While the first day of the event had many panel discussions and talks focused on the effects and challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic on businesses and startups, day two of COMEUP 2020 was full of leadership management, new knowledge, and creating better workspaces.
Keynote Speech and Panel Discussions
The opening talk was on the Future of Technology and Quantum Computing. The keynote speech was made by the lecturer of Duke University and co-founder of IONQ, Jung Sang Kim. He spoke about his own experience with Quantum computing and his company’s technology. He said that by developing Quantum domain models, his company, would revolutionize big data analytics. He emphasized that computers could be used to solve various industrial issues such as; drug delivery in pharma and molecular design, logistics and navigation in transportation, the chemical processes in the energy sector, and market model optimization in finance.
Besides that, under the theme’ Open Innovation’, the ‘Father of Open Innovation,’ Henry Chesbrough, gave an insightful lecture. He spoke about how open innovation can help in crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic. Mr. Chesbrough said that open innovation could help in the digital transformation of businesses, drug development, and manufacturing changes in accordance with the pandemic requirements.
There were various panel discussions held under the theme of ‘Open Innovation.’ The first-panel talk was led by the leading partner at investment and new business development at GS Shop, a part of GS Group, Mr. Young Hoon Park. The expert panelists shared their experiences supporting the startup ecosystem in several countries and spoke about providing new business models.
The second-panel talk was held via video conferencing and was led by Managing Director Tech in Asia Studios, Andrew Baisely.
Remote Work
The keynote speech was made under the theme ‘The Great Reset after COVID-19’. The pandemic has changed the way of working; almost all companies are encouraging remote work. The chairperson for the Future of Work Singularity University, Gary A. Bolles, was invited to give a presentation on the topic. He spoke on how this pandemic should be taken as a time for resetting the way we work. He talked about how big companies can help innovate startups and leverage the new model of distributed talent.
After Mr. Gary’s speech, he invited other experts to discuss the topic via video conference. Examples of a few companies were discussed: adapting to this new norm of remote work and managing everything through a common online platform. The panel also talked about how Virtual Reality (VR) will play an important role in communication.
The panel also discussed AI being an important part of future work. This panel discussion was lead by the Executive Director of Korea Startup Forum, Sung-Jin Cho. The panel discussed how, with AI’s help, a lot of administrative work has become automated. The discussion was concluded on the note that the post-pandemic world would have to learn to work and live with artificial intelligence technology.
AI and Robotics
Robotics has increasingly become part of our daily lives. Various global and Korean startups are capitalizing their talent to create robotics-based innovative products to tailor aspects of businesses and life. The Founder and CEO made the keynote speech and presentation of Bear Robotics Inc., John Ha, about the future of robotics in hospitality. He spoke about how things changed with the introduction of robotics into the hospitality industry. He also emphasized that the introduction of robotics in the hospitality industry does not mean eliminating human resources; instead, it will help eliminate issues for humans.
After this session, a panel discussion was held on the usage of artificial intelligence in the real world. The panel was led by the CEO of VoyagerX, Se Dong Nam. The panelists also discussed how AI has inspired their individual work and shared their experiences about individual ventures.
Another discussion was made on augmenting offline with robots and artificial intelligence. This discussion was led by a serial entrepreneur, founder, and investor of retail-tech Korean startup LOUNGE LAB, Sung Jae Hwang. The panelists also spoke about how startups are recognizing the importance of artificial intelligence and robotics.
Manufacturing
Industries are witnessing the transformation due to digital technology innovation, especially with pandemic restrictions, digitization has become the driving force. The talk on digitization effects was led by the Professor of SNU Mechanical Engineering and CEO of OnePredict, Byeng Dong Youn. He said that digitization could bring disruptive innovation; however, many industries have not yet realized the importance of digitization. He emphasized that it is the time now to master the manufacturing world with digitization.
Following this discussion was a panel discussion about the next-generation artificial intelligence-based infrastructure possibilities. This discussion was led by the Director of KT Investment, Jim Soo Kim. The panelists spoke about AI’s role in their businesses and how they plan to create further AI-based solutions.
Most of the manufacturing sector can work remotely, especially during the pandemic, there have been many challenges. The panel in COMEUP 2020 discussed how things are now changing; however, it is challenging to automate manufacturing sectors like warehousing, factories, logistics, and human resources.
Special Session
There was a special session in the COMEUP 2020, with Fei-Fei Li from Stanford University on how the future can be re-shaped where humans and artificial intelligence can collaborate. Fei-Fei also spoke about AI’s role in this pandemic and her involvement in healthcare research and AI. However, she also said that AI’s dimensions could never take over the dimensions of human life.
Chango Program Demo Day
This program was designed for game and mobile apps developers. The Top ChanGoo developers with their products were introduced. A total of ten startups participated in this program.
IR- Re-Challenge Day
This program included startup IR, investment attraction networking, re-starting company boosting, and much more. A total of 14 companies participated. The experts conducted short lectures, and discussions were made on foreign and domestic companies’ latest trends, startup growth stories, and successful investment cases.
Awards and AI-Championship
The day two of the COMEUP 2020 also hosted awards for AI solution startups and AI Championship 2020. Eight companies for their innovative solutions were recognized under this program. The Ministry of SMEs and startups promoted the event as the second AI competition.
The Chairman of the evaluation committee, Kang Seok, the Minister of SMEs and Startups, Park Young-Sun, and other notable personalities were given the awards.
Besides that, a workshop was also conducted on attracting investors with Nara Kim, Wook Ahh SEMA Translink Investment, CEO of Upright Consulting as speakers. The attendees were also able to access the video promotions of COMEUP STARS Korean and global startups.
For more details on the event COMEUP 2020 and the Korean startup ecosystem, please visit www.kcomeup.com.
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