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TdotTrickyRicky
Guest
I kind of agree with Tudararms. Diversity itself is not particularly interesting but some of the offshoots are like Post-nationalism, Identity in a globalized world, tolerance etc.
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samsonyuen
Guest
From: torontosun.com/News/Toron...0-sun.html
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Wed, April 12, 2006
T.O. Expo bid wows organizers
By ROB GRANATSTEIN
                       
Toronto's Expo 2015 bid team is brimming with confidence after two days of meetings with Expo officials in Paris.
But the bid team's own studies are urging caution in its projections for what would be a multi-billion-dollar fair. A review of the city's projections of 72 million people attending the six-month fair and the economic impacts were called "optimistic to very optimistic."
"The essential shortcoming of the feasibility study lies ... with its inadequate recognition of the wide variety of possible outcomes in attendance," the report by Economics Research Associates (ERA) found. It suggested 30-50 million visitors is more realistic.
Expo bid co-chairman Brian Ashton, speaking from Paris, said the Expo team has already sliced down the economic impact figures from 192,000 jobs created to more in the range of 100,000, while the tax revenue and tourism boosts have also been reduced.
A separate consultant's report said Toronto's portlands is the best site for the fair.
Ashton and co-chairman Peter Milczyn said Bureau International des Exposition secretary general Vicente Gonzalez Loscertales was shown an aerial view of the portlands and the view of the city from the site yesterday.
"Their eyeballs fell on the table when they saw the potential and legacy of a waterfront site," Ashton said.
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Wed, April 12, 2006
T.O. Expo bid wows organizers
By ROB GRANATSTEIN
                       
Toronto's Expo 2015 bid team is brimming with confidence after two days of meetings with Expo officials in Paris.
But the bid team's own studies are urging caution in its projections for what would be a multi-billion-dollar fair. A review of the city's projections of 72 million people attending the six-month fair and the economic impacts were called "optimistic to very optimistic."
"The essential shortcoming of the feasibility study lies ... with its inadequate recognition of the wide variety of possible outcomes in attendance," the report by Economics Research Associates (ERA) found. It suggested 30-50 million visitors is more realistic.
Expo bid co-chairman Brian Ashton, speaking from Paris, said the Expo team has already sliced down the economic impact figures from 192,000 jobs created to more in the range of 100,000, while the tax revenue and tourism boosts have also been reduced.
A separate consultant's report said Toronto's portlands is the best site for the fair.
Ashton and co-chairman Peter Milczyn said Bureau International des Exposition secretary general Vicente Gonzalez Loscertales was shown an aerial view of the portlands and the view of the city from the site yesterday.
"Their eyeballs fell on the table when they saw the potential and legacy of a waterfront site," Ashton said.
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thenay
Guest
72 million visitors, I doubt it. didn't the last one only get 21 million visitors? it was in japan i think, not sure what city but I heard the numbers are falling each year for each expo.
I do want the expo in Toronto, I hope we bid for it and win.
I know in the past we lost two olympics, but this isn't an olympic bid, this is a world expo bid, and if people keep thinking negatively or don't bid for anything international again we'll never be international. This will be a big step for Toronto.
I do want the expo in Toronto, I hope we bid for it and win.
I know in the past we lost two olympics, but this isn't an olympic bid, this is a world expo bid, and if people keep thinking negatively or don't bid for anything international again we'll never be international. This will be a big step for Toronto.
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wyliepoon
Guest
The last expo was held in Aichi prefecture, better known by its largest city- Nagoya.
Toronto should really keep an eye on how the Shanghai 2010 expo goes if it wins registration with the BIE. Most certainly the Shanghai expo is going to buck the trend of falling attendance- it's in one of the largest cities in the world, in the country with the largest population, where most people are crazy for anything foreign. The expo is being touted as the second biggest international event to take place in China after the Beijing Olympics in 2008, and after 2008 you can be sure that it will be the main event. Shanghai 2010 to China will be a lot like Montreal 1967 for Canada. If Shanghai does well, it can bring much-needed attention back to World's Fairs, and will definitely benefit the next host.
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scarberiankhatru
Guest
30 million visitors including maybe 10 million from Toronto and another 10 million who're within an 8 or 10 hour drive...wow.
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Oliver Tweed
Guest
I think this would be huge for Toronto for several reasons:
1. Development of infrastructure and the waterfront. Nothing like an international spotlight to light a fire under bumbling, leaderless governments and agencies.
