The acquisition of Official Partners (OP) was a major challenge due to the following factors: 

• No comparable events with organiser expertise
• Unanswered questions regarding feasibility and dates
• High sponsorship amount
• Image of Expo.02
• Degree of concretisation of the consideration to Official Partners

Nevertheless, Official Partner contracts were signed with 10 companies within approximately 1.5 years. In the further course of the acquisition phase, the maximum number of 12 Official Partners in this category was contractually secured. 

• ABB Switzerland Ltd
• AMAG Automobil und Motoren AG
• Compaq Computer (Switzerland) GmbH
• Coop
• EUROPAY (Switzerland) SA - EC Cash Mastercard
• Feldschlösschen Beverage Group
• Swiss Life/Rentenanstalt
• Swiss Federal Railways SBB
• Securitas AG
• SRG SSR idée suisse
• Swisscom AG
• UBS AG

Cooperation between Expo.02, Direction Partenariat and Official Partners was not easy, particularly in the uncertain initial phase and during the Federal Council's decision on whether Expo.02 should be held or cancelled. However, both parties were usually able to rely on a constructive basic consensus. The corresponding form of co-operation with intensive support for all company representatives in this category by means of efficient key account management proved to be the right approach and was rated positively both by Expo.02's internal departments and by the Official Partners. 

^{Text: Expo.02 Final Report, 2003}