Visitors navigating the vast exhibition site of the recent Expo 2020 in Dubai had Isle of Wight-based Medina Publishing to thank for the millions of site maps, guidebooks and other publications that it produced for the event.
The 6-month long Expo 2020 Dubai, which came to an end last week having been delayed due to COVID-19, welcomed an estimated 20million visitors from all around the world to enjoy 192 country pavilions, restaurants and 30,000 live events.
To guide them around the 1,083-acre site, Medina Publishing produced 2million fold-out maps on sustainable, wood-free paper. Mobile robots helped to distribute these free to visitors and they were also at site kiosks.
Medina Publishing, which is based on Cowes High Street, also produced the 360-page visitor guide featuring 227 country and sponsor profiles, event information, infographics, photographs and custom-made maps. A total of 55,000 were printed – 37,500 in English and the remainder in Arabic – and sold in Expo stores on site.
Visitors could also purchase 2 other publications specially produced by Medina for Expo 2020: Children’s Tales from Around the World and Ordinary People Doing Extraordinary Things: Expo 2020 Innovation Impact Grant Programme. The 5-volume children’s book, which was produced in both English and Arabic, featured illustrations from participating countries and copies were presented to visiting VIPs. Ordinary People Doing Extraordinary Things covered the hundreds of worldwide Expo Live community initiatives supported by Expo 2020.
Medina’s Chris Capstick, a former UAE resident, directed the project to publish the commissioned titles for Expo and coordinated a professional creative team. Medina’s Jeff Eamon, based in Dubai, content-managed the English and Arabic editions of the books and maps.
Medina’s Managing Director, Peter Harrigan, said:
“It was a real privilege for us to work with the Expo team in Dubai and produce a range of titles including the visitor guide for the World Fair” adding that the project has contributed to export sales from the Island.
“As the curtain falls on this hugely successful event, we now turn our attention to launching six other titles related to the Arabian Peninsula, as well as new books related to our home on the Isle of Wight,”
