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Digital guestbook in Finland’s Kirnu pavilion at the Shanghai Expo08.11.2010 - 16:00
The largest world exhibition in history closed in Shanghai in October 2010. The half-year-long exhibition attracted 72 million visitors, Chinese officials reported. Finland was prominently involved in the event with its Kirnu pavilion. Forum Virium Helsinki provided Kirnu with a digital guestbook, in which visitors could enter their greetings from Shanghai. The guestbook was a great success with over 100 000 entries.
Kirnu visitors could leave their picture and a personal message in the guestbook. As a greeting for their messages, they received an email with a movie You Looked Great in Helsinki that shows the visitor arriving as a guest of honour in Helsinki. In the movie, they travel to Helsinki City Hall, where the Mayor Jussi Pajunen is waiting to greet them. You can check the video here: www.invitationtohelsinki.fi/welcome.
“The movie takes everyone photographed in the guestbook on a personal, visual journey to Helsinki. They will get to view the city from their own individual perspective and see themselves as a part of its architecture and community,” explains Helena Hyvärinen, Forum Virium Helsinki’s Executive Producer.
New contacts between Finland and China
There was two guestbook points in the Kirnu pavilion, on the first and second floors. Forum Virium Helsinki provided the service together with Greater Helsinki Promotion and Finpro.
“The aim of the digital guestbook is to promote cooperation between China and Finland and forge contacts between Shanghai and Helsinki. We want to show Helsinki as an innovative, cutting-edge city for digital services, which it undoubtedly is,” states Hyvärinen.
A Finnish version of the Digital Guestbook, Helsinki Guestbook, can already be found at Helsinki-Vantaa Airport.
Sights set on World Design Capital Helsinki 2012
The digital guestbook concept is connected to Invitation to Helsinki, a program developed by the City of Helsinki and Greater Helsinki Promotion to encourage international cooperation. With regards to the Shanghai guestbook, it is hoped that it will lead to actual invitations to Helsinki.
“Invitation to Helsinki is one of the City of Helsinki’s core concepts for new international co-operations. The digital guestbook is a key part of this”, Hyvärinen points out.
By 2012, when Helsinki becomes the World Design Capital, the goal is to expand the guestbook’s story bank and spread the concept to many other countries.
www.invitationtohelsinki.fi/category/guestbook
www.helsinkiguestbook.fi
www.invitationtohelsinki.fi
www.finlandatexpo2010.fi