Simon Arnold

Simon Arnold, Senior Advisor for Pavilion Operations at nuwa, is an international events and venues operator with over 20 years’ experience delivering World Expos. He has held an operating or advisory role at every World Expo since Aichi 2005, and founded IVG in 2004 to run pavilions and commercial operations for participating nations. As Senior Advisor, Simon sets nuwa’s pavilion operating standard: the concept of operations, the staffing model and the readiness gates a pavilion is measured against, written early enough to shape the business case while the plot and the budget can still move.

Simon’s advisory record runs on both sides of the Expo table. He advised the UAE Host Nation Pavilion at Expo 2020 Dubai on its operational master roadmap, financial model, concept of operations, security modelling and full organisational structure, and worked on the Saudi Pavilion at the same event. He also advised Expo 2020 itself, reviewing the draft Participant Guidelines and contributing to the Master Plan, the Concept of Operations, the Event Operations Baseline and the catering and venue management plans. Holding both the organiser’s view and the participant’s is what allows a pavilion plan to be tested before a government commits to it.

On the delivery side, IVG took turnkey management of the USA Pavilion at Expo 2020 Dubai for the US Department of State, running the VIP and business programme, visitor services, staffing, logistics, catering, retail, technical services and decommissioning. The firm also designed, built and operated every Official Store on the site, sixteen stores and eighteen mobile carts across 4,000 square metres of premium retail. The two projects carried a workforce of 700. At Shanghai, IVG ran complete operations at the Australian Pavilion and delivered VIP, catering and retail services to the United States, Brazil and New Zealand pavilions.

Expo venues under Simon’s management have received 30 million visitors, hosted 400,000 VIPs and employed over 3,000 staff across 38 functional areas, winning Friendliest Pavilion and Best Commercial Pavilion twice each, the Model Pavilion award and Event Caterer of the Year. Before IVG, Simon was General Manager of Events and Operations at Melbourne Park, Tennis Australia’s home of the Australian Open, and Special Events Manager at Octagon. He has worked on the Sydney Olympic Games, Formula 1, Grand Slam tennis and the Taipei Summer Universiade, across projects in fourteen countries.