Making life accessible at Expo 2020 Dubai
It’s 2020, and, towards the end of the year, the eyes of the world will be focusing on Dubai which will be hosting the prestigious world fair – Expo 2020 Dubai.
Held once every five years, this international exhibition showcases the achievements of nations. Running for 173 days from 20 October 2020 to 10 April 2021, the main theme of the event is ‘Connecting Minds, Creating the Future’, with three sub-themes of: opportunity, mobility and sustainability.
It is estimated that the event will attract 25 million visitors to the UAE. Hundreds of pavilions featuring, for example, interactive exhibits, live entertainment and memorable meeting spaces are currently under construction.
Finland is a leading country in terms of innovation and technology know-how, and over 100 Finnish companies will be participating in Expo 2020. The national pavilion will present globally leading clean technologies, a circular economy with sustainable use of resources, sustainable energy and digital solutions, mobile communications, machinery, education, health and wellbeing, travel and Finnish design.
iLOQ, the rapidly growing Finnish company that is leading the technological revolution in the digital locking industry, has been chosen to provide the entire locking system for the Finnish pavilion. A masterclass in sustainability, environmental friendliness and reduced use of resources, iLOQ’s solutions enable electronic and mobile locking without batteries or cables. By solving the problems of lost or copied keys, and reducing lock maintenance, annual savings include 27,000 kg of battery waste and 7,000 kg of metal waste. And the ability to assign access rights remotely eliminates unnecessary travel related to site management.
In construction projects, such as the Finland pavilion, the beauty of iLOQ locks are that they can be installed on site as soon as doors are ready, simplifying operations and removing the need for large bunches of keys. Access rights can be granted to third-party service providers and updated at all stages during the process. Once the building has been completed, it is easy to reprogram the access rights and hand over the management of the system to the property’s administration staff.
More than 100 iLOQ locks will be installed throughout the pavilion on all exterior and interior doors. They will provide access to areas such as the staircase, waste room, control room and storage space. iLOQ is also collaborating with a fellow Finnish company and global giant in the elevator and escalator industry – KONE. The second floor of the pavilion is locked, but restricted access will be provided through an iLOQ Online RFID reader on the elevator. Another reader will be installed on the sliding doors to provide access to the VIP entrance. Watch this video to see how the construction process for the pavilion is going.
iLOQ’s visibility at Expo 2020 will support our growth strategy into new markets and will fulfill our goal to support partners and end users in the UAE and the middle east.
Many innovations have been introduced at world expositions; some that have changed the world forever. For example, Alexander Graham Bell’s telephone was introduced in Philadelphia in 1876, the world-famous Eiffel Tower had its debut at the Paris Expo in 1889, and the ice cream cone was introduced in St Louis in 1904. Could Expo 2020 Dubai go down in history as the world fair that demonstrated how iLOQ’s digital and mobile access solutions are truly making life accessible?