2. Visitors. It's my understanding that Expos get more visitors than sporting events, despite a much lower media profile. This would be huge for Toronto because this is the type of place that doesn't "WOW" people with loads of huge attractions but really grows on people when they experience the cool vibe we have here. I think the expo is a much better fit for this city than the Olympics, which is very TV-based.
Despite reports that Expo attendence is falling steadily, I believe Toronto would do much better than Aichi. First of all, Toronto is a much more international place with a much higher profile. Had anyone ever heard of Aichi before the Expo?
Japan is also more expensive and less inclusive for people speaking other languages. Toronto is also more easily accessible to more developed countries, whose residents would be most likely to be able to afford the trip. This would also give a real reason for American visitors to make the trek that they wouldn't be motivated to make otherwise. If you talk to Americans, many of them have a very high opinion of Toronto either from past visits or from reports from others. I've heard many say that they would like to check it out some time.
3. It would give us the chance to do something different than the last two major world events hosted in Canada - both (will have been) Olympics by that time. I also think an Expo is a more manageable thing and less politically charged than the Olympics. I would personally much rather have the Expo than the Olympics right now.
4. Women from other countries in my city. In droves. This point is self-explanatory. I hope my girlfriend doesn't read this.
1. Development of infrastructure and the waterfront. Nothing like an international spotlight to light a fire under bumbling, leaderless governments and agencies.
2. Visitors. It's my understanding that Expos get more visitors than sporting events, despite a much lower media profile. This would be huge for Toronto because this is the type of place that doesn't "WOW" people with loads of huge attractions but really grows on people when they experience the cool vibe we have here. I think the expo is a much better fit for this city than the Olympics, which is very TV-based.
Despite reports that Expo attendence is falling steadily, I believe Toronto would do much better than Aichi. First of all, Toronto is a much more international place with a much higher profile. Had anyone ever heard of Aichi before the Expo?
Japan is also more expensive and less inclusive for people speaking other languages. Toronto is also more easily accessible to more developed countries, whose residents would be most likely to be able to afford the trip. This would also give a real reason for American visitors to make the trek that they wouldn't be motivated to make otherwise. If you talk to Americans, many of them have a very high opinion of Toronto either from past visits or from reports from others. I've heard many say that they would like to check it out some time.
3. It would give us the chance to do something different than the last two major world events hosted in Canada - both (will have been) Olympics by that time. I also think an Expo is a more manageable thing and less politically charged than the Olympics. I would personally much rather have the Expo than the Olympics right now.
4. Women from other countries in my city. In droves. This point is self-explanatory. I hope my girlfriend doesn't read this.
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wyliepoon
Guest
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Oliver Tweed
Guest
^^^haha, that is classic!
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thenay
Guest
^ I want that camera! lol... jks
I think if we get an expo, we'll have better chances on getting the olympic games down the road. I really do believe the expo will put us on the map.
I think if we get an expo, we'll have better chances on getting the olympic games down the road. I really do believe the expo will put us on the map.
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samplain
Guest
The Expo 2015 will be an exclamation point to the Toronto renaissence. Just about all of our big projects planned will be complete by then, including the West Don Lands that will link to the Portlands.
Also, incase anyone didnt know 2015 marks the 400th anniversary of the discovery of Toronto by Etienne Brule.
BTW, re: lower visitor numbers. Toronto will bring the Expo back to popularity.
Also, incase anyone didnt know 2015 marks the 400th anniversary of the discovery of Toronto by Etienne Brule.
BTW, re: lower visitor numbers. Toronto will bring the Expo back to popularity.
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thenay
Guest
"Just about all of our big projects planned will be complete by then"
True, once Ritz, RBC, Four Seasons and Trump are done who knows what's next
I see a lot more development happening than we know already, but really its up to the city in the end *cough, stinson*
True, once Ritz, RBC, Four Seasons and Trump are done who knows what's next
I see a lot more development happening than we know already, but really its up to the city in the end *cough, stinson*
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adma
Guest
I wonder which of those Expo dollybirds subsequently went on to fame and/or success of some sort or another...
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AlvinofDiaspar
Guest
John Barber's commentary from the Globe:
Expo 2015 is ours for the taking. Uh oh
JOHN BARBER
The most shocking and potentially appalling thing about Toronto's fledgling bid to stage Expo 2015 is not that it will fail, like all previous local attempts at brass-ring seizure, but that it will win -- easily.
