The Chinese Expo bureau has issued instructions for this matter which you can download here:

Media Pass instructions

Further, the Chinese Expo bureau has made a template on which you can submit you data that you can download here:

Media Pass template

When you have read the instructions and filled out the template you can send it to the Swedish Committee for Expo 2010 in Shanghai at this address:

may.zhang@swedishtrade.se

If you should have any questions, please contact our coordinator in Shanghai Wendy Zhu, contact information can be found under contacts.

To all knitting enthusiasts from north to the south of Sweden we wish to express our gratitude for your wonderful contributions to “Knit for Sweden”.

More than a month ago we asked Swedish knit enthusiasts to knit mittens for the Swedish pavilion at the world exposition and we got response. Every mitten has been a display of creativity and skill and they will surely grace the exhibition at the Swedish pavilion during Expo 2010.

Many of the contributors have written a few lines and one of them is Margareta Semborn from Linköping, born 1931, who writes:

“After I read about the theme of the Swedish pavilion exhibition my thoughts turned to my childhood’s winters in Norrland – snow, chill, northern lights and long nights. That is why my contribution is dark blue like the northern sky in winter time and pink and white like the aura of the northern lights so often was”.

Contributions have arrived from young as well as old, from handicraft unions and from school classes. We are moved and impresses by the quality and width of Swedish craftsmanship and the will to contribute to an exhibition that will inspire and warmth the Chinese visitors at Expo 2010 in Shanghai.

The training has been a journey through Sweden as a nation, as well as a journey in time and space. The education is based on substantial knowledge on both Sweden and China and on how we build relations based on our values in communication with the surrounding world.

Lecturers from Swedish authorities, business society, organizations and China connoisseurs along with the Swedish Committee for Expo 2010 have jointly and in discussion with one another and the guides, elucidated Sweden´s participation at the world exposition, this time as well as in the past.

When asked – Do you feel ready for this? Eric Osterman, one of the selected guides’s answered:

-          It feels incredibly exciting, I´m sure this assignment will lead to life long memories. There are still some things that are not clear to me, for instance what our tasks will be exactly and housing, but this will work out shortly.

The last and final training will take place in Shanghai, at the pavilion site. Once there, focus will be on practical implements and application of previous sessions. Hopefully the training will inspire all to become ambassadors for the small country with the large ideas.

Pictures Stockholm: Paul Philip Abrigo.

More pictures at flickr.

The event will focus on how greater Chinese-Nordic cooperation and interaction can contribute to the development and deployment of clean energy and climate technologies. The event will be held at the Nordic national pavilions and will feature speeches and panel discussions from experts and leaders from the public and private sector. Among the confirmed speakers are Halldór Ásgrímsson, Secretary General of the Nordic Council of Minsters, as well as other ministerial-level delegates. Chinese and Nordic delegates to the event will represent public and private energy R&D, as well as bilateral cooperation initiatives, creating a unique networking opportunity.

Cooperation between China and the Nordic region in energy and climate research, development and deployment has excellent potential to match needs to complementary competencies, and unlock synergies in energy technology development. China is fast emerging as a key player in the development of many clean energy technologies, and is implementing these technologies on a large scale and at a rapid rate. Together the countries of the Nordic region – Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden – offer both competencies in a diverse range of clean energy technologies and unique experiences in international energy R&D cooperation.

Linking complementary strengths and realising multilateral cooperation between China and the Nordic region form the motivation behind this key event. It aims to build Chinese-Nordic research networks, foster knowledge of respective energy R&D activities, promote complementary energy and climate solutions, help to establish a base for Chinese-Nordic multilateral cooperation, and lastly provide input to a platform for furthering these objectives. The event is being organised by Nordic Energy Research, an agency of the Nordic Council of Ministers, in partnership with the Nordic Institute of Asian Studies.

For more information, visit www.nordicenergy.net/china
Contact:
Heidi Hautajärvi, hh@nordicenergy, net +47 95 700699
Benjamin Donald Smith, bs@nordicenergy.net +47 9040 6203

One hundred Chinese design students are competing in designing products to be sold in the Swedish pavilion at the World Expo in Shanghai 2010. The winning products must be innovative, sustainable and useful in everyday life.

Gustav Gullberg and Daniel Eriksson, industrial designers from design agency Transformer and former Konstfack students, participate as mentors. They describe meeting the students as being interesting from both a cultural and a commercial point of view.

– There are definite differences in the way a Swedish industrial designer approaches a challenge, compared with a Chinese one. Engaging Chinese designers to better appeal to that market reflects a Swedish attitude to the outside world. We instead contribute with processes and practices based on observations of ordinary people’s needs and problems. Designs that help people, says Gustav Gullberg.

Right now all entries are being judged by the Tongji University’s own jury. The ones they choose will in the next step be judged by an international jury, consisting of Ted Hesselbom from the Röhsska Museum and Lars Dafnäs, Design Director at IKEA, and Chinese representatives that remain to be announced. The idea is to put the winning designs into production and sell them in the Swedish pavilion.

– The students are asked to find inspiration from the theme for the Swedish Pavilion,”Spirit of Innovation”, but it is not enough to develop an innovative product. The Expo2010 goes under the theme ”Better City, Better Life” and is about sustainability. We want to see product that can be used in everyday life and they’re welcome to be produced from recycled or recyclable materials, says Annika Rembe, Commissioner General of Sweden’s participation in the Expo2010.

