Busan City Hosts 'Data Startup Weekend' ... Envisioning Life Changes Through Data Utilization!

July 29-31 at Busan Big Data Innovation Center (scheduled to open in August)

Developing business models that can transform Busan using public data and more

Poster for the Busan Global Data Startup Weekend (Startup Weekend Busan Big Data for Good) event.

[Asia Economy Yeongnam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Dongguk Lee] Busan City will hold the ‘Busan Global Data Startup Weekend (Startup Weekend Busan Big Data for Good)’ for three days starting from the 29th at the Busan Big Data Innovation Center (scheduled to open in August).

Startup Weekend is an entrepreneur education program by Techstars that started in 2007 in Boulder, Colorado, USA, and is now actively held in cities around the world.

It is a short-term startup program where experts from various fields gather and condense the entire startup process over three days to develop team building, service product prototypes, and projects.

Techstars is a globally recognized startup accelerator alongside Y Combinator and 500 Startups.

Busan City and Busan Technopark are introducing Techstars’ startup nurturing program from the US for the first time this year to strengthen the self-sustainability of the local data industry, and are conducting the ‘Busan Global Data Startup Weekend’ in connection with the global network.

The ‘Busan Global Data Startup Weekend’ will be attended by 50 domestic and international 4th Industrial Revolution technology experts dreaming of digital transformation technology startups using Busan’s public data, among whom 21 are foreign experts.

Participants applied online by the 20th, and were finally selected through document screening and phone interviews.

The event will feature prominent partners such as Techstars, Agora.io, and Google for Startups, and includes a special lecture by Kim Hyo-jung, CEO of NomadHer, a recently spotlighted global women travelers app, as well as a business model canvas workshop by Chris Georgie, CEO of Imagga, an image recognition development platform.

Agora.io is a platform providing real-time video, voice, and chat services, and Google for Startups is Google’s startup nurturing program that supports co-working spaces (Google Campus) and various Google technologies and services.

Mentors participating include Hong Seung-woo, a developer instructor at Code States; Kim Cheol-hoon, CEO of Startup Hop; Cho Hee-joo, senior developer at Kakao Games; Lim Dong-wook, head of Agora Korea; and Kim Jin-won, professor at National Hankyong University.

Code States is a developer training company related to web service development, artificial intelligence, and blockchain.

Participants and mentors will share ideas on utilizing public data over three days and focus on developing related services and products.

They will also develop solutions and business models through various digital transformation ideas. Mentoring on technology, design, marketing, and planning, professional workshops, and pitching practice will also be conducted.

The results created by teams formed among participants will be evaluated, with prizes awarded as follows: 1st place 1,000,000 KRW, 2nd place 500,000 KRW, and 3rd place 300,000 KRW.

One team will be selected to participate in the ‘Digital Transformation Bootcamp.’ The ‘Digital Transformation Bootcamp’ will be held for 16 weeks starting August 22 at the Busan Big Data Innovation Center, focusing on commercialization through prototype development and market launch with expert education and mentoring by field.

Lee Jun-seung, Director of Digital Economy Innovation Office of Busan City, said, “Data is like oil in the era of the 4th Industrial Revolution and is a core resource for artificial intelligence and digital transformation.”

He added, “Since the domestic data industry is concentrated in the metropolitan area, we will do our best to catch up with the metropolitan area in a short time by simultaneously promoting the nurturing of specialized companies and talent development through verified global challenge projects such as this ‘Startup Weekend’ to overcome the poor conditions of regions lacking data specialized companies and professionals, which are innovation capabilities.”

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