Evaluation of Canada's participation in the 2010 World Exposition in Shanghai, China : Évaluation de la participation du Canada à l'Exposition universelle de 2010, à Shanghai (Chine)

From May 1 to October 31, 2010, the city of Shanghai, China, hosted a universal world exposition ("Expo 2010") under the theme Better City, Better Life. Canada was one of 246 participating countries or international organisations, and the theme of its pavilion was The Living City: inclusive, sustainable, creative. The goals of Canada's participation were: to contribute to Canada's foreign and trade policy objectives and to strengthen economic, diplomatic and cultural ties with China; to shape and strengthen the Canada brand in China; to create a favourable and lasting impression of Canada as a democratically inclusive, culturally diverse, technologically advanced, environmentally aware, bilingual and multicultural country; to share Canada's expertise in many fields related to sustainable urban development, pluralism, and innovation; and to communicate that Canada's cities are vibrant, sustainable, peaceful and ideal places in which to visit, study, work and live. To achieve these goals, Canada structured its participation around three main components: a Canada Pavilion in Shanghai; complementary programming delivered in China; and outreach programming delivered in Canada and China. ... Expo 2010 was a world exposition like no other, and Canada's participation unfolded in different circumstances than those observed in prior world fairs. Consequently, the evaluation of Canada's participation in Expo 2010 had to pay special attention to contextual issues that influenced efforts to achieve the project's expected results. The evaluation was conducted between May 2010 and March 2012. Its purpose was to fulfil the obligation of the Minister of Canadian Heritage to report on the results of Canada's participation in international expositions. The evaluation was managed by PCH's Evaluation Services Directorate (ESD), Office of the Chief Audit and Evaluation Executive. The ESD carried out the planning phase as well as some of the data collection and analysis. A private consulting firm took on the balance of data collection