World Expo Review

The second day of visiting the expo, as Jenn and I were standing in our first line of the day, we decided we needed a system to rate the exhibits. We came up with 5 categories giving each category a maximum of 10 points. The categories are as follows: “Cool Factor” which includes the popularity and style of the building, the Spirit exuded inside the exhibit, the lines to see the expo (Were the lines structured in an orderly way? Were the lines in the shade?), culture and arts displayed from the country, and finally the science and technology introduced in the exhibit. We also gave ourselves 5 points to play with if a country had some aspect that didn’t fit into one of those categories. For example, Thailand got a few extra points for having a 3-D movie inside, France lost points for not having any English translations.



Here are the results from our two days:
Italy: 44 (Italy was just pretty amazing. Tastefully done.)
Mexico: 40
Canada: 40 (Friendly and kind of random)
France: 38
Australia: 38 (Fun is the word I would use to describe this exhibit.)
Netherlands: 34
Switzerland: 33 (included a type of ride that winded you up for a great view of the expo)
Thailand: 33
Indonesia: 33 (very educational)
USA: 33 (very commercialized)
Russia: 32
Spain: 30
New Zealand: 28
Israel: 26
Turkey: 25 (Very interesting with ancient artifacts, just low on science, tech, and spirit)
Cambodia and Lithuania: We visited these, but didn’t know how to rank them. 
We also visited South and Central American countries. I had a cup of Guatemalan coffee.

(Please keep in mind we didn’t have a chance to visit all the countries including China. We saw a statistic that only 40% of the people who attended the Expo during the first 3 days were able to see the China exhibit. Also, the opinions here are from 2 people’s perspective, and in no way reflect our feelings about the countries themselves…just their exhibits at the 2010 World Expo. I don’t claim that I could do any better at creating one single building that could accurately capture the spirit of the entire country, but the ranking system did help us keep our sanity in those crazy lines.)