With a strong pipeline and incoming international events business spread around the country, as well as increased support for organisers, Korea is on the meetings march again:
Convention pipeline hot for future events
Korea’s successful return to the international conference and major events market is illustrated by the high-profile bids coming down the pipeline including the right to host the 2025 Osteoarthritis Research Society International World Congress (OARSI). This is expected to gather 1,500 experts from 50 countries to Songdo Convensia, Incheon in April 2025. The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the Korea Tourism Organisation (KTO) had successfully bid for what is the largest meeting in the world among osteoarthritis-related conferences.
KTO partnered with Dr Gun-Il Im, president of OARSI and an active Korea MICE Ambassador, and supported visits to Korea for OARSI members. (Since 2017, KTO has appointed 11 prominent figures from academic associations and organisations as Korea MICE Ambassadors).
Kwon Jong Sool, executive director of the Korea MICE Bureau, says Korea is a country with “the world’s best human resources, advanced technology and networks in various fields including IT and medicine. We will continue to focus our efforts on attracting events of international scale to invite experts from around the world, and actively promote Korea as a top meetings destination”.
Korea will also host 15,000 delegates for the 2023 USANA Asia Pacific Convention at KINTEX, Goyang. This bid was a joint effort with KTO, Gyeonggi Tourism Organisation, Goyang CVB and the venue. The convention will take place 4-6 May. It is an annual event held by global cell nutrition science corporation, USANA Health Sciences, Inc., which has branches in 24 countries. It will be the largest corporate meeting held in Korea.
USANA held its annual convention in Singapore from 2015 to 2019, however, since 2020, other host locations came into consideration due to an increase in the number of convention participants. Two countries, Korea and Malaysia, submitted bids for the event, which will be the first offline edition in four years due to Covid.
Korea has also successfully won its bid host 2026 Intelligent Transport System (ITS) World Congress in Gangneung. Over 60,000 participants from 100 countries are expected to take part.
The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport said the eastern city won its bid to hold the international event over Taiwan. ITS is the largest international exhibition and academic conference in the transport community. Seoul held the event in 1998 and Busan hosted it in 2010.
Countries in three regions – the Americas, Europe and Asia Pacific – take turns holding the event. Korea has spent 36 billion won ($25m over the past two years to improve its overall transport and city infrastructure. “The ITS World Congress is expected to generate 372.9 billion won (US$290m) in economic value, and create over 2,000 jobs,” the ministry said in a statement.
Gangneung is in tune to host the World Choir Game 2023 and the 2024 Gangwon Winter Youth Olympics along with three other cities (Gangwon, Pyeongchang, Jeongseon) in Gangwon Province.
And, an example of a successful event already held, the 24th International Congress on Acoustics (ICA 2022) in Gyeongju, Korea, 24–28 October, successfully attracted around 1,000 delegates from 40 countries.
Koreans have a well-known love of music, from K-pop to Western classical music to reinterpretations of traditional Korean music. It follows that Koreans are highly sensitive to the quality of sound, not only in musical instruments but also in everyday products and spaces. As the cradle of the country’s religion, philosophy, arts and indeed, music, Gyeongju can offer visitors an insight into the development of acoustics in Korea. The city is effectively an open-air museum full of ancient treasures which include three UNESCO World Heritage Sites. All that made for an ideal backdrop for ICA 2022.
KTO’s new MICE initiatives
Korea is working on new strategy for sustainable development of its MICE industry and the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism (in the person of minister Park Bo-gyun), together with the KTO (president Kim Jang Sil), held a ‘Proclamation Ceremony for Establishment of a MICE Industry Ecosystem and Sustainable Management’ back in September 2022. And a ‘MICE Industry Revitalisation Forum’ on 19 December at the Commodore Hotel in Busan discussed the campaign to bring the 2030 World Expo to Busan.
Certification is big part of the MICE push. The KTO (President Young-bae Ahn) attained the ISO 20121 certification, which helps planners evaluate whether MICE suppliers have economic, environmental and socially sustainable management systems and operating processes.
KTO has been actively promoting company-wide ESG management starting from 2021 and passed a two-step expert review of the Korean Standards Association.
Venue developments in Busan
Busan, Korea’s second largest city and a mega port, announced back in early 2022 that it would be moving forward with the construction of the 3rd BECO Exhibition Centre and the SeoBusan Exhibition and Convention Centre. Construction is set to start in 2024 and finish in 2026.
It is hoped that the construction of the centre will attract more international conferences and bigger trade shows by overcoming the limitations of the old BEXCO exhibition centre. A whole new accommodation, tourism, leisure, shopping, infrastructure and international conference complex offer will be built in the area.
The design is set to be approved in the second half of this year and the new venue will be built on the existing parking structure of BEXCO.
In addition, the SeoBusan Exhibition and Convention Center, which is scheduled to be built in the Busan Special R&D Zone, is at the planning stage. That project has a goal of completion in 2031.
As well as numerous large events connected with trade and indstustry, Busan can offer incentive activities including:
- Experiencing and creating traditional Korean paper crafts and artworks.
- A Taekwondo experience at a local centre where 3,000 visitors come every year from all over the world to experience Korean traditional martial arts.
- Yoga classes with a view of the ocean off the coast of Busan
Korea relaxes qualifying requirements for conventions support
Starting this year, the requirements for international conventions seeking support for events held in Korea have been significantly relaxed. This follows the passing of the amendment to Korea’s International Conference Industry Promotion Act in September last year which included small events into the original target of medium- to large- scale events. The idea is to help attract small and medium-sized events which have been rapidly increasing since the pandemic.
