Seoul City on the Move

Metropolitan city hosts various events designed to create Seoul Brand to make itself more colorful and enjoyable for residents and tourists

Seoul Int’l Business Advisory Council:
The 8th Seoul International Business Advisory Council (SIBAC) held its annual general conference consisting of three sessions with the theme of “Branding Global City Seoul” at the Grand Hyatt Hotel on Oct. 29, attended by CEOs of well-known corporations from around the world, economists from home and abroad, brand marketing specialists and those related with conventions and tourism, totaling some 200 altogether, officials of the Seoul Metropolitan Government said on Oct. 30.
The first session of its general conference took place with the theme: “The creation of a Core Value of the Seoul Brand and its Buildup;” the second session with the theme: “Communication and Marketing Strategies for Global Seoul Brand;” and the third session with the theme: “Effective Management of Seoul Brand and Customer Strategies.”
The council, set up in 2001, held its annual meeting for a day during the end of October on the theme that the Seoul Mayor wanted the council to take up. Various recommendations made by the council had been applied to the Seoul Metropolitan Government’s policies geared toward improving a number of areas that the city targeted such as the investment climate and building up the cultural and economic sides of Seoul to invigorate life in the city.























The council is made of 25 members and five advisors. The members are:
David Reid, chairman of Tesco Plc, who is also chairman of the council.
Chairman Chee Onn Lim of Singbridge International Singapore Pte., Vice President Nick Reilly of General Motors and Chairman N.R. Marayana Murphy of Infosys Technologies Ltd are vice chairman of the council.
Simon Anholt, a world-renowned brand consultant, gave a keynote speech at the opening session of the meeting.
Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon made a welcoming speech preceded by Chairman David Reid’s opening speech.
Anholt, as head of Anholt-GMI, a brand advisory consultancy firm, provided advice on the creation of national brands to 15 cities around the world including those in Britain, New Zealand and Switzerland.
In his keynote speech, Anholt said the creation of an attractive city is possible only through the branding of a new image as a core power. He said competitive identity is a key element in upgrading a city’s image and in order to build a competitive identity, it should be made a part of the city’s policy framework, not through a mere campaign.
In the case of Seoul, he said, the city has been building a very good city brand attracting public attention, and boosting its recognition by holding a number of important international events such as the World Climate Summit for the C40, the Seoul Design Olympics, the creation of new towns, Gwanghwamun Plaza and the Hangang Renaissance, among others.
VIPs attending the sessions included Chairman Nobuyuki Koga of Nomura Securities, Chairman Richard Smith of Newsweek, CEO Edward Dolman of Christie’s International PLC and Vice Chairman Christopher Forbes of Forbes magazine.
DMC Art Fence:
An art fence stretching for 7.216 km around the Digital Media Center (DMC) in Sangam-dong, Seoul, built by Seoul City, has been drawing a lot of public attention as it has many sculptural pieces with the subject of water, fire, sand and wind.
The wall surrounds 25 lots of land inside the DMC as wide as 101,936 square meters and displays a variety of art pieces made of natural or man-made materials, many of them high-tech ones, such as photos, holograms and LED screens, altogether 21 pieces, which is being boasted as “the world’s longest and the biggest outdoor art gallery,” good enough to be registered in the Guinness Book of World Records, Seoul City officials said.
The art fence is 5 meters high and takes up 36,080 square meters, the largest such art piece in the world, they said. A total of 150 art professors, students and artists worked on the art wall for 120 days from July and completed it on Oct. 12.
The site where DMC stands was previously a garbage depot, but has been turned into an environmentally friendly high-tech IT industrial complex.
The significance of the art object is that it is both a screen and an art piece, and if it is listed as a world record, it will be the longest and largest street art gallery in the world and a good example of how a garbage depot can be turned into such a beautiful place if people are willing to do so.
DMC Landmark Building:
Construction of the 133-storey DMC Landmark Building started with a festival during the groundbreaking ceremony held on the evening of Oct. 16 using colorful lights and high-tech multimedia under the theme of “Lights Leading a New Millennium,” using laser beams and LED lights to make the event more special.
