Bosingak's 'New Year's Eve Bell' in the Metaverse... New Year Citizen Participation Events and Activities

Starting at 11 PM on the 31st, held at eFriend 'Metaverse Seoul'... Anyone can watch live on YouTube

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Cheol-young] The Seoul Digital Foundation announced that it will operate the "2022 Metaverse Seoul New Year's Eve Bell Festival," an event that citizens can enjoy non-face-to-face at the end of the year, on the metaverse platform ‘ifland’ for 8 days from the 26th to the 2nd of next month.

Metaverse is a compound word of meta, meaning virtual or abstract, and universe, meaning the real world. It refers to a virtual world where economic, cultural, and social activities are possible through an avatar representing ‘me’ in the virtual space.

The "2022 Metaverse Seoul New Year's Eve Bell Festival" is a newly attempted citizen-participatory metaverse year-end and New Year event. Ifland is SKT’s metaverse platform, available for download on Google Play and the App Store, and after logging in, you can search for ‘Metaverse Seoul’.

Chairman Kang Yo-sik said, “With strengthened social distancing at the end of the year and New Year making outdoor activities difficult, we have tried to enable citizens to enjoy the New Year joyfully through a new method using the metaverse,” and added, “After the event, we will do our best to create a more developed ‘Metaverse Seoul’ service by collecting citizens’ feedback.”

The main event is the 'Metaverse Seoul New Year’s Eve 2022' starting on the 31st. It is a special event welcoming the Year of the Black Tiger, consisting of rich and entertaining programs such as lectures, talk concerts, countdowns, and special performances.

The event begins with a lecture by the trending neuroscientist Professor Jeong Jae-seung on ‘How to Achieve New Year’s Goals through Neuroscience,’ followed by a talk concert with rapper Lee Young-ji, a representative icon of the MZ generation. The event concludes with the highlight of the festival, a countdown shouted together at Metaverse Seoul Plaza and a lucky draw event.

The lecture will be delivered by Professor Jeong Jae-seung on the theme of ‘How to Achieve New Year’s Goals through Neuroscience’ for citizens planning new changes in the New Year. The talk concert features the Hansarang Mountaineering Club (Bae Yong-gil, Kim Young-nam, Jeong Gwan-yong, among three members), who have pioneered new paths through stand-up comedy and YouTube amid the decline of public comedy stages, and rapper Lee Young-ji, who has emerged as a representative icon of the MZ generation, engaging in dialogue with citizens.

Then, the host, panelists, and citizens will shout the countdown together as avatars at Metaverse Seoul Plaza, watch the Bosingak New Year’s Eve Bell ringing video produced by the Seoul Metropolitan Government’s Cultural Headquarters on the screen, and hold a lucky draw event to welcome 2022.

Before the main event starts, various citizen participation events will be held from the 26th to the 2nd of next month. These include easy and simple events such as the Bosingak Bell and New Year’s Blessing Capture Event and the Metaverse Seoul Quiz Show, with various prizes awarded to participants.

Meanwhile, the Seoul Metropolitan Government has established the Metaverse Seoul Basic Plan to utilize the metaverse in city administration to overcome the limitations of reality due to digital transformation and COVID-19 and provide new services to citizens. The event was organized by the Seoul Digital Foundation as a pilot event to gauge the usability of the metaverse before full-scale project implementation.

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