How to EXPOrt Poland

Should we promote Poland, and if so, for what purpose and how? These three questions are key when thinking about shaping the country's image. The EXPO 2025 currently taking place in Japan provides several important lessons and conclusions in this area.

The obvious goal of promotion, which comes to mind first, is tourism. Although it is an important part of the economy, it should not be the only or even the main goal of self-promotion. Mass tourism that is unbalanced in terms of time is increasingly becoming a source of controversy and nuisance for the residents of cities that have been most successful in attracting foreigners. The annual protests in Barcelona are a case in point. So what other goal can the promotion of the country set for itself? I think there are two challenges around which it is worth building the country's image.

The first element is to strengthen the country's development by attracting talent and capital to Poland. Competition in these areas is multi-level – as Europe, we compete with other parts of the world, mainly North America and Asia, and within the EU we compete for talent and investment with the other 26 countries. Political, regulatory, and economic stability are obviously important. However, when faced with a choice between two equally attractive locations in economic terms, investors must ask themselves: where will they be able to continuously attract the best talent – domestic and foreign – in the long term?

At a certain level, the attractiveness of a place of residence becomes equally important – quality of life, environmental cleanliness, safety, diversity, and cultural level. Poland is among the world leaders in all these areas. However, it is necessary to make others aware of this and to dispel the image that still persists in many places, which is a legacy of communism and the 1990s. At best, many foreigners simply know nothing about Poland. The first goal of promotion should therefore be to make them aware that Poland is currently one of the best places on Earth to live and develop. In this way, our country should always be on the map of places to move to for investors, entrepreneurs, and young inventors thinking about starting new businesses.

Secondly, while the demographic situation is difficult throughout Europe (the fertility rate in all European countries is below the replacement threshold), the situation in Poland is dire. Regardless of pro-natalist policies, we will not be able to avoid the need to attract and assimilate immigrants. The better we communicate what Poland is and what it wants to be, the easier it will be for us to attract talent from around the world and the simpler assimilation will be – also through self-selection before arrival. Such an approach would allow us to move away from the current discussion on immigration, which is framed exclusively in a responsive, passive, and negative way—as a defense against random and unwanted arrivals—and move toward a process of attracting and absorbing selected immigrants into Polish society. Polish culture and identity are strong and solid enough to cope with the absorption of new citizens. We have over a thousand years of history, a rich culture, and we are an attractive place to live with a thriving economy. All we need is awareness of these assets, self-confidence, and a well-defined communication strategy.

In addition to attracting financial and human capital and preventing the decline of Polish society, an important goal of building Poland’s image abroad is to strengthen its so-called soft capital. This is essential for building understanding and support for Poland’s actions and decisions, especially among countries that are geographically and culturally distant from us. The war in Ukraine is a case in point. Support for Ukraine – and for the actions of Poland and the West – is not widespread among the countries of the so-called South. The stronger our cultural capital abroad and the better our communication, the more effectively we will be able to convince other societies and their elites to support our priorities.

In this context, the Polish pavilion at EXPO 2025 in Osaka is particularly interesting and effective. Currently, 158 countries are participating in the exhibition, which is held every five years. The competition is therefore fierce. A clear leitmotif of the European pavilions is care for the environment. Outside Europe, only China has placed such strong emphasis on the importance of nature and sustainable development. Compared to other countries, the Polish exhibition stands out in a positive way. Firstly, the pavilion attracts visitors with its bright and attractive architecture, balancing transparency – allowing passers-by to see and take an interest in the exhibition from the outside – with an element of mystery and understatement, drawing them in and encouraging them to enter. The undecided are lured by a restaurant that is unique for EXPO – delicious meals are served on porcelain from Bolesławiec. However, the most important thing awaits inside.

The key to success is a well-thought-out, structured, and executed narrative around which the pavilion is built. The first chapter of the three-part story about Poland and Poles is a modern retelling of our relationship with nature. The tools used in this story are herbalism and flora in the broadest sense. Tradition is combined with modernity and creativity through the form of storytelling – each visitor can digitally design their own plant, reflecting their character and personality, while learning about the deeper meaning of the plants used in Polish tradition. Apart from Poland, other countries that have equally strongly outlined their relationship with nature and herbalism are Lithuania and Latvia, whose interesting joint pavilion is built around the idea of the Baltic community.

The second stage of the story about Poland is our culture. In the middle of a hot summer – and in fact, the concrete desert that is EXPO in Osaka – the salt graduation tower built in the center of the Polish pavilion makes an extraordinary impression. Upon entering it, we are enveloped in soft darkness, allowing us to immerse ourselves in the scent and pleasant humidity familiar to us from the graduation tower. The whole thing is an innovative experience for most foreigners. After calming our senses and recharging in the pleasant microclimate, we are invited to an innovative concert. Over 160 brooms, made of wicker from Fryderyk Chopin's birthplace, Żelazowa Wola, attached to the wall, rotate in a coordinated manner around their axis and play polonaises, waltzes, and mazurkas for us. This part of the exhibition is complemented by an interactive space. Polish landscapes – such as sand dunes – slowly but visibly change depending on the number of viewers. This illustrates the impact of the environment on us and us on the environment, even if these are long-term processes.

After nature, culture, and art, it's time for business and science. The next section showcases Polish companies and startups that are leaders in their fields and have achieved global success. Medicine, technology, IT, communication, entertainment. We have companies in all these areas that are worth boasting about and that we promote at EXPO.

A key element of the whole story is a team of over 40 volunteers who guide visitors around the pavilion. They are Polish women and men selected through a multi-stage selection process. They all speak fluent Japanese, English, and Polish. Thanks to this, they have a thorough understanding of the context of what they are talking about and are able to communicate it in the two main languages of EXPO – local Japanese and global English. It might seem obvious, something not worth mentioning. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Most of the pavilions are staffed by Japanese employees. Apart from the fact that many of them know almost no English (not even enough for basic communication), the key problem is their complete lack of knowledge or awareness of the cultural context of the history presented by different countries. An example of this can be seen in the Japanese volunteers in the French pavilion, chasing people away (in Japanese, of course) from the sculptures of Auguste Rodin (obviously having no idea what these sculptures mean in French culture) towards a room with suitcases of a well-known brand, which the volunteers obviously associate as important and famous.

Similar situations, with a strange cultural dissonance between the guides and the spaces we are being shown around, occur in the Italian and Portuguese pavilions, etc. It is not easy to describe the difference in experience between these places and the pavilions of countries that have made the effort to find, train, and send their representatives to Japan—apart from Poland, these included Lithuania, Latvia, Romania, and China.

Apart from the aforementioned European countries, the Chinese pavilion undoubtedly stands out from the rest. Its architecture—the most interesting alongside Poland's—its narrative built around nature, culture, tradition, and modernity, its well-prepared staff, and its thoughtful and effective propaganda show China in a subtle way as an attractive country to live in. This pavilion is a good reminder of why promoting a country is an important element of never-ending competition, including in the area of culture.

In this context, the marginal nature of the European Union pavilion, which could be the pavilion of a medium-sized company rather than a community aspiring to be one of the three major socio-economic blocs in the world, is saddening. In the field of promotion, at least at EXPO, the EU can follow Poland's example of how to build an image that combines tradition, culture, art, and modernity in an attractive and accessible way for visitors from different cultural backgrounds. If all of Poland's promotion looked like this, success in building soft power and attracting the best talent and immigrants to Poland would be guaranteed. It is therefore worth reflecting on, appreciating, and utilizing the experience gained from the current World Expo in the coming years.