2022 Gwanak S Valley Startup Festival Held

[Seoul District News] On the 18th-19th, Min-Gwan-Hak Cooperate to Foster Gwanak S Valley Startup Ecosystem with Diverse Events Including Planned Startup Lectures, Demo Day, Funding Briefings, Workshops, Seminars, and Job Fairs

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Jong-il] Gwanak-gu (Mayor Park Jun-hee) will hold the '2022 Gwanak S Valley Startup Festival' over two days on the 18th and 19th at Gwanak-gu Office, Nakseong Venture Startup Center, and Seoul National University.

Leaving behind the regrets of last year's non-face-to-face event due to COVID-19, this year’s festival will be held entirely offline. Entrepreneurs and investors will meet in person to hear and share firsthand voices from the field, and the event is designed to actively support the growth of startups by providing assistance to startup companies.

The event, organized together with Seoul City, Seoul National University, KT, KB Financial Group, and Woori Financial Group, includes various programs to foster the startup ecosystem in Gwanak-gu such as startup lectures, demo days, funding briefings, workshops, seminars, job fairs, and promotional booths.

Among them, the startup lectures and Gwanak S Valley Demo Day TOUR on the 18th from 1 PM can also be watched live online on Gwanak-gu’s official YouTube channel ‘Live Gwanak’.

In the ‘Startup Lecture,’ Kim Yoo-jin, CEO of SparkLabs, will share the outlook for the startup ecosystem in 2023 and investment cases, vividly explaining success know-how through failures and challenges in the startup field.

The ‘Gwanak S Valley Demo Day TOUR’ features presentations by eight startup companies seeking investment, providing opportunities to discover capable companies and connect with investors. Especially, the top company selected through judging will receive the Mayor’s Award along with an exemption from the document screening process for the 2023 recruitment of companies to move into Gwanak-gu’s startup support facilities.

Additionally, the event offers practical growth support for startups in various ways, including a ‘Funding Briefing’ where experts in investment and loans provide one-on-one consultations, an ‘Overseas Consumer Workshop’ where companies with foreign target consumers can test market reactions to their products, and a ‘Technology Seminar’ by Professor Kim Jang-gil of Seoul National University’s Engineering Consulting Center.

The Seoul National University Startup Support Group will hold the ‘Startup Job Fair Match Point’ to provide excellent talent recruitment opportunities for early-stage startups within three years.

On the 19th, there will be a special AI lecture by Professor Han Jae-kwon of Hanyang University on the theme ‘Our Response to Changes in Human Society Created by Robotics and Artificial Intelligence,’ along with a robot soccer competition for middle and high school students in Gwanak-gu. At the Gwanak-gu Office plaza, company promotional booths and event experience booths will be operated to add enjoyment to the festival.

So far, the district has been focusing on the ‘Gwanak S Valley’ project to transform the entire district into a city of venture startups, achieving a meaningful milestone in January this year with the designation as a Venture Business Promotion Zone. Going forward, plans include establishing a Gwanak S Valley corporate support fund, hosting open innovation events as part of ‘Gwanak S Valley 2.0,’ and founding the ‘Gwanak Small and Medium Venture Promotion Center’ to leap forward as a mecca for venture startups.

A district official said, “We have prepared a substantial event by combining the efforts of the public, private, and academic sectors to expand the base of the venture ecosystem in Gwanak-gu,” adding, “We will continue to expand support in space, technology, and investment so that Gwanak-gu can become a leading venture startup city in technology entrepreneurship.”

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