I. Description of Fairs, Expositions and Exhibitions
B. Types of Exhibitions

Crystal Palace in London built for WORLD EXPO 1851

World's Fair - EXPO
is the generic name for various large expositions held since the mid 19th century. The official sanctioning body is the Bureau International des Expositions or BIE. Expositions approved by BIE are universal, and international or specialized, lasting from 3 to 6 months in duration. Universal expositions encompass universal themes that reflect the full range of human experience. These Universal Expos usually have themes based upon which pavilions are made to represent the country's interpretation on that theme. For example, the theme for the Expo at Lisbon (1998) was "water" and the theme for the 2005 Expo hold in Japan is "nature's wisdom".To distinguish them from other fairs, expos require total the design of pavilion buildings from the ground up. As a result, nations compete for the most outstanding or memorable architectural structure.