As beSUCCESS is getting ready to launch their annual tech start-up conference this May 14-15th at DDP, here is a look back at what happened at last year’s groundbreaking conference…
Seoul, South Korea – This year the theme for beLaunch, a start-up tech conference was “Bigger Than It Seems.” But beLaunch may have just outdone themselves by being bigger than anyone could have imagined. As conference speaker Soujanya Bhumkar, founder of Cooliris observed, “Koreans have a distinct fire in their belly and this raw passion to succeed…coupled with the country’s amazing infrastructure makes Korea an ideal breeding ground for entrepreneurs.”
And this was never more true than the past 2 days when Seoul hosted 50 world-class speakers, 1,000 entrepreneurs, and over 2,000 attendees from around the globe at the Dongdaemoon Design Plaza or DDP. With its urban neofuturistic design, DDP was the perfect backdrop to promote innovate thinking, creative conversations, and partnerships that will likely change and shape the future.
The Korean government has pledged to invest roughly $3.2 billion dollars in start-ups over the next 3 years and will provide monetary support to 50 Korean start-ups by the end of the year.
From easy typo correction solutions for smart phones, to technology that allows you to start your car with simply just your phone, to an app that offers personalized restaurant suggestions — all the ideas presented showed great promise and have already gained traction both locally and globally. This year, 20 start-ups pitched their ideas in front of an audience in the hopes of convincing venture capitalists, investors, and established businesses that they are onto the next big thing. Over the course of the conference, teams braved the event stage and were scrutinized by a panel of judges in hopes of winning the title of “Start-up Battle Winner”. In the end, a dating app called ChinChin walked away with top honors. Last year’s winner shakr.com closed out the event by sharing their successes and offering free advertisement space in Gangnam’s neon billboard to the top three submissions who use their affordable professional quality video making tool.
It is quite fitting that the winner of this year’s battle was a dating app. As the point of beLaunch is to bring start-ups and investors together in the hopes that a match is made. And indeed that is what event organizers hope will continue to happen even after everyone returns to their home countries. This has been Teri Ham reporting for TBS eFM 101.3.
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