Editor's note: Comments from the District of Squamish delegation to the Shanghai World Expo are not available until Mayor Greg Gardner's return from holiday. In its absence, The Chief presents a personal account from William Roberts, executive director of the Whistler Forum for Leadership and Dialogue, who was part of a Sea to Sky Corridor delegation that is visiting China to promote the corridor.
Of those distinctive markers and turning points in our lives, the world's fairs don't normally come to mind. For me, there is Montreal Expo 1967, Vancouver Expo 1986, and now Shanghai Expo 2010.
No doubt for many in Whistler, Squamish and the Sea to Sky, the world of athletic pursuits, the IOC and the Olympics are more memorable than the civil pursuits of the IIE and World Expos. The excesses of both are legendary. But there is no escaping in our increasingly globalized community that these international extravaganzas are markers and significant turning points.
My three Expo experiences have in commonk, with millions of others, experiences of long lineups, whiz-bang pavilions and sanitized national pride. But when I think back, Montreal raised my young impressionable mind about habitats for humanity. Vancouver stimulated my early career fascination with cultural diversity.
And now, with last week's Whistler/Squamish/Sea to Sky experience at the Canada Pavilion at Shanghai Expo, I am reflecting on how we came away with our Western imaginations opened to whole worlds of new possibilities.
For most of our delegation of community ambassadors, it was the first visit to China. And Shanghai can be intimidating, even overwhelming. But finding our feet and preparing our presentations, we confidently told our story of Whistler's tourism and recreational opportunities in combination with Squamish's transportation and educational opportunities. Thanks to our MLA Joan McIntyre, we were able to showcase the corridor as a region rooted in ancient traditions, experienced in hosting the world, and committed to a green, sustainable future.
In a standing-room-only boardroom and VIP reception, we presented and promoted our Sea to Sky advantages through the Canada Pavilion platform on the international stage.
What is now rippling out from the messages to China and our "ambassadorial" experience is being pursued in different and targeted ways.
But one thing is certain. In a turning point sort of way, we experienced what former Chinese Premier Deng Xiao Ping famously called "a new opening up."
For the Chinese in the 1980s, that meant coming out from behind great walls of insecurity and an insular past. The "opening up" of China was a central message launching them on a globally-engaged trajectory we saw evidenced in its eye-popping and jaw-dropping realities in Shanghai last week.
For myself and for many of us in the delegations, our "opening up" has launched us on a two-fold path of welcoming the world here when they come, and also actively going out onto new platforms and global stages to tell our stories.
It is an "opening up" to a fast-changing world where we both showcase what we have learned here, and also listen and learn from what others in the global community are doing.
And in a most satisfying way, we opened up to each other as fellow travellers from West Vancouver, Squamish, Whistler and the corridor in a new land. We found more often than not that collectively we are stronger than individual voices trying to be heard, that we can put our own Great Walls behind us, and be open to mutually supportive messages and marketing.
They will close the 2010 Shanghai World Expo with fanfare, as they closed the previous Expos and Olympics. But what has opened up are endless new possibilities for Whistler, Squamish and a world community willing to listen and learn from each other.
