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Walt Disney World’s busiest day tops out around 85,000 visitors. Expo 2025 Osaka was averaging 230,000 a day. What stayed with me wasn’t the scale of the buildings, it was watching our Youth Ambassadors turn a national exhibit into a series of personal connections.
Read MoreAt the USA Pavilion in Osaka, visitors could feel what it’s like to launch into space while 230,000 people moved through the Expo that day alone. A world expo is a little like the Olympics of people-to-people diplomacy. The most important result may not be how many people walked through a pavilion, but how many left with a new idea about another country.
Read MoreThey came from 47 states and spoke 22 languages between them, all training in Fort Worth before representing the United States at Expo 2025 Osaka. What impressed me most wasn’t their talent, it was their willingness to become a stranger’s first personal connection to America. Diplomacy doesn’t belong only to governments.
Read MoreFort Worth had the honor of hosting Sister Cities International’s official training for 89 Youth Ambassadors before they left for six months at Expo 2025 Osaka. We introduced them to the Fort Worth Herd, Billy Bob’s, and a healthy dose of Tex-Mex before sending them off as citizen diplomats. A young person may arrive thinking of a role as a temporary job and leave understanding they’ve become something more.
Read MoreBefore millions of visitors ever walked through Expo 2025 Osaka, I got to see the USA Pavilion behind the scenes with Sister Cities International. More than 160 nations were facing the same challenge: how do you represent an entire country in a limited space? The finished result looks effortless because the preparation was not.
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