With only the Turkish city of Izmir in the competition so far, and Moscow demurring, waiting to see what we do, the very emergence of a Toronto bid could be enough to ensure its success. Indeed, it could be that the good grey folk at the Bureau of International Expositions are downright eager to implant their upcoming megaproject on our shores, at our expense.
We only lost our bid for Expo 2000 by one vote, a tie-breaker registered by the former government of East Germany in response to a bribe from the winning West Germans -- the last official act of the hated Communist regime and thus its final perfidy.
So this time we win. Then what?
It's all slightly scary. Unlike the previous two Olympics bids, which were well known and widely supported by the local yokelry throughout their gestation and through the heartbreaking competitions that followed, the Expo bid is a black box. Diligent consultants have produced attractive estimates of potential attendance and economic impact, but the city hall-based bid team is still struggling to articulate a compelling reason why we would want to undertake such a project in the first place.
Councillor Brian Ashton admits that that fundamental fogginess glared during his team's discussions with senior BIE officials in Paris this week.
"We talked about people, humanity, civil society, what makes Toronto different as a centre of foreign migration," Mr. Ashton said. "They wanted something more pointed."
So that's the No. 1 priority on the current Expo to-do list: Figure out why we want to have one.
We know it's going to cost a fortune -- at least $3.5-billion, before hoped-for revenues. What's the point?
"We know we have a little more work to do on the theme element," Mr. Ashton said.
The vision thing.
Happily, there are consultants working on that, figuring out what it is that Toronto and the world might like to celebrate nine years from now and boiling it down to a not-too-trite idealistic phrase.
But they don't have much time: Assuming Izmir submits its bid on June 30, at the BIE's annual convention, other potential hosts will then have six months to enter the contest. In addition to fashioning a good reason to do so, the Toronto team will have to obtain firm commitments of several billion dollars by Christmas.
In any event, selling the idea to Canadians will probably prove tougher than selling it abroad. It isn't cities but rather nations that apply to host Expos. Strong leadership from the national government is essential. "It's their bid," Mr. Ashton said. "If Ottawa says no, you're dead."
In fact, the new Harper government knows no more about the bid than the average Torontonian, and has said less. Busy husbanding the alienated west into power, it has no representatives from Toronto and an attitude toward the country's largest city that, at best, is traditional.
"The greatest challenge now is to have a prime minister who looks at this bid and sees a marvellous opportunity," Mr. Ashton said. "I want him to see some value in this -- not only for Toronto and the Golden Horseshoe but for Canada."
There is some foggy talk about inducing national participation by styling Expo 2015 as an ever-so-slightly premature sesquicentennial of Confederation. There is also some pouting about our deservedness, given the successes of Montreal, Vancouver and Calgary in such pursuits, contrasted with our past losses. But the best reason for the Harper government to say yes is that under current Canadian rules governing such bids, Queen's Park would have to pay for it.
But those rules don't work. Although the McGuinty government is already supporting the Expo bid, financially and otherwise, it could never afford the whole nut.
Mr. Ashton imagines the budget being shared relative to each government's Expo-led gain in tax revenue, adding that federal officials have already assured him that a first-class world's fair is "not too hard to say yes to." Could it be, he wonders, that the Harper government says yes and the McGuinty government blocks the way?
Whatever happens, the mercy is that it will have to happen soon. Plucky Izmir will set the clock ticking on June 30. With luck, we will know the bid's fate before succumbing to sugarplum visions of the sort that two failed Olympic bids created and then cruelly shattered.
If anything, the Expo vision is even more beguiling. Unlike the largely prefabricated Olympics, Expos are conceived and developed locally, allowing cities greater flexibility in making statements and in capturing lasting benefits -- whether it's new transit or, in the case of Expo 2015's site in the port lands, a whole new urban district.
The 1972 Montreal Olympics were a disaster, but Expo 67, in the same city, had a magical effect on the morale of the nation and on its international image.
There we go dreaming again -- a dangerous pastime.
AoD
Expo 2015 is ours for the taking. Uh oh
JOHN BARBER
The most shocking and potentially appalling thing about Toronto's fledgling bid to stage Expo 2015 is not that it will fail, like all previous local attempts at brass-ring seizure, but that it will win -- easily.
