The Foreign Service Journal, May 2023

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | MAY 2023 59 COVID hospitalizations or serious incidents. At a time (2021- 2022) when most U.S. embassies and consulates had suspended all representational and in-person public diplomacy activities, we welcomed more than 1.5 million people to the USA Pavilion. From the First Guest to the Last With the January 2021 change in administration, and Ambas- sador Rakolta’s departure as chief of mission and commis- sioner general, we waited to hear from the White House about new appointees. In August, we learned that the White House intended to appoint businessman Bob Clark as commissioner general. Like Ambassador Rakolta, Clark was a builder and, again, the right man, at the right time, for the job. Clark and his wife, Jane, arrived a week before the pavilion’s opening to participate in the series of test events that the pavilion’s director, Kevin Solon, and deputy director, Franz Sawyer, had organized. When the expo opened on Oct. 1, 2021, the USA Pavilion also opened its doors with a fully functional exhibit including food, beverage, and retail, all ready for our first guests: the Ruler of Dubai, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, his sons, and ministers. Unusual for a world’s fair, Expo 2020 Dubai had a very strong business program. The UAE leaned into its location as a regional hub for trade, travel, and commerce. The organizers put together 10 theme weeks to curate cultural and commercial programming, aligning the weeks with Dubai’s regional trade shows such as Gul- food and Arab Health. Our pavilion organized an average of one business event a day, including small meetings, all-day confer- ences, and marquee events. My deputy, Nadia Ziyadeh, organized our speakers program (53 speakers!) and put her Arabic to good use managing the local and international media (600 published pieces across 200 outlets) and the pavilion’s almost one million digital engagements (see her May 2022 State Magazine article) . One of the pavilion highlights was U.S. national day on March 6, 2022, and the nine-person presidential delegation led by Sec- retary of Commerce Gina Raimondo. Throughout the six-month event, every day one or two participating countries would cel- ebrate its national day with a series of cultural, commercial, and political events. Accompanied by the Under Secretary of Com- merce for International Trade and then Director General of the Foreign Commercial Service Marisa Lago, Secretary Raimondo kicked off Commerce’s premier overseas trade mission, Trade Winds, held for the first time in the Middle East, with more than 100 American companies. The University of Minnesota marching band led our national day parade through the Expo grounds, rais- ing further public awareness about the U.S. bid to host Expo 2027, a specialized exhibition on health and wellness, in Minnesota.