KTO will now partially subsidise the cost of events with a total of 100 or more participants which include 50 or more foreigners from three countries. The target of support is international conferences held for more than two days by organisations and companies and academic associations which have a unique registration number in Korea. Overseas organisations or associations that are not registered in Korea can also qualify for support by working through a convention bureau or hotel.
The available subsidies range from 10 million to 60 million won, according to how many delegates are involved. Up to 60% of additional support is provided based on evaluations of events held outside a metropolitan area, use of Korea Unique Venue and the Standard Contract for International Conference Services, compliance with Sustainable Event Management (ISO20121) guidelines and more.
Online meetings, temporarily supported due to the Covid-19 crisis, are now excluded from support.
Considering that international air routes have not yet fully recovered, there is continuing support for hybrid events – up to 20,000 won per foreign online participant and to a maximum total of 10 million won. Full details and conditions are available via the KTO website.
Korea is also expanding its Digital Transformation Project for regional convention bureaus and about 40 MICE companies will be selected through a competition to be provided with support, including creation of a digital work environment, producing digital PR and marketing contents, analysing customer management data, and promotion using apps and social media.
The Korea MICE Bureau, in partnership with the industry, will also produce and distribute new official manuals designed to help enhance the safety of MICE events.
There will also be strengthened collaboration with Korea’s regions, including creation of customised marketing plans through sharing and analysis of key personnel and databases of international conferences managed by each region. The regions will also be able to tap into KTO’s overseas network for support.
Unique venues
Korea is also expanding its list of designated Unique Venues, places where you can feel the unique charm of Korea. There is increased support for up to 50 of them, with corporate meetings and incentive tours the main focus.
There will also be a fostering of K-Conventions, which combine Korea’s unique contents such as K-Pop and K-Food.
Korea Life Science Week – Seoul
Korea Life Science Week 2022 was a particular success showcasing another Korean sectoral strong suit. It included a two-day exhibition and conference (7-9 November 2022), presenting new technologies and trends in the pharmaceutical, bio, and life science sectors, and was visited by over 3,300 people.
COEX hosted that event and Seoul City, Chungbuk Province, the Korean Fund for Regenerative Medicine, and the Regenerative Medicine Acceleration Foundation were among the many sponsors.
The show floor saw booths showcasing advanced regenerative medicine, medical combination products, AI & big data and digital therapeutics, and next-generation pharmaceuticals.
The show was set up on the first floor of the COEX venue.
Along with an Advanced Regenerative Medicine Zone, Combination Product Zone, Pharma & Bio Venture Startup Zone (Bio Innovation Company Promotion Zone), and Bio-health Partnering & Poster Zone, 135 companies presented their technologies, products, services, and also R&D equipment.
The show organiser said that “although the event has only celebrated its third anniversary, more buyers came from a wider range of industries than ever before”.
Connecting start-ups developing new technologies to financial institutions is one of the key programmes the Korea Life Science Week offers and over 20 businesses made investor presentations on their technologies and business items. There were also investment consulting sessions with around 150 professionals from investment companies, financial institutions, asset management firms, analysts, and underwriters.
Kyungyon Exhibition Corp., the organiser, also hosted 1:1 online business meetings with international buyers to help promote the export potential of SMEs in the country’s bio & pharma and medical industries. Twenty buyers from 11 countries including UAE, Myanmar, Singapore, Oman, Israel, India, Indonesia, Qatar, Turkey, the Philippines, and Hong Kong joined 54 sessions throughout the event. The exports negotiated during the sessions were worth an estimated US$5.1m, the organisers say.
Young Soo Kim, CEO of Kyungyon Exhibition Corp., the organiser of Korea Life Science Week, said: “Instead of product promotions and sales, the event is organised around business meetings for presenting technologies of exhibitor companies designed to help them land partnership deals.
“The key to successful and sustainable events is constantly listening to what the industry players want and reflecting their needs in the planning and execution stage.”
As to why Korea Life Science Week is held at COEX, Mr Kim said: “Seoul has many of the world’s top hospitals and is the No.1 city in new drug development clinical research. Its bio and medical infrastructure make it the perfect destination. In particular, Seoul makes significant investment in and supports the MICE sector. While planning for a pharma & bio convention, our proposal won the Seoul Tourism Organisation’s 2020 Seoul Exhibition Planning Contest.”
Seoul support
The Seoul tourism Organisation has shared details of the city’s new support programme with CMW.
It has lowered the eligibility criteria to include events for just 50 people. Site-inspection support can be provided from the initial attracting stage for visiting groups considering Seoul as their next destination.
For international conferences there is now financial support via a-PCO fee to help PCOs plan ahead and promote effectively before hosting.
Support at the Hosting Stage has also been upgraded to provide local tour programmes, both full-day and half-day. A Seoul Experience booth can also be made available for on-site support at an event.
To encourage sustainable conferences, Seoul has created a new list of activities for support such as utilising eco-friendly transportation, preparing alternatives to reduce disposals, offering vegan menus and more.
There are, of course, conditions attached and criteria for the support, such as corporate meetings and incentive tours needing to last for two nights minimum with more than 20 participants and to use paid services from a minimum of two Seoul MICE Alliance members. Newly introduced is financial support for using a unique venue registered with SMA.
For full conditions please visit Seoul Tourism Organisation website.
