"It's that kind of interface and that kind of incentive that assist industry both in Canada and British Columbia. From that point of view it was super successful from educating young people about the world they live and making industrial and commercial contacts. At expos you always see futuristic things.

"That's what really makes an expo when you can showcase the world. It's a real learning experience for the country hosting. Children would come to expo and they would learn all about China, what they produced, what their educational system was like. Then they would go to another pavilion and find out more. It was a real learning experience because there was something for everyone at expo."

McCarthy admits Vancouver's expo experience happened almost by accident. To celebrate the city's 100th anniversary in 1986, she got in contact with the Louvre art gallery in Paris to see about the possibility of touring the Mona Lisa across Canada, but little success. A chance meeting in London with Patrick Reid, who had overseen Canada's interest at six world expos, however, sealed the deal. With a reported budget of 800 million to 1 billion Canadian dollars, the fair was a great success in attracting more than 22 million visitors, but ultimately lost just over 300 million Canadian dollars.

Despite the financial loss, McCarthy said the expo was beneficial for the psychology of the country that at the time was emerging from a prolonged recession. In addition, there was a sense of patriotism that swept over Canada.

"It was very beneficial for the psychology of the country and that's difficult to put dollars to. Everything is not all dollars, but everything in dollars is psychological because if you pour money into a party, an event or something, you can be super successful if you do it right. That's what we did.

"For a person who doesn't know Shanghai, this is a great learning experience for them. They'll see the excitement of the opportunities, the young people who have come to life in the city and are doing incredible things, they'll see all of that and their perception will change. That's worth an awful lot in the global picture."

One area that benefited Vancouver tremendously following the fair was tourism. In 2008, tourism employed more than 131,000 people in the western province making it one of its largest sectors along with forestry, fishing and mining. It had 2008 revenues of more than 13.1 billion Canadian dollars, up 35 percent since 2002, according to Tourism BC statistics. "Expo provided us with a showcase to show the world and the world was very interested in seeing it. We had boom years for tourism after that ... afterwards, the people who came in droves and were interested in coming simply because of the media coverage that went all over the world," McCarthy said.

"When the whole thing finished the world did know about us. Someday they would like to come to British Columbia, Canada. That was kind of the mantra. And people did come in droves. Tourism was at its peak during those years."

She adds, however, that the Shanghai organizer needed to recognize that "a country can't live on parties" alone, they also needed to be serious about the business end of it.

"The business end of it is just as much the hospitality plan quotient and the business plan quotient together.

"It is very important that countries envision what they want for the values of their people and what the people themselves want for a very good way of life."

(Xinhua News Agency April 28, 2010)