Busan City Signs Business Agreement for Successful Hosting of 'BUSAN Slush'D'

The World's Largest Startup Event Slush, Held for the First Time in Busan, Korea

Startup Agency Establishment Promotion Team and Korea Startup Forum Sign Business Agreement

On the 6th at 1:30 PM, Busan City held a business agreement ceremony at the 7th floor International Protocol Room of City Hall between the Busan Startup Agency Establishment Promotion Team (led by Deputy Mayor for Economic Affairs Lee Seong-gwon) and the Korea Startup Forum (Chairman Park Jae-wook) to successfully host ‘BUSAN Slush’D,’ an event aimed at revitalizing the local startup ecosystem and forming a global network.

The Busan Startup Support Group and Korea Startup Forum signed a business agreement to successfully host 'BUSAN Slush'D'. (Lee Seong-gwon, Vice Mayor of Busan for Economic Affairs (6th from the left), Choi Seong-jin, CEO of Korea Startup Forum (7th))

‘Slush’D’ is a spin-off event of ‘Slush,’ the world’s largest startup event held annually in Helsinki, Finland. Since the second half of 2022, it has been held to promote the growth of local startups, expand global networks, and develop startup ecosystems by focusing on issues faced by individual cities’ startup ecosystems.

This year’s ‘BUSAN Slush’D,’ held on June 29 at BEXCO, is the first ‘Slush’-related event to be held in Korea and is organized by Korea Startup Forum (hereinafter referred to as KOSPO), the largest startup organization in the country.

With the theme of revitalizing and globalizing the Busan startup ecosystem through solving urban problems in the Busan area, about 1,000 participants including local startups are expected to attend.

The event is especially meaningful as it is held in Busan, which aims to become an ‘Asian startup city’ and is creating a new startup ecosystem in the Busan, Ulsan, and Gyeongnam (Bu-Ul-Gyeong) region, rather than in the Seoul metropolitan area.

Through this agreement, the city will mutually cooperate with KOSPO to successfully host the event. In particular, KOSPO plans to jointly work on establishing a cooperative system to support local startup growth by providing programs and building a global network.

KOSPO successfully hosted the ‘ComeUp 2022 VIP Conference in Busan’ last year and has continued activities to develop the startup ecosystem in the Bu-Ul-Gyeong region by strengthening startup capabilities and networks through the Southeast Regional Council.

Especially, KOSPO played a significant role in selecting Busan as the host city for ‘Slush’D’ by focusing on Busan’s growing startup ecosystem despite the concentration of startups in the Seoul metropolitan area.

‘BUSAN Slush’D’ will focus on revitalizing the local ecosystem and global expansion through solving Busan’s urban problems, while simultaneously considering and discussing issues faced by regions worldwide.

It will be an event where not only prospective and early-stage entrepreneurs but also university student supporters, recruited in line with the ‘Slush’ spirit, can actively participate. To this end, the Korea Startup Forum Southeast Regional Council is actively discussing event planning and operation.

Team Leader Lee Seong-gwon said, “The theme of ‘BUSAN Slush’D’?solving urban problems such as population decline and revitalizing the local startup ecosystem?resonates with the situation Busan is facing. We will maintain close cooperation with the Korea Startup Forum not only for this event but also for ‘FLY ASIA 2023’ to be held in October, striving to enable innovative local companies to build global networks without moving to the Seoul metropolitan area, and to help Busan leap forward as a representative startup city in Asia.”

The Busan Startup Agency Establishment Promotion Team was formed in August last year to prepare for the establishment of the Busan Startup Agency, which will provide a one-stop support system for startup companies and support the continuous growth of startups. It has been continuing activities to create Busan as an Asian startup city, including supporting the hosting of the Asia Startup Expo (FLY ASIA) for connecting and advancing the Asian startup ecosystem and developing startup policies through the Busan startup ecosystem council.

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