Dr. Tarek Oliveira Shayya’s Post

On the closing day of Expo 2025 Osaka, I had the privilege of participating in two panels during the SDGs + Beyond Theme Week - the eighth and final Theme Week of this extraordinary Expo. Opened by the UN Under-Secretary General for Social and Economic Affairs, HE Ambassador Li Junhua, the panels brought together distinguished professor and producers that delivered 7 brilliant theme weeks. The topic: the evolution and future of Theme Weeks at World Expos. Movements don't start with the first mover. They start when others believe in an idea enough to carry it forward. At Expo 2020 Dubai, the creative content programming team pioneered Theme Weeks as part of the Programme for People and Planet — 10 focused weeks of dialogue across 142 countries, generating 229 events and reaching 29 million people globally. We asked critical questions: How do we protect our most precious resource? How do we foster more tolerant societies? How do we live in balance with nature? And much more. But an innovation becomes a movement only when others validate it. Osaka 2025 has done exactly that. Their seven Theme Weeks - from "Co-Creating Cultures for the Future" to "Circular Economy and Sustainability” - didn't just replicate our model. They evolved it, enhanced it, and made it distinctly their own. The integration of Society 5.0 and their vision for SDGs + Beyond demonstrates sophisticated thinking about what comes after 2030. This validation matters profoundly because the next chapter is already being written. Expo 2030 Riyadh represents an extraordinary convergence: the SDG deadline year meeting the World Expo platform. This isn't just another Expo — it's a milestone moment for global accountability, assessment, and course correction. The urgency is real: only 18% of SDG targets are on track. We're running out of time, and we need every platform we can leverage to accelerate progress. At Gratiya Advisory, we work with governments, cities, and institutions to design legacy-driven mega events that create lasting impact. The journey from Dubai to Osaka to Riyadh demonstrates what we believe: legacy must be designed, not hoped for. From pioneering to validating to cementing - this is how traditions are born. The question now isn't whether Theme Weeks work. It's how we ensure Riyadh 2030 and every future Expo uses this platform to address humanity's most pressing challenges. Thank you to the brilliant team at Expo 2025 Osaka for validating that great ideas deserve to become movements. 🇯🇵 The arc continues. 🇦🇪 → 🇯🇵 → 🇸🇦 #Expo2025Osaka #Expo2030Riyadh #Expocitydubai #ThemeWeeks  #ReemAlHashimy #NadiaVerjee #MegaEvents #LegacyDesign #GlobalDialogue #WorldExpos #GratiyaAdvisory