Juan Carlos Diaz won 2018 Shanghai Magnolia Award, Photo from Xiang Xinrong　　

　　Mr. Juan Carlos Diaz, Photo from Xiang Xinrong　　

　　Awarding ceremony, Photo from Xiang Xinrong

　　On the afternoon of September 12, the awarding ceremony of 2018 Shanghai Magnolia Award was held at Jing An Shangri-La, and 50 outstanding foreigners from 19 countries were honored. Mr. Zhang Xiaosong, director of the Foreign Affairs Office of Shanghai Municipal People's Government and officials from eight other Shanghai municipal government departments and committees issued medals and certificates to the award-winners. Mr. Juan Carlos Diaz, consultant of the BIE, was one of them.

　　Shanghai Magnolia Award is one of Shanghai's awards for distinguished foreigners. It was established by Shanghai Municipal Government in 1989 to recognize foreigners who make outstanding contributions to Shanghai's economic and social development as well as its foreign exchanges. To date, 1,158 foreigners have been honored.

　　Mr. Diaz and World Expos　　

　　In September 2013, Mr. Diaz visited the Expo 2010 Shanghai Memorial Exhibition.

　　Born in Spain on March 30, 1960, Mr. Juan Carlos Diaz has rich experience in exhibition design and has completed many multinational projects. He has been engaged with World Expos since 1990 and is a long-standing consultant of the BIE.　　

　　In September 2013, Mr. Diaz introduced the history of World Expos at a meeting.

　　Exhibition Design is one of the key partnership projects between the BIE and WEM. The BIE recommends Mr. Diaz to WEM who is an exhibition consultant with rich experience with World Expos and a consultant for many World Expo bidding countries and host countries. Mr. Diaz is mainly responsible for planning the World Expo History section of WEM. Mr. Diaz also became attached to Shanghai.

　　Since 2013, Mr. Diaz hasadvised and guided WEM's history exhibition, as an exhibition expert from the BIE. He is involved in the whole process from exhibition proposal, program detailing to implementation of exhibition.　　

　　Mr. Diaz and Dimitri Kerkentzes, Deputy Secretary-General of the BIE in Shanghai in February 2014.

　　Creating a world-class exhibition

　　In early 2014, Mr. Diaz came to Shanghai to see WEM with his own eyes. Within just a few months, depending on his 20 years of experience and knowledge, Mr. Diaz produced a draft exhibition proposal of about 200 pages for the history exhibition section of WEM, outlining the display dimension, exhibition positioning and display content. Not only comprehensive and detailed, the proposalwas innovative and unique. It was highly recognized by domestic experts and the BIE, laying a solid foundation for the subsequent development of the history section of WEM.　　

　　In March 2016, he and the WEM team surveyed the external space conditions of the WEM.　　

　　In December 2016, he and the WEM team surveyed the structure the WEM.

　　During the five years of participating in exhibition preparation, Mr. Diaz travelled between Europe and Shanghai very often. As WEM is an international project, its exhibition proposal was completed by the exhibition teams of China, Italy and Spain. During the period, Mr. Diaz had a video conference with the exhibition teams every week. He came to Shanghai to give instructions every four months to make sure that the project went smoothly.

　　The exhibition arrangement and installation were completed within one year, from project tender to final opening. Mr. Diaz showed 100% understanding. In order to improve work efficiency, he went to Milan to discuss the plan with his team at his own expense once and again. Whenever he came to Shanghai, he would ignore the time difference and the exhaustion from long-distance flight. After he got off the plane, he immediately arranged to communicate with the museum and the exhibition teams to advance the project.　　

　　In April 2017, the holographic theater was filmed by a multimedia production company.

　　At the same time, Mr. Diaz never gave up the quality of exhibition. The WEM project suffered from lack of information of early World Expos. Sometimes the exhibition teams proposed exhibitions that would increase the fun, but as the story lacked historical support, he would firmly deny the proposals. To solve the problem, he took over the respsonbility to collect historical document and used his resources for World Expo research to assist WEM to build a research network with 29 museums, universities and government agencies in 12 countries. Within the shortest time, we got very valuable historical materials supporting our World Expo stories.

　　He had tried to connect with follow-up agencies of World Expos in Europe. At his own cost, he flew to their premise, obtaining the complete archives of Expo1958 Belgium, Horticultural Expositions and the Milan Triennial, which enhanced the professionalism of the entire exhibition.

