S.Korea to host Asia's largest advertising festival for 1st time since 2007

Seoul in October will host Asia's largest advertising festival AdAsia. The organizers of this year's event aim to host more than just a conference and instead present a corporate venue stimulating tangible business cooperation.

The Organizing Committee for AdAsia 2023 Seoul on Tuesday in a news conference at Seoul Press Center unveiled the event's schedule and programs.

First held in Tokyo, Japan, in 1958, AdAsia is the continent's largest advertising and marketing event. The biennial conference is held in a different Asian city each time, and South Korea previously hosted it in 1984 in Seoul and 2007 on Jeju Island.

The committee will focus its energy on turning the event into a practical business venue, preparing conferences that connect domestically produced content and brand marketing and K-pop concerts.

"We plan to display new ad-tech technologies at exhibition booths and set up consultation spaces to create new business opportunities through this technology," said committee chairman Kim Nak-hoi, who also heads the Korea Federation of Advertising Associations.

As the event's first offline edition in four years, AdAsia 2023 Seoul is expected to attract many people from overseas, with the committee predicting around 1,000 business leaders from 20 countries like Singapore, Taiwan and Malaysia. More than a million people are expected to attend, including those projected to take part online.

The four-day event will be held at COEX in Seoul from Oct. 24.

Write to Park,Jong-Kwan at pjk@hankyung.com