New Zealand Trade and Enterprise has launched a digital version of its pavilion for Expo 2020 Dubai so that audiences around the world can discover more about the country that innovates to ‘care for people and place’.
Auckland-based digital studio Waxeye developed the immersive experience based on the physical building which is located at Expo 2020 Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates.
The virtual pavilion translates the physical experience into a truly unique online one. Without any waiting time, and no matter their location, visitors can choose to follow the intuitive route through the rooms as if they were walking through the pavilion in Dubai, or adapt their online path by accessing the menu.
“We are thrilled to be sharing Aotearoa New Zealand’s story for Expo 2020 Dubai with an even greater international audience and we hope that many exporters can use the virtual pavilion as an introduction to New Zealand, wherever they are doing business,” says Clayton Kimpton, New Zealand’s Commissioner-General to Expo 2020 Dubai.
Visitors can engage as much as they like, click to find out more, or simply observe. By putting the journey in the hands of the visitor, their part in the bigger picture – their role as kaitiaki or guardian of nature – is reinforced.
“In addition to our story of a nation that innovates to Care for People and Place, the virtual pavilion showcases the world-class capability of New Zealand’s tech sector,” Kimpton continues.
Waxeye Managing Partner Tony Leslie says: “The physical pavilion in Dubai wows visitors with immersive, multi-sensory and interactive content. So we wanted to mirror this experience in the digital environment as much as possible. Using webGL we developed a 3D pipeline to optimise and test performance for browsers throughout production to ensure a great online experience for the global audience.”
Visitors to the virtual experience can also share their experience on social media, by taking a picture of themselves in front of the virtual pavilion using an augmented reality add-on within the app.
