13 Events Scheduled up to the End of the Year, Starting with Korea Ocean Expo

The Incheon is committed to strengthening its brand as the “MICE City Incheon” by providing support to the exhibition and convention events specialized to the local context.

The city government will be providing financial support packages amounting to 1.7138 billion over 13 exhibition and convention events that are specialized to the local context, starting from this month till the end of the year.

▲ Incheon is committed to strengthening its brand as the “MICE City Incheon” by providing support to the exhibition and convention events specialized to the local context. Photo: Big C 2021 – InBioPharm Exhibition.

Korea Ocean Expo, to be held from the 22nd to 24th of this month, will be followed by more specialized events till the end of the year, including‘Environmental Industries and Carbon Neutrality Conference and Expo’ in September, ‘Korea Police World Expo’ in October, and ‘Korea Beauty and Cosmetic Show,’ ‘Korea MICE Expo,’ ‘K-UAM Confex,’ and ‘Bio-Pharmaceutical Incheon Global Confex,’ in November.

The city plans to strengthen the brand of the city as an international MICE city and attempt to invigorate the local economy through the promotion of exhibition and convention industries that are in line with the Incheon New Deal Policy, along with the strategic industries of Incheon, including bio, aviation, environment, and beauty industries.

In addition, the ‘Korea Police World Expo’ and ‘Korea Ocean Expo’ were named as the beneficiary projects by the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, receiving the central government’s financial aid amounting up to105 million won.

▲ Photo: InBioPharm Exhibition 2021.

Also, Korea Police World Expo, jointly hosted by the city and the National Police Agency, made another success story when it satisfied the strict requirements and got certified by the UFI (Union des Foires Internationales) as an international exhibition event. As a result, Incheon now has three UFI-certified events, including the Chemical Manufacturing Expo Korea and Korea Ocean Expo, building a foundation to take a leap beyond South Korea to become a global MICE city.

Especially, the city hosted the ‘Korea Police Expo’ for the promotion of local-context-specialized expos and global exhibition events. This event was joined by 114 exhibitors from South Korea and foreign countries, with 391 exhibition booths sold and 7586 visitors, contributing to the public security industry. With the successful hosting of ‘K-UAM Confex,’ establishing an ecosystem for the urban air transportation ecosystem that is specialized for the Incheon, the city also endeavored to enhance the competitiveness of the city as the optimal location for the UAM industry.

‘InBioPharm Exhibition,’ which was joined by Samsung Biologics, a key tenant company of Songdo Bio Cluster, was also hosted for the first time,hosting 82 participating companies, in an effort to promote the growth of the Incheon’s Bio New Deal program through the cooperation between the industries,academic communities, research centers, and public agencies, including the bio-pharmaceutical investment consultation meetings.

The city expects to host more new events in September, including the ‘Environment and Carbon Neutrality Conference and Exhibition,’ with an increased number of exhibitions and convention events that are specialized inthe local context, attracting more than 200,000 domestic and foreign buyers and visitors, along with the potential export deals worth 300 billion won discussed(30% up from the previous year).

▲ A 360° VR view of Songdo International Conference Complex.

The Incheon stayed committed to the efforts to strengthen the capabilities of the industry in a difficult situation where the MICE industry was severely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The city designated ‘Incheon MICE Support Center,’ which opened in January last year, as the crisis response facility, running MICE Crisis Overcome Project Financial Grant programs and the general consultation office to mitigate the damages inflicted by COVID-19. In addition, in order for the digitalization of the MICE industry, the city supported the production of digital content utilizing the ▲ video conference system, ▲ virtual studio, and▲ 3D online platform.