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Bureau International des Expositions · 178th General Assembly
The General Assembly is the highest decision-making body of the Bureau International des Expositions — the intergovernmental organization that has governed World Expos since 1928. For the 178th edition, BIE trusted run.events to manage a live, on-site shadowing test of delegate accreditation, registration, and on-site operations, run alongside BIE's existing process. With the Assembly convening twice each year, this marks the beginning of an ongoing partnership, with full platform deployment planned for the November 2026 session.
Established by the Paris Convention of 1928, the Bureau International des Expositions is one of the oldest active intergovernmental organizations in the world. Its mandate: to oversee, regulate, and promote international exhibitions that connect nations, showcase human progress, and drive economic and cultural exchange.
Established by the International Convention on Exhibitions signed in Paris. For nearly a century, BIE has been the guardian of the World Expo legacy and the diplomatic framework that makes them possible.
Representing virtually every nation on earth, BIE member states send official delegations to the General Assembly — the organization's supreme governing body — where they vote on matters of global significance.
BIE-governed World Expos have welcomed hundreds of millions of visitors globally — from Brussels 1958 to Osaka 1970, Shanghai 2010, Milan 2015, Dubai 2020, and beyond. These are among the largest peaceful gatherings in human history.
The General Assembly is where member states elect the BIE President and Executive Committee, vote on host cities for future Expos, and adopt resolutions shaping international exhibitions policy. It meets twice yearly in Paris.
A BIE General Assembly is not a conference. It is a formal diplomatic proceeding governed by strict constitutional rules. Every credential must be verified. Every quorum count must be accurate. Every delegation must access only the spaces they are authorized to enter. There is no margin for error.
Each member state submits an official delegation — a mix of ambassadors, ministers, commissioners, and technical advisors with different access rights and voting entitlements. Every credential must be individually verified before the assembly opens.
Votes can only proceed when a qualified majority of member states is present. This requires live, accurate delegate tracking from the moment the session opens — not estimates, not manual head counts, but a precise, auditable real-time record.
Member state delegates, Expo commissioners, observer organizations, media, and staff all have different access zones. The platform must enforce these distinctions at every entry point — instantly, and without friction for high-level diplomatic guests.
The reputational stakes of a BIE General Assembly are exceptional. Heads of state delegations, Expo commissioners, and international press are present. A delayed check-in, a printing failure, or a data error is not a minor inconvenience — it is a diplomatic incident.
For the 178th General Assembly, run.events ran a live shadowing test of its event management platform — purpose-configured for the specific protocols, categories, and procedural requirements of a BIE session, operating in parallel with BIE's existing registration process. Full platform deployment is scheduled for the November 2026 GA.
A A purpose-built registration portal configured for both Member State delegations and Expo-related delegations, with separate flows per delegate category, mandatory credential fields, and automated confirmation workflows.
Registration & AccreditationEach member state has a maximum number of accredited delegates, and quotas can also be set by role for Expo delegations. The platform kept a full audit trail of approved delegates per country. Automatic quota enforcement (to prevent over-accreditation) wasn't a focus for the 178th GA and still needs to be validated ahead of the November deployment.
Delegation ControlA live attendance dashboard tracked present delegations in real time as delegates checked in. Session chairs could verify quorum requirements at any moment with a single view.
Procedural OversightOn-site check-in stations processed incoming delegates quickly and accurately. Each delegate was verified against the accreditation database instantly, with their badge printed on demand upon confirmation — no queues, no ambiguity.
On-Site OperationsFull-color delegate badges printed on-site with delegate name, country, category classification, and QR code for access control. Badges were produced in seconds and designed to meet the professional standards expected at a diplomatic event of this calibre. This was tested from a single temporary registration desk and a full custom-made Kiosk plus dedicated support desk are planned for November.
Badging & CredentialsAn integrated on-site photo capture app captured professional portrait images of arriving delegates, embedded directly into their credential badges and the accreditation record — eliminating the need for pre-submitted photos where none existed in the system. Dedicated on-site photo booth with custom lighting is planned for November event.
On-Site IdentityAn integrated on-site photo capture app captured professional portrait images of arriving delegates, embedded directly into their credential badges and the accreditation record — eliminating the need for pre-submitted photos where none existed in the system. Dedicated on-site photo booth with custom lighting is planned for November event.
Security & AccessA comprehensive post-event analytics report gave BIE a full record of participation across all delegations — attendance by country, delegate category breakdown, check-in timings, and quorum snapshots — providing an auditable official record of the session.
Data & Reportingrun.events deployed an on-site team with full badging hardware infrastructure for the 178th General Assembly during the shadowing run. From the moment the first test delegate arrived at the Palais des Congrès de Paris, every step of the accreditation and check-in process ran without interruption.
From opening plenary to closing vote, the 178th General Assembly brought together official delegations from across the globe to deliberate on the future of international exhibitions. run.events was operating its software in shadowing mode to ensure every delegate was verified and quorum count was correct.
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The 178th General Assembly of the Bureau International des Expositions in Paris was a milestone for us. For the first time, run.events Assembly Management was tested live at this scale — covering member state registrations, check-in, photo capture, and quorum tracking, across 180+ member states. It worked as expected, with the on-site team resolving a few minor adjustments in real time. A strong foundation for full deployment in November.
The BIE partnership reflects a clear value proposition: run.events is the platform for events where professional execution, data accuracy, and operational reliability are not features to consider — they are baseline requirements.
The platform is purpose-configurable for events with multiple delegate categories, tiered access rights, and quota-governed accreditation — requirements that standard event tools cannot meet.
As a European company operating on European cloud infrastructure, run.events meets the data protection standards expected by intergovernmental organizations operating under EU jurisdiction. All delegate data remains within Europe.
run.events does not hand over a platform and walk away. For the BIE General Assembly, the run.events team was present on site, operating the check-in infrastructure alongside BIE staff for the shadowing run — with continued on-site involvement planned through the November GA full deployment.
The BIE General Assembly takes place twice a year. The run.events platform is configured once and refined with each edition — building institutional knowledge and operational confidence that compounds over time. This is a long-term relationship.
Whether you run a diplomatic assembly, an international congress, or a multi-stakeholder conference — run.events is built for events where the standard of execution reflects the importance of the occasion.