Curtains Rise at 2021 Winter Sports Expo

BEIJING, Sept. 6, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- On 3rd Sept., the city of Beijing witnessed the grand opening of the 2021 World Winter Sports (Beijing) Expo (hereinafter referred to as WWSE). WWSE was co-organized by Beijing Olympic City Development Association (BODA) and International Data Group (IDG), co-sponsored by Beijing Olympic City Development Promotion Center and IDG World Expo Ltd since 2016.This Expo attracted 500+ brands from 20+ countries for exposition in an area of 20,000 m², including 8 main sections and 12 categories. The abundant content on Winter Olympics preparation, ice and snow industry technology, ice and snow culture, winter sports equipment, ice and snow tourism displayed in the Expo allowed the audience to witness the strength of ice and snow industry brands, the vitality of ice and snow economy and the charm of ice and snow culture. Italy was invited to this Expo as the country of honor, whose exposition, themed "Italy in the Hills", comprehensively demonstrated the charm of Italy as a major power in winter sports, in a bid to promote the upgrade in international ice and snow industry exchanges. 

On the day of opening, officials including Cai Qi, member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, Secretary of the CPC Beijing Municipal Committee, President of Beijing Organizing Committee for the 2022 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games (BOCOG); Chen Jining, Deputy Secretary of the CPC Beijing Municipal Committee, Mayor of Beijing and Executive President of the Beijing Organizing Committee for the 2022 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games (BOCOG); Zhang Yankun, Deputy Secretary of the CPC Beijing Municipal Committee, came to observe the exposition sites of BOCOG, Chinese Olympic Committee, Italy national exhibition delegation, and fully acknowledged the preparations for WWSE.

As the world's largest exposition for the ice and snow industry with the highest authority, the WWSE is not only a platform for the world's ice and snow industry to showcase its development achievements, but also a stage for ice and snow industry powers at home and overseas to "reveal their muscles". This year, the WWSE continued to be held in conjunction with 2021 China International Fair for Trade in Services (CIFTIS), showcasing abundant content and optimized experience for exposition.

Now is a key moment in the final sprint for the 2022 Winter Olympic Games preparation, thus the latest progress with the Winter Olympic Games drew a lot of attention. In the exposition, BOCOG applied digital display technology to give a more straight-forward view of progress made in venue construction, sports event operation, passing on philosophies such as green and cost-effective Olympic. Themed "From Tokyo to Beijing", Chinese Olympic Committee's pavilion demonstrated Chinese national team's efforts during the Summer Olympics and hard work in the preparation for the Winter Olympics. Olympian Zhang Dan and her teammates made a surprise show-up at the pavilion, and gave a marvelous figure skating performance, fully manifesting the charm of winter sports. Zhang also shared a lot of knowledge about figure skating and her unforgettable experiences in figure skating matches, which further sparked the audience's enthusiasm for interaction. Yanqing pavilion not only showcased the important achievements in "Winter Olympics preparation" and "Winter Olympics assurance", but also presented a wealth of examples for technology empowering Olympics, such as AI autonomous interview robots, motion capture system for Winter Olympic sports games and 5G ski ticket auto-vending machine, etc. Shijingshan pavilion applied the display style of "main screen + ceiling screen" to showcase its great progress in constructing the "300 million people engaging in winter sports" demonstration zone. Moreover, the 300 m² real ice rink in the pavilion offered a teaser of the fun in Olympic winter sports, and interactions such as Winter Olympics blessing stamps also contributed to the abundant audience experience. As the official city upgrade service partner of 2022 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games, Shougang served as a great example of combining Olympic sports with city development, reutilization of industrial heritage and revitalization of industrial zone.

