What does it really take to deliver a successful World Expo Pavilion?
With 200 days to go until Expo 2027 Belgrade, we caught up with Trivandi's Pavilions Lead, 
Sawyer Franz, to find out what makes a great pavilion, the challenges behind the scenes and the people bringing it all to life.
For visitors, an Expo pavilion is a chance to discover another country, experience its culture and connect with its people. Behind the scenes, it takes months of planning, hundreds of decisions and a team that can keep everything running, day after day.
Sawyer Franz knows this better than most.
Having helped deliver national pavilions at Expo 2020 Dubai and Expo 2025 Osaka, Sawyer now leads Trivandi's global pavilions work, supporting participating countries with services ranging from strategy and operational readiness to programming, events, protocol, venue design, day-to-day delivery and dissolution.
His next challenge is Expo 2027 Belgrade, where he is leading Trivandi's role as Operations Partner for the USA Pavilion. With 200 days until opening, preparations are gathering pace.
In this interview, Sawyer shares what's happening behind the scenes, what experience has taught him and what advice he'd give to countries planning their next Expo pavilion.
With 200 days to go, what stage is the planning at and what are you focusing on right now?
Expos are crazy projects. There's a very extreme sense of urgency, no matter how many days away you are. It could be three years away or three days away, and there's always urgency!
Right now, we're focused on getting the right vendors and the right team in place and putting together the operational plans. That includes security, cleaning and operational services providers, as well as recruitment.
Trivandi will have about 250 staff working across the pavilions within Belgrade, so the next 200 days are about onboarding, training and getting everyone ready.
It's a marathon before the marathon begins.
Ultimately, it's about translating countries' dreams into operational reality.
What is one decision early in a pavilion that will make or break its success?
Having a good foundational plan for the goals and objectives of the pavilion.
If your goal is for everybody to leave with a smile, all your decisions go from that. You'll prioritise the experience and how people speak to each other. If your goal is to get as many people through the exhibition as possible, you'll make different decisions about staffing and how people move through the space.
A pavilion is very much like a little company. It's got its own culture and identity, and it needs great leadership.
For us, the fundamentals and operational basics have to be right. If they're not, the rest doesn't really fall into place.
What separates a pavilion that looks amazing from one that actually works?
People don't remember the incredible looks of a pavilion if they've had a really bad experience.
You have to think about the design as though you're walking through the space with 200 other people, and you all need to have a good experience. What would make you feel more comfortable? How do people move through the exhibition?
But you can’t forget the operational spaces.
If you don't have enough storage, a workroom or enough bathrooms, you might have a great exhibition that works for the first month. But by month four or five, people are burnt out from working in spaces that aren't enjoyable, and that starts to affect the experience.
A pavilion can only be as strong as its staff and operational teams.
What's the one lesson from previous Expos that you'll bring to Belgrade?
Resilience and flexibility.
Every single day is different, even though you want them to be similar. There's always something you have to adjust to.
For Expo 2020 Dubai, it was COVID. For Expo 2025 Osaka, it was import rules, site access and accreditation. Belgrade seems to have thought through a lot of things in detail, which is really positive, but you never know exactly what to expect.
You also have to make sure you're keeping yourself healthy and connected to your support network. An Expo is a long event. Even a specialised Expo, at three months, is a long time to operate an event site every single day.
The first minute of the day needs to have exactly the same energy as the last minute. That's challenging, but for many visitors, it might be their first and only time interacting with that country.
It needs to be a great experience every time.
If you could give one piece of advice to a country planning its first pavilion, what would it be?
Start earlier if possible!
Typically, our sweet spot is getting involved around 12 to 18 months before an Expo, although we've also had projects where we've only had a month to get everything ready. I'd like to never do that again!
But I'd also say allow for creativity.
Sometimes countries look at a pavilion as just a showcase, like a museum.
Pavilions are meant to be living, breathing organisms. They have personalities.
The experience doesn't have to be the same every day. Your programming can be completely different in month one compared with month three. Allow for the unexpected. Go for the wacky, weird and crazy ideas. Expos are meant to be showcases of innovation and cool, fun things with cool, fun people.
Lean into the weird!
How can a country maximise its investment in a World Expo?
I think the magic really happens when countries work together to create something that hasn't been done before.
For example, imagine a step group from the US working with a flamenco group from Spain to create a performance together. That's not something you'd typically see, but it's two different cultures coming together to create something new.
You get audiences from both countries who then want to bring their friends.
I think it's important to allow that organic programming to take place. Countries should have a clear idea of what they want to do, but also be open to saying, "We didn't think about doing that. Let's try it."
Try to do the unexpected.
And finally, what are you most looking forward to about Expo 2027?
I like building teams. I like seeing how people come together.
One of the reasons I like Expos so much is because they're awesome career moves for people, and they can change careers in so many different ways.
People I worked with in Dubai who had never worked in events or on a World Expo are now working on the Olympics in LA28. It becomes this entire career shift.
I'm looking forward to seeing that happen again. I might not see it for four or five years, but someone working on Expo 2027 could be working on a World Cup or an Olympic Games in the future.
