ISIE convenes global expo leaders in Paris for Best Practices Workshop

Lisa Schrenk, co-founder of the Institute for the Study of International Expositions (ISIE), co- organized a workshop in Paris that convened leading figures in world expo design to examine lessons learned and best practices from past and recent international expositions.

The workshop, “Design Issues and Solutions at Expositions: Past and Present,” brought together more than 25 architects, designers, planners, researchers and expo practitioners from Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, China, Serbia, England, Italy, Spain, France and the United States. The other organizers for the event were Charles Pappas, senior editor of Exhibitor magazine, and César Corona, executive director of ExpoMuseum. 

“The workshop emphasized the need to systematically document both successful strategies and unsuccessful approaches so future Expo planners can build on prior experience instead of repeatedly reinventing the wheel,” said Schrenk, a professor of architectural history at CAPLA. “By creating mechanisms to transfer knowledge across Expos, organizers hope to improve efficiency, visitor experience, sustainability and overall event success.”

Funded by a University of Arizona Research and Partnerships grant and opened by Dimitri Kerkentzes, the secretary general of the Bureau International des Expositions, the two-day workshop was held at the Serbian Cultural Center in Paris and featured some of the world’s most influential expo leaders and designers. Participants included the: 

• Director of Sustainability for Expo 2020 Dubai
• Executive Director of Strategy for Expo 2030 Riyadh
• Senior Vice President of Visitor Experience for Expo 2020 Dubai and Former Chief Counselor to the Bureau International des Expositions
• Lead architects for the Serbia and Jordan pavilions at Expo 2025, the architect for the Good Place Pavilion at Expo 2020 Dubai, and the lead architect and master plan author for Expo 2027 Belgrade
• CEO and Chief Technology Strategist for Expo 2031 Minnesota 
• Executives and lead designers from Spaceagency, BRC Imagination Arts, Trivandi and Beyond Limits.

With Expo 2027 Belgrade on the horizon and Expo 2030 Riyadh advancing through major design and delivery phases, the workshop provided a timely forum for translating lessons learned into practical guidance for future world expositions.

“Expo 2027 Belgrade will be a place of dialogue and exchange, not only for our region, but for the whole world. We very much look forward to welcoming the world to Belgrade,” said H.E. Ana Hrustanović, Ambassador of Serbia to France.

The ISIE Best Practices Workshop marked the CAPLA-housed organization’s most significant event to date, building on momentum from a 2023 online symposium and a series of in-person events held over the past year. Those events included two forums hosted at the Swiss Pavilion during Expo 2025 Osaka for general commissioners of country and thematic pavilions, a session at the second Urban Humanities Unconference in St. Louis focused on the 1904 World’s Fair, and a mini symposium in Paris for contributors to the upcoming ISIE-sponsored book Looking to the Past – Seeing the Future: International Expositions, 1851–Today (Routledge), co-edited by ISIE co-founders Schrenk and James Fortuna.

CAPLA graduate Anthony Rascon, B.Arch ’26, helped plan the workshop and gained firsthand insight into the future of expo and exhibition design.

“Exhibit design has always been a passion of mine,” Rascon said. “Exhibits, attractions and pavilion design are unique because they require interdisciplinary thinking beyond architecture alone, often integrating sculpture, engineering, writing, coding and psychology.”

For Rascon, whose academic and professional interests focus on exhibition and experiential design, the workshop also highlighted the challenges of knowledge-sharing across the industry.

“One thing I hadn’t realized before attending was how little design knowledge gets passed between different companies, teams and generations,” Rascon said. “These Best Practices Workshops create a new avenue for that information to be shared in ways that can benefit the industry as a whole.”

Schrenk said the initiative will continue through the summer and into the fall.

“The Paris workshop marks the beginning of a broader long-term initiative led by the new Best Practices in Expo Design working group,” she said. “Future plans include a virtual follow-up meeting this summer and a second in-person workshop planned for Belgrade this fall ahead of Expo 2027.” 

Eventually, ISIE plans to develop a public-facing best practices resource for the Expo community that will synthesize lessons learned from past and recent expositions to support future organizers, designers and collaborators through greater knowledge-sharing across the industry.