The 48th WorldSkills Competition is ready: 1,385 contestants will gather in Shanghai, and the venue construction enters the final sprint

In one week, the 48th WorldSkills Competition will kick off in Shanghai. By then, 1,385 skilled experts from all over the world will compete fiercely in 64 competition events. The competition site is free and open to reserved spectators, and there are also experience projects such as "Try Your Skills".

This afternoon (15th), reporters from Jiefang Daily and Shangguan News visited the National Convention and Exhibition Center (Shanghai), the venue for this year’s World Championships. Construction is underway at the site. It is reported that the relevant venue construction work started on September 9th and is scheduled to be completed on September 18th. It will welcome visitors from all over the world with the best attitude.

About 1 million competition items are basically in place

The reporter learned that this World Championship will use 8 competition venues with an area of about 213,000 square meters, of which the competition area is about 70,000 square meters. At the same time, Hall 7.1H is responsible for logistics and warehousing functions, with an area of about 26,500 square meters.

Gao Zhanfeng, deputy director of the event department of the 48th WorldSkills Competition Executive Bureau, said that at present, all 64 event construction materials have been piled into the venue, 90% of the venue's functional rooms and workstation structures have been completed, 95% of the ground paving has been completed, 70% of the water and electricity connection work has been completed, 75% of the fence structure has been completed, and the art pictures are being produced, and the competition venue has reached 60% completion. The main structure of the warehouse area of ​​Hall 7.1H has been completed, and some areas such as the customs inspection area have been put into use.

Different from other competitions, the WorldSkills Competition will use many props. This World Skills Competition will use 13,088 kinds and about 1 million competition infrastructure items, ranging from industrial machine tools and car models to as small as a bouquet of flowers and a piece of jewelry, all of which need to be raised by the organizers in advance.

"The competition infrastructure items for this World Championship are obtained through two methods: sponsorship and purchasing and leasing." Gao Zhanfeng said that specifically, 8,181 items were provided through sponsorship, accounting for 63% of the total, and were obtained through contracts between the Executive Board and sponsors. The current contract signing rate has reached 95%. There are 4909 types of purchasing and leasing, accounting for 37% of the total, which are obtained through purchasing and leasing of technical support units, and the contract signing rate is 100%. The proportion of sponsorship for this World Championship is at a very high level compared with previous editions, and it also reflects the concept of environmental protection and frugality.

Since hazardous chemicals will be used in some competition events, the Shanghai World Games Executive Bureau teamed up with security, emergency, public security, fire protection and other departments to sort out 21 hazardous chemicals and dust competition events, a total of 74 events, forming "one policy, one policy" precise control and full-process management. The Municipal State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission recommended 21 safety experts to participate in hazardous chemicals and dust competition projects to coordinate safety and technical guarantee work.

The reporter saw in Hall 6.1H that the "hotel front desk" scene in the hotel reception project has been basically completed, completely simulating the real hotel environment. Sewing machines and other equipment used in the fashion technology project are being installed one after another, and the "Try Your Skills" experience area adjacent to the competition venue for this project has been taken shape. According to the current arrangement, after the game starts, spectators can try to use sewing machines to sew fabrics under the guidance of staff.

More than 500 actors and models simulated real scenes

In addition to the preparation of "things" such as competition venues and facilities, the work of "people" related to the competition is also in full swing.

It is understood that the organizing team for this event mainly includes the event organization and management team, venue manager team, competition project technical support team, competition workshop design and construction team, logistics service team and logistics support team, etc.

"In April this year, the centralized assessment and test competition of the Chinese training team was held here. By reviewing the competition situation and event preparation arrangements at that time, we further optimized the event organization and management team structure, established four special working groups, and expanded the staff to more than 50 people." Gao Zhanfeng introduced that in addition, the venue manager team configuration was expanded to 193 people, including 16 venue division managers and assistants and 177 venue managers and assistants. 110 technical support units were selected in two batches to form a technical support team for each competition event with a total size of more than 1,400 people, including about 900 technical support personnel. Cooperate with relevant units to form a competition workshop design and construction team of more than 50 people, a logistics special work team of more than 30 people, an information and communication support team of more than 80 people, and a logistics support team of more than 30 people to fully prepare for the event.

The competition setting that completely simulates the real scene is one of the important highlights of the World Skills Competition. This requires a large number of actors to play customers and models. Currently, more than 500 actors, models and other support staff have been recruited for this World Championship.

"The competition areas I am responsible for include retail, hotel reception, health and social care, hairdressing, dental restoration technology and other competitions. Many of them require the use of 'actors', which is a special place for me in the preparation process." Social and personal services area venue District manager Li Xiaojie said that taking health and social care as an example, there are 16 contestants participating in the project. According to the requirements, 20 "actors" need to be recruited to play the care recipients of the contestants. "They have all been interviewed by experts from the competition team and can achieve the effect of examining the contestants through interaction."

The hairdressing project requires a large number of models with different hairstyles, while in the retail and hotel reception projects, there will also be "customers" played by actors, and the contestants need to solve their various demands. For example, some "customers" will appear at the hotel front desk twice. The first time is to complain. Then when the second time appears, the players need to remember the content of the other party's first complaint and proactively ask about the resolution, living experience, etc.

Let the players perform at their best and the audience enjoy watching

In order to allow players to better perform at their own level, there are many ingenious ideas in the construction of the venues for this World Championships.

The introduction of artificial intelligence technology is one of them. Li Xiaojie introduced that this year’s hairdressing event at the World Championships will use the artificial intelligence technology “Magic Mirror” for the first time to assist contestants in rapid design and decision-making. "You may also see this technology in some hair salons in the future. It allows you to very intuitively see what your new hairstyle will look like after it is done."

"We spent more than a year studying how to build the venue, focusing on how the competition equipment can better integrate with the movement lines of the players." Chen Qiong, venue manager of the Creative Arts and Fashion Zone, took the fashion technology project as an example. The equipment is placed in the order of using the sewing machine first, and then ironing the fabric, which is consistent with the process of the players during the competition.

At the competition venue for the flower arrangement event, the reporter saw a row of small booths built with black curtains. During the official competition, this is where the contestants show their flower arrangement results to the referees and the audience. Since the competition venue is indoors, lighting will directly affect the visual effect. After repeated consultations and research, Chen Qiong and her team decided to use this black curtain that can absorb light to reduce the impact of light as much as possible. In addition, a special refrigerator will be set up on site to ensure that the flowers used in the competition can be kept in the best condition.

The staff really put a lot of thought into how to make the audience better perceive the charm of the skills without affecting the players' competition.

This year's hairdressing project has added a catwalk link. After the contestants have done their hair, the models will show it to the audience. Digital interactive media design is one of the seven new competitions this year. However, during the competition, the players spent most of the time facing their own computer screens, resulting in a poor viewing experience. Therefore, several large screens were set up on site, which can not only broadcast the contestants' progress in real time, but also display completed works.

At present, the event operation work focuses on five aspects: "schedule coordination, on-site control, personnel access, venue closure, and event support" to ensure that players are familiar with the venue, experts accept and seal the venue, competition implementation and scoring, and various competition meetings are implemented in an orderly manner. "We are doing our best to advance all work and have sufficient confidence to ensure that all games can proceed smoothly." Gao Zhanfeng said.