As some of you may know, most Expo pavilions were supported mostly by the governments of their respective countries. For instance, oil-rich governments like those of Angola and Saudi Arabia had plenty to spend; in fact one Saudi Arabian official was quoted as saying "Money is no object," thus their large "Moon Boat" pavilion, complete with the largest movie theater in the world, trees supposedly from native Saudi Arabia (some sources say they repeatedly died, so look-alikes were brought in from somewhere in southeast China). Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how you look at it), the U.S. government was restricted by law from contributing federal funds to pay for pavilions, so all of the money had to be raised privately. That was incredibly tough, especially given the state of the economy, until Secretary Clinton got involved. She made it her job to find the money, and with less than a year before the Expo was to begin, they found the money and built the pavilion. ("they found the money and built the pavilion" summarizes the hard work of very many politicians, businessmen, architects, coordinators, etc., but to tell the whole story would take more than just one blog post!)
Through the generous contributions of many U.S.-based corporations, the U.S. has an "eagle-shaped" pavilion (hardware), made up of our exhibits, informative movies, and a gigantic Astro-Vision screen outside (not Jumbo-Tron, get it right). Its wings consist of the gift shop below the VIP area, and the quick serve restaurant (not fast food, get it right) below the Administration offices. Also on the top floor is the garden meant to resemble First Lady Michelle Obama's garden.
We also have a very diverse staff (software) including: accountants, marketers, PR, operations, chefs, waiters, security, shopkeepers, sound technicians, so many more, and of course the Student Ambassadors, the "best part, the part that people will remember long after they've forgotten all our exhibits" who have been integrated into almost every department from VIP services to Accounting (ahem!) to Operations and Queue Management, etc. We all hail from different parts of the world: some students were born in China but lived significant parts of their lives in the U.S., almost all of our maintenance and security staff is Chinese, the manager of the uniform room is from Australia, and one of the supervisors of the Hospitality department is Italian!
Incidentally, several of our patrons have shared comments such as "she was so impressed by the student ambassadors and how they are greeting the audience and shepherded them through the experience safely, efficiently, and warmly, and all with only a couple days rehearsal!" and "A number of guests commented that the USA Pavilion was one of the most welcoming pavilions visited because of the friendly demeanor of you, our staff. They were extremely impressed by your Chinese and indicated we were one of the best trained staffs they had encountered on the Expo Grounds." Let's hear it for training classes!
Check out my youtube channel or facebook profile (Search for Mark Wlodawski) for supplementary photos and videos of my experiences here.
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