Seoul city hosts startup festival 'Try Everything'

The Seoul Metropolitan Government’s global startup festival, “Try Everything,” took off on Wednesday at Dongdaemun Design Plaza in eastern Seoul. Scheduled to be held until Sept. 15, up to 1,500 startup companies were in attendance, along with 220 domestic and overseas venture capital firms.

Since hosting “Start-Up Seoul: Tech Rise” in 2019, the city government has hosted the startup festival “Try Everything” every September.

Under the slogan, “Start Now, Try Together,” this year’s festival aims to support Seoul’s startups by strengthening its overseas networks.

The three-day event will have booths run by startup companies, giving visitors the opportunity to learn about their business ideas. There will also be opportunities for startups to pitch their businesses while meeting one-on-one with investors.

"To increase employment rates, it is now more important than ever to support the growth of the startup ecosystem," said Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon at the opening ceremony. "Seoul will contribute to the growth of the entrepreneurial ecosystem by building more infrastructure for startups such as startup campuses, funding university startup programs and supporting business projects involving startups and large enterprises."

The opening ceremony also featured Gary Marcus, an emeritus professor at New York University and founder of machine learning company Geometric Intelligence shared his insights through a keynote speech on the opportunities and threats posed by artificial intelligence. Dov Moran, the managing partner of Israel’s Grove Ventures and inventor of the USB, also spoke at the ceremony.

Additionally, sessions involving large and medium-sized enterprises, such as “Do ESG with SK Telecom” and “Open Innovation with CJ CheilJedang and Amazon Web Services” will be held during the event to demonstrate examples of business projects between startups and large companies.

Investors and prominent figures from countries such as China, Japan, Israel, Denmark, Hong Kong, Singapore, Vietnam and the US will also be speaking during various open sessions during the event.

The final rounds for two startup competitions -- the “National Entrepreneurship Audition” for prospective startups with innovative ideas and “Korea Challenge” for startups that are looking to expand globally -- will also take place Friday. After the final rounds commence, the winning startups will be awarded during the 2023 Try Everything Awards ceremony on the same day.

The Seoul Metropolitan Government has pursued a variety of policies to create an innovative startup ecosystem to support those who wish to start a business in the city.

In June, Oh unveiled a 1.67 trillion-won ($1.26 billion) spending package to fuel startup growth and nurture futuristic technology over the next eight years with a focus on robots, financial technology, biotechnology and artificial intelligence.