　　Mr. Diaz is still a "detail addict".To produce the desired effect, under his leadership, the WEM staff tuned and tested the background music of each exhibition hall every day for a week until late at night. Taking into account the ambient sounds and visitor noise at various times, he supervised the debugging effort until the test was completed 2 days before the official opening.　　

　　In April 2017, Mr. Diaz introduced the exhibition to the media.

　　In the spring of 2017, at the last moment before the opening, he visited Shanghai four times and supervised the exhibit production and installation in the exhibition hall full of smoke and pungent smell. He kept working in Shanghai for more than 40 days.

　　"I am proud of every project I work for. The challenges give me a lot of excitement, and I have learned a lot from these projects. WEM is no doubt one of my most important projects, because that's why I can stand here today," Mr. Diaz said.

　　Mr. Diaz standing in front of a 3D printed model in the second exhibition hall of WEM.

　　To give the exhibition the professionalism, authority and international vision of an official museum of the BIE, Mr. Diaz has utilized his research experience about World Expos for over 20 years and led many national teams to harness world wisdom.

　　On May 1, 2017, WEM was officially open. The Expo History exhibition designed by Mr. Diaz was highly appreciated by exhibition experts and the visitors.

　　Actively expanding the exchange and cooperation platform

　　After the opening of the WEM, Mr. Diaz continued to offer his help. To attract more attention and gather more exhibition and academic resources, he built a bridge between WEM and many European museums. He has visited the Vienna Museum, the Madrid City Museum, the Seville Maritime Museum related to World Expos and recommended WEM to them, facilitating international communication and expanding the possibility of overseas cooperation.　　

　　i-Unit robot entering WEM in August this year

　　While continuing to collect information about the history of World Expos in Europe, Mr. Diaz also tried to collect valuable Expo history exhibits for WEM. He contacted the Toyota subsidiary in Spain and then the Toyota headquarters. Through his efforts, Toyota Motor Corporation donated a Toyota i-Unit robot to WEM in late 2017. The robot was first showned at Expo 2005 Aichi and caught a lot of attention.　　

　　Mr. Diaz and the WEM staff

　　An "ambassador" of Shanghai　　

　　Mr. Diaz in Shanghai

　　Mr. Diaz loves Shanghai, and in this modern city he feels like he is living in the future world. The architecture here is amazing and the people are friendly. He has also seen the changes that the Expo has brought to Shanghai.

　　In the past five years, Mr. Diaz has regarded Shanghai as his second hometown. In order to better communicate with the Chinese team, he even hired a teacher to teach him Chinese.

　　In his work with WEM, he is deeply attracted by the Chinese culture and Shanghai's charm. He has learned that the city of Shanghai is not only an international financial center, but also an international metropolis committed to safeguarding its cultural heritage.

　　Although he did not participate in Expo 2010 Shanghai, he understands the post-World Expo planning and appreciates the conservation of the World Expo legacies through the WEM project. When he advises World Expo bidders such as Kazakhstan and Russia, he always mentions Expo 2010 Shanghai as a success story.　　

　　In September 2018, Mr. Diaz at WEM

　　Mr. Diaz said more than once that Expo 2010 Shanghai is a milestone in the history of the Expo. It is worthy of study and research by the bidding countries and future host countries. He has become an ambassador of Shanghai.

　　[Person Profile]

　　Mr. Juan Carlos Diaz was born in Spain on March 30, 1960. In 1984, he graduated with a Bachelor's degree in art history from UCM, the oldest and largest university in Spain. He graduated with Master's degree in art theory and art collection from UCM in 1986. He speaks Spanish and English, andis also fluent in French, Italian and Portuguese. He has rich exhibition design experience, having completed many multinational projects. He has engaged in World Expo projects since 1990. He has been an exhibition consultant for many countries and has been a long-term cooperation expert of the BIE. Since 2013, he has worked as a consultant for WEM.

　　From 2016 to present, he has advised Ekaterina or Russia to bid for Expo 2025.

　　From 2013 to 2017, he was WEM's exhibition design consultant.

　　From 2013 to 2016, he was creative director of Expo 2017 Astana, Kazakhstan.

　　From 2012 to 2013, he was creative director of Kazakhstan Pavilion at Expo 2015 Milan, Italy.

　　From 2009 to 2011, he was visiting professor of UEM.

　　From 2014 to 2017, he was consultant on the theme development of the Ekaterina Expo project.