WWSE has always been working towards introducing more resources from major powers of winter sports and deepening global communication in ice and snow industry. The Expo is playing a bigger role globally, with international participation over 60%. As the country of honor, Italy's 500 m² pavilion, including 22 booths for Italian National Tourist Board (ENIT), Veneto and 20 Italian enterprises, showcased an abundance of content on winter sports gears, ice and snow technology equipment, winter tourism resources. Moreover, ENIT also held interactive activities on-site with strong local features, enabling a vivid demonstration of their customs and the charm of ice and snow industry. In 2026, Italy will once again take over the baton of Winter Olympics. By tapping the Olympics as a great opportunity, China and Italy will embrace a broader prospect for cooperation in the ice and snow industry.

In Austria pavilion, famous brands including Doppelmayr, AXESS, Wintersteiger, HEAD, Snow51 showcased outdoor ski resort equipment, ski gears, skiing courses and training, ice-making equipment and technology, demonstrating the advantage of "Made in Austria". Japan pavilion showcased the abundant winter sports and winter tourism resources in Sapporo, Iwate Prefecture, Gunma Prefecture and other regions. The "hand-painted Ema" and "kimono try-on" experience on-site unleashed the charm of Japanese traditional culture. In addition, Czech Republic, Finland, Germany, Belarus and other countries also gave a comprehensive display of their national image for trade in services and advantage in ice and snow industry resources in areas of industry service, sports equipment, gear manufacturing, ice and snow culture, ice and snow tourism, etc.

In this Expo, regional exposition delegations from Jilin, Heilongjiang, Changbai Mountain, Yulin and Altay showcased their ice and snow culture and tourism resources as well as products with distinct local features, and comprehensively demonstrated the advantage of local ice and snow industry and achievements in the development of ice and snow economy. Jilin pavilion showcased rime, skiing, hot spring, naked-eye 3D, starry night tourism experience, fully demonstrating local ice and snow tourism resources. In Changbai Mountain pavilion, bridge-shaped slide design, VR skiing experience, LED large screen display enabled a vivid view of its picturesque ice and snow scenery and unique ice and snow resources. The pavilion of Yulin from the northwest of China displayed cashmere products with strong local features and outdoor winter sports casual wear, demonstrating Yulin's commitment to carbon neutrality and creating a green industrial chain. In Altay pavilion, traditional Xinjiang ethnic singing and dancing performances and ancient fur skiing developed people's interest to visit Altay, further introducing Altay's ice and snow resources to the world.

Technological, intelligent, multimedia means of display enabled brilliant exposition and unique interaction of numerous famous enterprises in the ice and snow industry from home and abroad. As a leading enterprise in snowmaking, TechnoAlpin put snow-gun-style snowmaker used for sports events and ENGO ice resurfacing machine used in sports on-ice events at center-stage. The real snowing scene in the pavilion gave the audience the most direct experience of real snow. AST pavilion demonstrated their ability to construct an international-standard ice rink in 48 hours, with fantastic on-ice performance and a variety of on-ice experience attracting a huge crowd of attention. In the center of Sunac Ice and Snow pavilion, a spinnable 8-diameter-large cross-section three-dimensional model of ski resort became the limelight, as this high-tech device displayed a real-time and dynamic view of data for indoor ski park design, cold and warm area operation, consumer experience, etc. At the same time, the audience can also interact with the model through touching, motion sensing and other technological methods, to get a real impression of large indoor ski parks, thus develop interest for snow sports. Moreover, TRUE Sports, SWANS, SINANO, EUROJOY, Shangxue Sports and other globally renowned brands all demonstrated their latest exploration and achievements on-site.

To further gather premium resources from home and overseas, and create a grand feast for more audience, this WWSE continued to carry out the events in the "online + offline" model, leveraged modern IT approaches to create "WWSE on cloud" by holding "cloud exposition", "cloud connection-building", "cloud negotiation", "cloud signing" and other year-long routine online connection-building events, all in a bid to serve global ice and snow industry powers by providing a more premium platform for exposition and communication, and to enable a more convenient and intelligent viewing experience for the audience. 

For more information about Winter Sports Expo, please visit: http://www.wwse2022.com/, or follow our WeChat official account "World Winter Sports Expo".

SOURCE IDG World Expo