The Supreme Committee for Delivery & Legacy (SC) has unveiled the 'Qatar 2022: Journey & Legacy,' permanent exhibition at Qatar National Library (QNL). The event was attended by HE the Minister of State and QNL president Dr Hamad bin Abdulaziz al-Kawari and SC secretary general HE Hassan al-Thawadi.
Located in a dedicated space at the QNL, the robust collection narrates the story behind Qatar hosting the first FIFA World Cup in the Middle East and Arab world, from the inception of the Bid to the Tournament.
Developed in collaboration with Microsoft, the collection platform is powered by Azure AI Services to extract insights from a wide range of documents, images, and videos. The solution deploys a smart search engine to enable fans, researchers and enthusiasts from all over the world to explore rich content that highlights all the different building blocks that went into hosting the tournament.
“Seeing the way that Qatar 2022 impacted the lives of so many people, and the profound effect it had on Qatar’s development across all sectors, we wanted to make sure that this momentous occasion in our country’s history is captured at the Library,” said al-Kawari.
“As Qatar’s national library, we are committed to the archiving, documentation and sharing of our country's history, and the World Cup will always be remembered as a critical milestone for Qatar and the entire region. We are delighted to host the collection and I look forward to seeing all the different ways our visitors interact with it,” he added.
The collection will also contain a thorough database of the cultural heritage created by the hosting of the tournament. The SC and QNL will collaborate to make this database available in the future, ensuring it is searchable by the public as well as students from different schools and universities across Qatar, as well as government and non-government institutions.
For al-Thawadi, the exhibit encapsulates a definitive journey in Qatar’s history that will leave a lifelong legacy for future generations. “The World Cup in Qatar gave us an opportunity to accelerate the plans set out for our country in the Qatar National Vision 2030, to showcase the limitless potential of Qatar and the region and to showcase the immense depth of our culture,” he said.
Al-Thawadi added: “The exhibit aims to capture the countless ways that the tournament impacted the lives of everyone that worked on delivering it, on the spectators that experienced its magic and on the different programmes and initiatives that emerged from the World Cup.”
Visitors to the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 Knowledge exhibit will be able to download selected films and photographs to their personal devices. The exhibit is located on ‘The Bridge’ of QNL in Qatar Foundation’s Education City.
The event was attended by HE the Minister of State and QNL president Dr Hamad bin Abdulaziz al-Kawari and SC secretary general HE Hassan al-Thawadi.