DMC is part of the Sangam New Millennium New City Development Plan to build an IT cluster in Seoul at a cost of 3.263 trillion won, to be provided by the Seoul Light Tower Co., a consortium of 25 individual and corporate investors, and targeted for completion in 2014. When the building is completed, it will be the second tallest one in the world after the Burj Dubai in Dubai, UAE, they said.
The 25 investors include Korea Development Bank, Hana Bank, the National Agricultural Cooperatives Federation (NAFC), the Industrial Bank of Korea, Woori Bank, Daewoo Construction and Daelim Industrial Co., among others.
The 2nd 2009 Seoul DMC Culture Open took place at the site of the Digital Media Center, which is being developed as a cultural cluster in Seoul from Oct. 15-17 by Seoul City. The event featured movies, game, digital art and fashion, and more, so that the viewers might be able to feel and experience the DMC as a center of culture in Metropolitan Seoul.
Visitors to the Cultural Content Center were able to watch a number of old films at the center’s Digital Cinema Festival, which included such well-known oldies as “Anna Karenina” and “Queen Christina” from the 1930s, which were digitally remastered.
They also showed a number of experimental short animation films made with support from the Seoul Animation Center. The center also showed feature films being released for the first time around the country including “Haewundae,” a box office hit with viewers of the film totaling over 10 million across the country and still rising. The event also offered a preview of “Good Morning President” and “Loveholic” as a special gift to the visitors to the event.
The DMC Gameworld also took place, put on by the online game companies located in the DMC building including Dragon Fly, the producer of such popular online game as Karma 2, Special Fox and Starcraft.
Also staged at the center were Digital Art Exhibition and Digital Performance, experimental products made with digital technologies. Also offered at the event was Digital Media Street with high-tech intelligent street lights “IP-Inelight” and other events using electronic banners and a media board.
Seoul 2009 New Century city:
The event’s formal title was the MIT and ULI Conference Seoul 2009 New Century City Development Conference and Workshop, which took place at the DMC Nritkum Square, Business Center International Conference Room on Nov. 9 and at DMC High-tech Industry Center on Nov. 10 and 11.
The event was hosted by Seoul City, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Urban Land Institute.
The event consisted up three panel groups with a speech on overview of the conference theme by Michael Joroff, senior lecturer at MIT and a keynote address made by Gayle Farris, retired chairman and foundeer of Forest City Science and Technology Group. He spoke on private developers create social, business and cultural value for the city through twenty-first century new business models and partnerships.
Panel 1 featured a speech by Anthony Townsend, research director, Institute for the Future on a theme that New Century City projects create value for industry sector and host cities promote community identity and engagement.
He also called for creation of industry clusters to promote select industries of economic significance to the host city and the nation’s 21st century successor to science cities and industry parks.
Dennis Frenchman, professor and director, MIT City Design and Development Program, spoke on high quality, mixed-use environments that serve emerging life nd work styles, and promote community identity.
Oanel II dealt with a theme of sustainability and Twenty-first century lifestyles. Uwe Brandes, vice president of ULI Initiative group, Kari Heinen, chief executive officer, Arabianranta, Helsinki, and Juan Prades, office of mayor, Milla Digital, Zaragoza, were speakers on the subjects of
the form and fabric of sustainable large-scale developments. HIgh quality environments for community enjoyment and personal enrichment.
Panel III focused on the theme of real estate development projects as laboratories for the 21st century connected city. Panel members included Bernie Devine, director of Majitech,Danny Meaney, managing partner, New Media Partners, and Hari Halinen, chief executive officer, Arabianranta, Helsinki.
Vice President Uwe Brandes of ULI Initiatives Group, made a concluding comment on the Seoul 2009 New Century City Development Conference and Workshop, on the theme of the continuous evolution of new century city development projects and lessons for government and private developers. The emergence of new partnerships for city building. nw

This is part of the art fence with paintings and all kinds of decorations on the wall around the Digital Media Center in Sangam-dong, Seoul.

A panel of four on stage as part of the Seoul 2009 NCC Development Conference and Workshop held from Nov. 10-11 at DMC in Seoul.

Participants in the conference watch the panel discussion being held on the stage.

A drawing of the projected 133-story DMC Landmark Building to be built at the Digital Media Center in Sangam-dong, Seoul.