For more information contact:
Tove Engstrom, Communications manager, tove.engstrom@expo2010.se, +46 761-06 74 66
Gustav Gullberg, gustav.gullberg@transformator.net, or Daniel Eriksson, +46 703 99 38 34.

The young and enthusiastic group has had a busy fortnight visiting Official Partners to the Committee for Sweden’s participation at world Expo 2010 on a tour covering large parts of Sweden.
The program included everything from visits to production sites and a day care center to test driving Volvo cars as well as tours to amongst other Tekniska Museet where they were greeted by State Secretary to the Minister of Trade Gunnar Wieslander.

In connection to the Expo 2010 theme Better City, Better Life, Swedish companies, authorities and business regions of Göteborg, Malmö, Stockholm and Småland-Blekinge were happy to showcase a wide range of different solutions to urban sustainability and green urban planning much sought after due to Chinas rapidly growing urban population.

The general impression has been very positive and though more time for filming and photographing was a general wish, the journalists have enjoyed their stay, leaving comments such as:

“The trip has exceeded my expectations in many ways. I’ve gotten a lot of useful material and information for my newspaper. I especially enjoyed the visit yesterday to Hammarby Sjöstad preschool Vittra; it was nice to connect with children and locals, not just from a corporate perspective.”

It was a tired but good humored group that left Sweden, giving thanks to all for a well planned and interesting tour of the Swedish Spirit of Innovation.

“The BIE is an international organisation that owns the term ‘World Expositions’, in the same way as the International Olympic Committee owns the term ‘Olympic Games’,” explains Staffan.

In the summer, Staffan was asked by the BIE Secretariat whether he would accept a nomination to the position of chair of the Information and Communication Committee. After consulting with his employer in Stockholm, Staffan accepted. Thus, on Tuesday 24 November, he was chosen by the BIE General Assembly as chair of the committee - which is made up of nine members - and thus also appointed as one of the organisation’s four vice presidents. As chairman, Staffan will lead the committee meetings that take place twice a year. The work will mainly involve providing information about the BIE’s activities, i.e. reaching out to the business sector and the public around the world and keeping the organisation’s 156 member states updated on its day-to-day activities.The BIE determines the guidelines that apply for the implementation of World Expos, and it decides which country/city will be organiser.

Next stop Shanghai

The larger World Expos take place once every five years and the organiser is normally chosen seven to eight years before the actual event. Between the larger events that last six months, smaller expositions are also held. These often take place two or three years after a larger exposition and last for three months. In his role as Swedish member of the General Assembly, Staffan voted for the first time in 2002 on next year’s Expo in Shanghai.

“The World Expo in Shanghai will be the largest ever. So far, 240 participants have registered, not only countries but also international and other organisations. The Chinese authorities are expecting the Expo to attract 70 million visitors,” he says.

“A special secretariat - the Committee for Sweden’s Participation in World Expo 2010 - is responsible for the Swedish pavilion in Shanghai. With his broad experience, Staffan will be acting as adviser to the secretariat.

Text provided by Foreign ministry Press service +46 8 4055730

Your help is needed! Please contribute to the Swedish exhibition by bringing out your knitting yarn and your creativity to produce a pair of mittens.

To form a different finish to the pavilion experience, we plan to let hundreds of mittens wave goodbye to the visitors as they leave. This way, adding culture, business, research, politics and Swedish everyday life to the overall exhibition.

The theme of the Swedish pavilion is ”Spirit of Innovation” and tells the story of the small country Sweden and how it was able to give rise to so many large companies. Sweden is not only recognized for world leading inventions and technical innovations but also for our care taking system that involves all citizen, old as well as young – and what can better symbolize that relation but a warm soft hand in the shape of a mitten?

With inspiration from the traditional Swedish ”Lovikavante” and the colorful logo of the Swedish pavilion, we would like to engage knitting enthusiasts from all over the country. Send the mittens to Fei Fang, Springtime, Box 3295, 103 65 Stockholm by January 20th at the latest.

Now the process of recruiting guides to the Swedish pavilion is finished. Out of the nearly 700 applicants, 160 people were interviewed. Currently, 50 people have been offered work in connection with the exhibition period between May 1st and 31st of October 2010.

– We got a great response and we are happy so many want to work in the Swedish Pavilion, says Christine Engdahl, one of those responsible for the recruitment process at the Swedish committee to World Expo 2010.
Those who were selected for interviews were invited to specially organized recruitment workshops – one in Stockholm and two in Shanghai. On site the candidates, who are primarily young Chinese with connection to Sweden and Swedes with knowledge of China and good language skills in Chinese, were engaged in a series of exercises connected to stress management, creativity and interpersonal skills – qualities important for the job as a guide in the Swedish pavilion.
So far, 50 people have been offered work in the Swedish pavilion.
– It has been inspiring to meet with all candidates and it was especially fun to see so many Swedish and Chinese people with experience of both countries, says Christine Engdahl.
During the World Expo 2010 in Shanghai a total of 70 million visitors, mostly from China, are expected to visit. Three million people are expected to visit the Swedish pavilion. 

Facts World Expo 2010

The World Expo is expected to be the biggest World Expo to date, with more than 200 participating countries and organizations. Sweden is participating with its own pavilion, funded by the Swedish government and private businesses with 70 million SEK each. The overall theme of the World Expo is “Better City, Better Life”, reflecting people’s wish for a better life in the cities, and a call for strategies for sustainable, integrated, urban development.