San Jose Mercury News – California preparing bid to host 2020 World Expo in Silicon Valley
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger held a news conference Wednesday morning at the Santa Clara offices of chip maker Marvell Technology Group, a public pep rally for his six-day trade mission to Asia that begins today.
But the real news of the day never made the conference: California is preparing a bid to host the 2020 world’s fair in Silicon Valley.
“When he gets to Shanghai, the governor will pitch bringing the World Expo to Silicon Valley,” spokesman Jeff Macedo confirmed late Wednesday. “We’ll have more to announce over the next few days, but that’s all the details we have right now.”
In a fast-moving series of e-mails and overseas phone calls throughout the day, the governor and local business leaders were scrambling to put together their blockbuster announcement.
There had been hints early Wednesday that something was up — some local news radio chatter and a cryptic one-liner from a spokesman saying the governor would visit the 2010 Shanghai World Expo during his three-nation mission and talk up the Bay Area to expo organizers. Yet when the governor stepped in front of several hundred cheering Marvell employees, there was no mention of a bid.
