COVID-19 caused event to be postponed seven days before first test event in March
Expo 2020 Dubai was just days away from its first test event when the entire event had to be postponed due to the global spread of COVID-19.
Clive Stephens, director of operations, told the Leisure, Entertainment and Attractions conference that procurement and recruitment was under way when the postponement of the expo was announced.
“Seven days before we were due to deliver our test event, COVID-19 hit us, and our event was postponed until October 1st 2021.
“We went through a period of re-baselining our business and recalibrating to what it might be going forward in the future.”
In August, procedures were modified, and event organisers were now once again in the process of procuring resources, recruiting employees in preparation for the 2021 event with test event due to start once more in December, and test events themselves due to start in March 2021.
He told the virtual conference, hosted by the Middle East and North African Leisure Attractions Council (MENALAC) that test events would then be ‘switched off’ and restarted at the beginning of September 2021, a month from the event itself, and there would be two weeks of rehearsals prior to the opening.
New measures introduced following COVID-19 include new capacity limits for each of the venues to allow social distancing are part of the new plans, said Stephens.
Stephens also revealed some of the plans for what will happen to the expo site, which has an area of 4.38 million sqm in total, following the event.
He said 80 percent of the site will be repurposed for permanent use, including one of the pavilions, Terra, which will be turned into a science museum.
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