The coronavirus is having a huge, negative impact on society and industry. However, as far as director Pieter Cloo is concerned, that doesn’t apply to the Floriade Expo. “The coronavirus crisis is awful in itself but it’s made the discussion around the Floriade Expo more focused on the essential facts. This has greatly helped its image.”
While Almere City Council was discussing cancellation, postponement and scaling down of the 2022 Floriade, preparations for the world horticultural exhibition continued as normal on the exhibition site.
The intelligent lockdown adopted by the Netherlands during the coronavirus outbreak didn’t cause any delays either, because the measures could be adhered to without any problems and the materials didn’t have to come from afar (Germany, Belgium).
The Floriade organisation kept a low profile because they didn’t want to upset the decision-making process. Now that it’s been decided that the Floriade Expo 2022 will go ahead as planned, director Pieter Cloo looks back, as well as ahead.
How did you feel about Almere City Council looking into cancellation, postponement and scaling down of the Floriade Expo 2022?
“The coronavirus crisis has led to many uncertainties, so I can completely understand why companies and governments are drawing up alternative scenarios. It would have been strange if the city council, in their role as shareholder of the Floriade Expo, hadn’t done this. As organisers, we had already been looking at some different scenarios ourselves two weeks earlier. At some stage we were producing weekly economic updates, plus a weekly update on the consequences of the coronavirus. These insights were also used by the city council for their scenario exploration.” (..)
Click here to read the full interview in Floribusiness magazine.
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