The Ministry of Science and ICT announced on the 30th that it will hold 'AI Festa 26,' an official event of AI Week, at COEX in Seoul from October 6 to 8. This year's event features 212 companies and 501 booths, making it the largest in history.
This year's AI Festa will feature speakers from global AI companies and institutional investors, including Google DeepMind, OpenAI, AWS, Anthropic, Huawei, Zenspark, IBM, Perplexity, Unity, and Mila. In Korea, major companies such as KT, Samsung SDS (Samsung에스디에스), Yanolja, Lotte Innovate, Doosan Robotics, Megazone Cloud, NHN Cloud, Hancom Group, TmaxSoft, and The Bizon will participate to share AI technologies and industrial application cases.
On the first day of the event, the 6th, the 'AI Summit,' the main conference of AI Festa, will be held. Leaders from major global AI companies and institutional investors will take the stage to share the direction of AI technology evolution and industrial strategies.
The global keynote will be delivered by Dr. Lora Aroyo of Google DeepMind. She will examine the development trends of AI technology and changes across industries, while providing an outlook on the impact of AI on real-world industries and services.
On the 7th, the 'Future Tech Conference,' a future technology conference for AI Festa, will follow. Key topics include physical AI and robotics, enterprise AI transformation, and next-generation industrial innovation.
The exhibition space focuses on showcasing the expanded ecosystem of the AI industry. This year's AI Festa has further subdivided its exhibition composition. On-site, nine themed special pavilions will be operated: △Special Pavilion for Independent AI Foundation Models △AI Competition Special Pavilion △Physical AI & Robotics Special Pavilion △K-AI Partnership Special Pavilion △Agentic AI+X Special Pavilion △AI Semiconductor Special Pavilion △AI Infrastructure Special Pavilion △Defense AI Special Pavilion, and △Security & Quantum Special Pavilion.
This year's AI Festa has also strengthened its business functions to facilitate not only exhibitions and conferences but also substantive business cooperation between companies.
A representative program is the 'AI Festa 26 Business Consultation.' Through pre-event demand surveys, approximately 100 demand-side and supply-side companies each will be recruited, and one-on-one customized consultations will be arranged based on each company's needs.
During the event period, more than 100 one-on-one business meetings will be conducted, with the goal of connecting over 30% of the participating demand-side companies to follow-up negotiations.
Participation in the event can be applied for through the official AI Festa website. With pre-registration, participation in exhibitions and some conference programs is free, and pre-registration is available until 6 p.m. on October 2.
An official from the AI Festa Organizing Committee stated, "This year's AI Festa focuses not only on showcasing AI technology but also on demonstrating how AI is implemented and expanded in real-world industries and business settings." He added, "With global companies, domestic companies, public institutional investors, and startups participating together, we expect it to become a substantive venue for exchange connecting technology and industry."
in TECH
