INTERVIEW: EPCOT vice-president on the proposed Ukrainian Pavilion (03/29/98)

INTERVIEW: EPCOT vice-president on the proposed Ukrainian Pavilion

Following is an interview with George Kalogridis, EPCOT vice-president, conducted by Natalia Warren.

Q: What's behind the theme "Hope for a Better World?"

A: It actually all comes from EPCOT's mission statement. The very last comment in the mission statement speaks to offering hope for a better world. When we looked at the kinds of things that we wanted to celebrate during the millennium, it just became apparent that that's where we really needed to focus. The exact statement is, "Above all, EPCOT celebrates human achievement, creativity and innovation offering hope for a better world." So as we're going out and inviting different organizations and countries to participate, we're asking them to think about the stories that they would like to tell and think of them in the context of offering hope for a better world.

Q: Why would you ask various nations to participate, what would they gain from this?

A: First of all, we will have an audience of over 15 million people during this celebration. In addition to that, because of the media (TV) channels of the Disney organization, we'll have the possibility to tell these stories to a much broader audience, to many millions of people who won't actually visit EPCOT. We think that the opportunity to share the stories of countries and organizations that we don't currently talk about at EPCOT is a great opportunity. And because of this focused time of 15 months and because of the media channels, it just makes the audience that this message can reach that much larger.

Q: Why would you be interested specifically in having a Ukrainian pavilion at EPCOT?

A: The former Soviet Union is one of the most interesting countries to North Americans. All of our research consistently will tell us that if there was a country in the past that fascinated Americans it certainly was the Soviet Union. Now after the break-up, it's even more important to be able to share the stories. Most North Americans know Russia. They don't understand all of the other new republics that came out of that (the break-up). And so we think it's a great opportunity (for the former Soviet bloc countries) and a great opportunity for other countries. There are many other fascinating countries, [those in] the Pacific Rim and other areas. We represent only 11 countries at EPCOT now - and I think there are over 200 countries and territories in the world - and so there is a huge opportunity out there.

Q: Have you personally had any contact with the Ukrainian culture? What is it that makes you excited about a Ukrainian pavilion?

A: What makes me excited is that I know that the people that I'm working with on this project have such a passion for this. I met with Julian Kulas [of the 1st Security Federal Savings Bank, who was in Florida on a private visit], and when we talked about this opportunity and what would be in it for Ukraine and the exposure and all of that, you could just tell that the pride that he had in being able to talk about his homeland is just huge. And I think that's what makes dreams become reality.

Q: A while ago you mentioned to Taras (Jason) Harper that you couldn't do projects like this without people like him. Why is that?

A: One thing we've learned over the years at EPCOT is that it's very difficult to just walk into a government and say we would like for you to be at EPCOT. First of all, if you're dealing with a government, you're dealing with a huge bureaucracy. If you're dealing with a private company, which in most cases is the better route to take, there needs to be a business case. And so for us it's understanding the companies.

If you're talking about, let's say, Ukraine, first of all you need to understand what are the organizations or companies that are there. And then you need to understand what would be the business case that they would develop that would make it a reasonable investment of their resources to be in a celebration like EPCOT's.

And so you need people like Jason who understand and are connected within those countries or at least within the business circles of those countries to help maneuver that. Because to go in cold turkey, you just don't have enough time to do that.

Q: Is there anything in closing that you would like to tell the Ukrainian community or a potential sponsor?

A: I think we are going to have an opportunity for 15 months to do something that is going to connect very much on an emotional scale with our audience. And I don't think anybody can throw a celebration like Disney can. I don't think anybody can market an event like Disney can. And in this case we're going to make sure we deliver on the emotional piece. We will make sure that when a guest leaves EPCOT at the end of the day during this 15-month period that they are going to feel good about where we, as a world, are going and that there are in fact great things happening out there.

Hopefully Ukraine will be one of these things. A guest will walk out of here and know something about Ukraine, and before they came they probably didn't even know where it was, much less anything about it. And they didn't know why it's important and why an emerging democracy is important to maintaining a free world in the future. And how important that is.