However, the 2018 event, set to showcase art, design and innovation, will not be the first in the region.
In 1929, the North East Coast Exhibition was opened by the Prince of Wales in Newcastle amid great fanfare.
So, will organisers take inspiration from the grand event, which attracted four million visitors?
Responding to the Newcastle and Gateshead announcement, the North East Chamber of Commerce said: "The Great Exhibition looks set to be the launch pad of real growth in our regional economy."
The Prince of Wales - later King Edward VIII - opened the 1929 event and said: "The industries of the North are not yet knocked out of the ring.
"They are fighting back gallantly with a good Northern punch."
And the "northern punch" included cutting-edge technology, such as a cow milking machine, a telescope brought down from Edinburgh University, and the local newspaper using a newly-designed electric sign to flash out the latest news items.
Industry and consumer items were represented, some of them household names that remain, such as Hoover vacuum cleaners, Singer sewing machines, and Pyrex glass ovenware.
Andrews Liver Salts showed off its brand with a 15ft "fountain of health".
For entertainment there was an amusement park, a Himalayan Railway, and an African village.
More than four million people passed through the turnstiles between May and October that year, including King Alfonso of Spain and the Sultan of Zanzibar. Each millionth visitor was presented with a gold watch.
When the exhibition ended, the pavilions were dismantled and the area reverted to a public park.
Unfortunately, that "northern punch" would fall victim to the economic depression a few years later, in the 1930s.

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Jack Duggan's late winner secured a 1-0 victory on Tuesday and set up a third-round tie at Wycombe in January.
Stourbridge had gone out in round two in three of the previous five seasons.
"This has got to be the biggest (achievement) beating a League One side at home," Hackett told BBC WM 95.6.
"This is what the FA Cup is about."
Hackett, who has been in charge of his home-town club since 2004, continued: "I thought we were outstanding. We certainly didn't get lucky, we were the better team.
"It's one of those special nights and it's a great occasion for everybody connected with the football club.
"Everybody connected with this football club are heroes. I spoke to a gentleman who comes on the coach every week and never misses a game home or away - I told him 'these nights are for you'.
"Hugh (Clark, Stourbridge president) has been here 50 years and experienced some tough times at this football club, so he gets rewarded. We all do."
Northampton, who are 13th in League One, started the match four divisions and 89 league places above Stourbridge - who began the day eighth in the Northern Premier League - in the English football pyramid.
Manager Rob Page told BBC Radio Northampton: "The better team won and that hurts me to say that, but credit's got to go to them.
"It's a hard one to take and I'm embarrassed at the minute. We'll take any criticism we get and we deserve every bit we get for this."
The former Wales international defender added: "I apologise for that performance, I didn't expect that at all. Stourbridge deserved their victory, we congratulate them and wish them all the best, but we're all hurting."
One of the reasons the Great Exhibition of the North was awarded to Newcastle and Gateshead was because of the "ambition" of  organisers.
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Manager Gary Hackett said Stourbridge were "outstanding" in their shock FA Cup second-round defeat of League One Northampton as the seventh-tier side reached round three for the first time.