GIST Hosts '2020 GIST CEO Forum' During Science Culture Week

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Lee Gwanwoo] The Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology (GIST) Startup Promotion Center announced on the 4th that it held the ‘2020 GIST CEO Forum’ online in celebration of GIST Science Culture Week.

Now in its 5th year, the CEO Forum is a startup forum event where local businesspeople, (prospective) entrepreneurs, students and researchers, and related organization officials can meet science, technology, startups, and CEOs all in one place.

As a pre-event of the CEO Forum, GIST students’ conference event ‘GIST Startup Night’ was held on the 3rd at the GIST Oryong Hall under the theme ‘Fire Up Stand Up,’ with about 200 students attending online.

Startup lectures included ‘A Startup Adding Happiness to Communication, Bitbyte Growth Story’ by An Seohyeong, CEO of Bitbyte; ‘Hey! You Can Do It Too, Just Start&Up’ by Jeong Jiseong, CEO of SOS Lab, a student startup from GIST; and ‘Investment Is Practical! Startup Seed Investment IR’ by Kim Minjun, CEO of Cloudstone Inc.

There were also introductions to GIST startup support and education programs, as well as a first-come-first-served startup quiz event.

About 200 participants including (prospective) entrepreneurs, students and researchers, and related organization officials attended the CEO Forum online that day.

Kim Euijung, CEO of Identify Inc., gave an invited lecture on ‘The Latest Domestic and International Status and Issues of Artificial Intelligence (AI),’ and investment IRs and mock crowdfunding competitions were held simultaneously for faculty/student startup companies participating in GIST startup programs such as the ‘Industry Professional Partnership Program (IPP),’ ‘Campus Chief Executive Challenge (CCC) Program,’ and ‘Technology to Market (T2M) Program.’

Among the six companies, two teams that attracted the highest investment funds from the audience evaluation panel in the mock crowdfunding competition each received a prize of 1 million won.

Meanwhile, the AI & Internet of Things (IoT) Makethon competition, one of the GIST Science Culture Week events and a general public startup program to lead the 4th Industrial Revolution, will be held at Noblestay Hotel on the 13th and 14th.

Jo Byunggwan, head of the GIST Startup Promotion Center, said, “Although the CEO Forum was held as a non-face-to-face online event to prevent the spread of COVID-19, it attracted great interest from (prospective) entrepreneurs, students and researchers, and related organization officials, becoming a meaningful festival that could spread and create a startup boom.”