100,000 Attendees Mark the Grand Finale of 'ComeUp2020'... "Setting the Standard for Online Events"

550,000 Website Visits, 96,516 Online Real-Time Views Recorded
Review of Economic and Social Changes in 12 Areas Since COVID-19
From Planning to Online Event Execution... Setting a New Standard for Global Startup Festivals

Park Young-sun, Minister of SMEs and Startups, is delivering the opening speech at the opening ceremony of the startup festival 'ComeUp 2020' held at the CJ ENM Production Center in Goyang-si, Gyeonggi Province on the morning of the 19th. Photo by Ministry of SMEs and Startups [Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Heeyoon] The global startup festival 'ComeUp 2020,' which involved startups from 89 countries and approximately 100,000 attendees worldwide, concluded its three-day celebration on the 21st.

On the 24th, the Ministry of SMEs and Startups and the ComeUp 2020 Organizing Committee announced that ComeUp 2020 successfully completed its three-day grand journey.

ComeUp is a global startup festival launched last year to promote Korea's startup ecosystem worldwide and create opportunities for K-Startups to expand overseas. This year, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the event was planned and held entirely online and non-face-to-face from the outset.

Under the slogan "Meeting the Future After COVID-19," ComeUp recorded 96,516 online real-time views from 89 countries over the three-day event, which included academic conferences, special roundtable discussions, and special events. The Ministry emphasized that this event set a standard for large-scale global online startup events as the first of its kind this year.

The main conference, the academic symposium, covered 12 fields across three major themes: social systems, work environments, and lifestyles, including K-quarantine, remote work, and artificial intelligence (AI).

On the first day, the 19th, Kim Seul-ah, CEO of Kurly and Chairperson of the ComeUp 2020 Private Organizing Committee, delivered the keynote speech titled "Fresh Ideas to Cope with COVID-19," inspiring startups worldwide with new messages.

Cheon Jong-yoon, CEO of Seegene, a leading diagnostic kit company recognized as a model for K-quarantine, also appeared as a speaker. Dr. Kim Jin-yong, an infectious disease specialist at Incheon Medical Center who devised the drive-through COVID-19 testing method, explained the direction of epidemic response and the background of the drive-through planning during a panel discussion.

Key speakers of ComeUp 2020. Photo by ComeUp website

On the second day (the 20th), lectures on remote work, manufacturing, and AI were held under the theme of the drastically changed "work environment" due to COVID-19. Kim Jeong-sang, co-founder and CTO of IonQ and a professor at Duke University in the U.S., gave a presentation on "The Present of Quantum Computing and the Future It Will Change." Additionally, Henry Chesbrough, a world-renowned expert in open innovation from UC Berkeley, and Gary Ball, a distinguished figure in remote work from Singularity University, engaged in an in-depth discussion on the evolving work environment.

On the final day (the 21st), Lee Sung-soo, CEO of SM Entertainment; Park Tae-hoon, CEO of Watcha; and Betty Vandenbosch, CEO of Coursera, spoke as presenters on innovation strategies in the fields of entertainment, distribution, and commerce. In his keynote speech, Lee emphasized that cultural technology will be a shining technology in the new normal era and a driving force for the K-POP industry.

Seven special events held alongside ComeUp also attracted attention. At the AI Championship final presentation held on the 20th, eight AI startups, including RTM, Dingbro, and SpiderCore, won first place in themes related to manufacturing, medical care, and video consumer life.

On the 19th, the final top five teams of the 'K-Startup Grand Challenge' Demo Day were selected, with 'Ommo Technologies' taking first place and 'Rocketship' second, earning a total prize of $240,000.

Also on the 19th, the grand finale of Korea's largest startup competition, 'Challenge! K-Startup 2020,' was held. Among the final 20 teams that overcame a 356:1 competition ratio, Plastal was crowned the grand champion in the startup league, and Aniai was selected as the grand champion in the pre-startup league.

As of the event's conclusion on the 21st, ComeUp recorded 550,000 visits to its homepage. Including 7,534 pre-registrations, the total number of registered participants reached 8,162. The ComeUp YouTube channel's subscribers grew from 24,200 across 27 countries at the launch ceremony to 28,563 across 30 countries after the event, and the total number of online real-time video views reached 96,516, demonstrating the event's enthusiastic response.

Cha Jung-hoon, Director of the Startup Venture Innovation Office at the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, said, "Last year, ComeUp aimed to catch up with world-renowned startup events like Slush and TechCrunch, and this year, it was successfully held as an event optimized for the online and non-face-to-face environment. Based on the confidence gained from this, we will make thorough preparations so that next year ComeUp can lead the trend of global startup events."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.