With only the Turkish city of Izmir in the competition so far, and Moscow demurring, waiting to see what we do, the very emergence of a Toronto bid could be enough to ensure its success. Indeed, it could be that the good grey folk at the Bureau of International Expositions are downright eager to implant their upcoming megaproject on our shores, at our expense.
We only lost our bid for Expo 2000 by one vote, a tie-breaker registered by the former government of East Germany in response to a bribe from the winning West Germans -- the last official act of the hated Communist regime and thus its final perfidy.
So this time we win. Then what?
It's all slightly scary. Unlike the previous two Olympics bids, which were well known and widely supported by the local yokelry throughout their gestation and through the heartbreaking competitions that followed, the Expo bid is a black box. Diligent consultants have produced attractive estimates of potential attendance and economic impact, but the city hall-based bid team is still struggling to articulate a compelling reason why we would want to undertake such a project in the first place.
Councillor Brian Ashton admits that that fundamental fogginess glared during his team's discussions with senior BIE officials in Paris this week.
"We talked about people, humanity, civil society, what makes Toronto different as a centre of foreign migration," Mr. Ashton said. "They wanted something more pointed."
So that's the No. 1 priority on the current Expo to-do list: Figure out why we want to have one.
We know it's going to cost a fortune -- at least $3.5-billion, before hoped-for revenues. What's the point?
"We know we have a little more work to do on the theme element," Mr. Ashton said.
The vision thing.
Happily, there are consultants working on that, figuring out what it is that Toronto and the world might like to celebrate nine years from now and boiling it down to a not-too-trite idealistic phrase.
But they don't have much time: Assuming Izmir submits its bid on June 30, at the BIE's annual convention, other potential hosts will then have six months to enter the contest. In addition to fashioning a good reason to do so, the Toronto team will have to obtain firm commitments of several billion dollars by Christmas.
In any event, selling the idea to Canadians will probably prove tougher than selling it abroad. It isn't cities but rather nations that apply to host Expos. Strong leadership from the national government is essential. "It's their bid," Mr. Ashton said. "If Ottawa says no, you're dead."
In fact, the new Harper government knows no more about the bid than the average Torontonian, and has said less. Busy husbanding the alienated west into power, it has no representatives from Toronto and an attitude toward the country's largest city that, at best, is traditional.
"The greatest challenge now is to have a prime minister who looks at this bid and sees a marvellous opportunity," Mr. Ashton said. "I want him to see some value in this -- not only for Toronto and the Golden Horseshoe but for Canada."
There is some foggy talk about inducing national participation by styling Expo 2015 as an ever-so-slightly premature sesquicentennial of Confederation. There is also some pouting about our deservedness, given the successes of Montreal, Vancouver and Calgary in such pursuits, contrasted with our past losses. But the best reason for the Harper government to say yes is that under current Canadian rules governing such bids, Queen's Park would have to pay for it.
But those rules don't work. Although the McGuinty government is already supporting the Expo bid, financially and otherwise, it could never afford the whole nut.
Mr. Ashton imagines the budget being shared relative to each government's Expo-led gain in tax revenue, adding that federal officials have already assured him that a first-class world's fair is "not too hard to say yes to." Could it be, he wonders, that the Harper government says yes and the McGuinty government blocks the way?
Whatever happens, the mercy is that it will have to happen soon. Plucky Izmir will set the clock ticking on June 30. With luck, we will know the bid's fate before succumbing to sugarplum visions of the sort that two failed Olympic bids created and then cruelly shattered.
If anything, the Expo vision is even more beguiling. Unlike the largely prefabricated Olympics, Expos are conceived and developed locally, allowing cities greater flexibility in making statements and in capturing lasting benefits -- whether it's new transit or, in the case of Expo 2015's site in the port lands, a whole new urban district.
The 1972 Montreal Olympics were a disaster, but Expo 67, in the same city, had a magical effect on the morale of the nation and on its international image.
There we go dreaming again -- a dangerous pastime.
AoD
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thenay
Guest
Thanks for the article AoD, very interesting read.
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tudararms
Guest
Think of all the other new projects that would be encouraged given the announcement of an expo! To me, expo would be good for the city as it would give us something bigger than ourselves to aspire to and plan for, which I believe is when truly good things can happen. It would be the perfect opportunity for a revamping of all that we complain about around here: waterfront, streetscaping, parks and boulevards, etc., etc. If nothing else it would be a morale booster, and if done well could be a huge boost to the confidence and ego of this city, and would truly kickstart the tourism industry again. Not bad that.