders, experts and key stakeholders to respond to a question: how to ensure the right to healthy, safe and sufficient food for all people in the world,” says Giuseppe Sala, chief executive of Expo 2015 SpA, a company owned by the Italian Finance Ministry and the City of Milan, among others. “Creativity, innovation and effectiveness of proposals will contribute to the legacy of Expo Milano 2015.”
Technology and how it relates to food and health were the key issues on the table at the first meeting of the Innovation Advisory Board of Milan Expo 2015, which was held in September.
David Bevilacqua of online networking giant Cisco systems told the meeting: “Milan’s exhibition will be the first digital one: we expect to experience technology in a completely different way.” The aim of the Expo, according to, Neri Alessandri of fitness technology developer Technogym, is “to turn Milan into the first Digital Smart City, as well as the first wellness city, the capital of wellbeing”.
20 million people, 30 per cent of them foreigners, will visit the Expo site
However, the event will also act as a showcase for Milan’s industry, creativity and other talents. The arrival of millions of visitors will boost the city’s economy as well as inspiring debate and new thinking about food and technology.
“It’s a great honour and opportunity for the city of Milan to host the Expo 2015,” says Ezio Indiani, general manager of Hotel Principe di Savoia. “It will give the city a perfect window to show the world the uniqueness and beauty of a city which needs to be discovered not only for its fashion, design and financial industry.”
Silvio Ursini, founder of restaurant group Obikà mozzarella bars, which hopes to have at least six outlets by 2015, says: “In particular, the Expo should raise interest in Milan amongst different travellers beyond the customary business people or fashion shoppers.”
Around €3 billion will be spent on the infrastructure and on running the event, which will be based in a state of the art complex near the city centre, demonstrating the latest green building technology. In the six months of the Expo, which runs from May to October, 20 million people, 30 per cent of them foreigners, will visit the Expo site with an average influx into the city of around 160,000 visitors per day. There will be 130 countries represented.
“Expo Milano 2015 can support the Italian economy beyond tourism,” says Giuseppe Sala. “Construction companies, services, communication, energy and technology providers will be fundamental to build the exhibition site as well as the Italian regional pavilions and those of the official participants.”
Companies outside Milan are also being targeted. Expo 2015 is already inviting them to become partners and sponsors as a way of exploring and engaging in the issues that the event is spotlighting, as well as raising money for it. There are opportunities for very sector from agribusiness to food packaging and healthcare to building materials.
As well as the excitement of the event itself the Milan Expo intends to sew seeds for the future. This includes an international multidisciplinary committee composed of thought leaders in the fields of science, research, the economy and culture as well as the development of an action plan to share with the participating countries.
Milan already has an impressive international reputation as a centre for the fashion, design and luxury goods sectors but the Expo 2015 is set to make it synonymous with something very different – the worldwide struggle to provide more and better food for all humanity.
MILANO, TI AMO
The Expo is just the latest chapter in the long history of a city, which has been a powerhouse for business, ideas and visual arts for centuries.
Now the largest city in Italy after Rome, during the Middle Ages, Milan was a centre of European trade because of its position on various routes to and from Italy across the Alps. Under the ruling Sforza family, known for their wealth and artistic patronage, it became a centre of the Renaissance.
When Napoleon invaded northern Italy at the end of the eighteenth century, he made Milan the capital of what was then the kingdom of Italy. Although the city continued to be wealthy and influential, Italy’s economic problems after the First World War prompted support for Benito Mussolini and his Fascist Blackshirts.
They rallied for the first time in the Piazza San Sepolcro, a small square near Milan Cathedral and later followed Mussolini in his infamous March on Rome. The rest of the 20th century saw the city prosper economically as it became a centre of design. In the 1980s various Milan-based fashion firms such as Armani and Versace began to enjoy international success and so Milan started to be recognized as a world fashion capital.
It also hosts the Salone del Mobile and FieraMilano furniture and interior design fairs as well as having two world-class football teams.
The trade shows and exhibitions that have drawn hundreds of thousands to the city have helped make it one of the most important and influential economic and industrial centres of Europe.
