Representing the nation: Approaching the scale and complexity of a big overseas event

Give me a sense of the scale of this project.A World Expo pavilion project incorporates a major tourist attraction, a business summit and top-level meeting space, a high-end bar and restaurant, retail outlet, a sponsor showcase, and a VIP events venue.Representing a nation on a high-profile international stage alongside around 160 other nations, on an Expo site that covers 155-hectares. The delivery team spans time zones, languages, and cultures. The live schedule runs for a full six-months and includes hundreds of separate events of all shapes and sizes, from conferences and VIP receptions to full expo site takeovers. Meanwhile, the pavilion welcomes thousands of members of the public every day.Any of those elements on their own would represent a significant undertaking. But bring them all together and you’ve got something like a World Expo. There’s nothing really like it in our industry.What’s the biggest challenge around delivering in Japan?We have decades of experience working all over the world and we’ve learned not to underestimate the impact of cultural nuance. Subtle differences in ways of working can seriously hamper efficiency.You get around this by being prepared. Developing a smooth working culture with local staff and suppliers often depends on quickly establish trust and respect by ensuring everyone understands these differences in social etiquette.Bilingual support is vital in several respects. Because we know public Expo visitors will be predominantly Japanese, we’re building a bilingual UK Pavilion team to ensure we can offer an excellent visitor experience. While operationally, we already have people on the ground in Japan who can help our UK team members acclimatise, while using their local knowledge to help us navigate local regulations and bureaucracy.How will you manage the time zone complication?Yes, it’s eight hours difference… nine in the winter. The question is, how do you maximise working hours on both sides? You need key decision-makers in the UK, able to liaise with the client in their own time zone. Then you need trusted delivery managers who can make decisions on the ground, and a clear set of overlapping shift patterns and handover processes between the UK and Japan.So, when the Japan-based delivery team hands over and goes to sleep, the UK management and production guys are busy answering questions and preparing what’s needed for Japan to get cracking the moment they log back on.At the same time, a World Expo is a marathon project and there’s a duty of care to ensure teams aren’t stretched over a 24/7 schedule. We want a happy and efficient team, so they must be able to switch off.Rest and relaxation times will be aligned with local norms, and we’ll keep workloads manageable with processes around timed and consolidated emails. We don’t want people constantly pinged throughout the night, or for them to log in every day to an avalanche of emails. It’s about finding balance.How do you plan to deliver the wide-ranging full operational contract?There are four main elements; events management; food and beverage; retail; staffing and operations – with a ton of complexity inherent in each. We strip it all back to the simple objective - showcase UK creativity and innovation while delivering a brilliant visitor experience. Keeping that front of mind ensures all teams keep moving forward towards the same goal.The trick is having the right people in place and the industry contacts to bring in the right partners. And by ‘the right’ partners, I mean people who can come in and add something unique - not just cover a capability gap.For instance, we already knew we could work with Mosimann’s on a food and beverage element. We’ve worked with them before and know they’re highly experienced in the environment. As an official caterer for Japan’s 2019 Rugby World Cup, they already have an existing supplier network in country. Crucially, they bring an expertise and prestige that enhances the food and beverage offering considerably.Similarly, with scores of national pavilions and a multitude of related event projects kicking off in Osaka around Expo, there’s increased demand for good people. This will make staffing a real challenge. That’s why we’re partnering with Beyond Limits, who are already established in market and fully engaged in helping us recruit and train a high-quality local team.What’s the most important aspect of your preparation?It boils down to people and planning. Experienced people. Brilliant planning. In that respect it’s no different to any other project. Then it’s around enabling the right agile mindset. Such a vast programme means the best laid plans can change, unforeseen circumstances come out of nowhere, unexpected VIP visits, delays, last minute schedule changes. This will be our third World Expo, so I’m totally confident the team have the experience and agility to flex around whatever the project throws at us.Everyone understands that the scale of a project doesn’t change the fundamental objective. The brief is to represent the UK in Japan and deliver experiences that emphasise the best of what we have to offer, changing perceptions and promoting the UK as a destination to visit, do business and study.We’re there to facilitate the Department for Business and Trade in building bridges across culture and business. Our job is to devise creative, compelling, and memorable ways to do that.

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