- MOIS and MSS to share the achievements of the Fail Expo and promote a global discourse on the theme of “Failure and Rechallenge”

- Experts and officials from related fields will join together to discuss failure and rechallenge, marking the “International Day for Failure”

The Ministry of the Interior and Safety(MOIS, Minister Jeon Hae-cheol) and the Ministry of SMEs and Startups (MSS,Minister Kwon Chil-seung) announced that the two ministries will co-host the“World Rechallenge Forum” on October 13. This forum will serve as a platform toshare the main achievements of the Fail Expo that has taken place for fouryears and shed light on cultures at home and abroad that encourage people toovercome failure and try again.

This event was first launched by AaltoEntrepreneurship Society (AltoES), a group of students from Aalto University in2010. The “Day for Failure” was expanded as the “International Day for Failure”in 2012 with the participation of various countries, including Germany, the UK,and Canada.

This year’s World Rechallenge Forum willdeliver a discourse on the failures of individuals, businesses, and countriesdeeply affected by COVID-19 and prepare for the shift to “living withCOVID-19.” At this forum, experts and officials from related fields will shareinspirational stories of those who failed at first and later became successful,ensuring that the fight for success goes on, and promote the spread of theculture of embracing failure inside and outside the country.

Since 2020, MOIS has switched the Fail Expoto be in operation all year round, running the Private Planning Office composedof experts from the private sector by field to communicate policies and gatheron-site comments and feedback.

Talks will take place on a range of topics,such as the role of the private and public sectors and plans to build globalengagement to promote a culture of accepting and embracing failure acrosssociety.

The second part of the forum features paneldiscussions revolving around cases of public and private sectors and businessesat home and abroad who once had a failure in their journeys to success and adirection of society for a better future.

Graced with the following speakers, a widerange of topics will be addressed: Ahn Young-no, a member of Fail Expo PrivatePlanning Office, will bring up stories about the operation of the Fail Expo;Mona Ismail, President of AaltoES, will talk about running the InternationalDay for Failure, and; Marc H. Meyer, Professor Co-Director of NortheasternUniversity Center for Entrepreneurship Education, will cover enterprise cases.

In particular, Mona Ismail will emphasizethe importance of improving public awareness of failure. At the same time, shewill discuss how society can embrace failure and the need for changing itsmindset, introducing what has happened in Finland before and after the Day forFailure.

The panel discussions in this second partwill also have inspirational talks by Founder & CEO Manoj Fernando ofThinktomi, a Silicon Valley-based investment company, Presidential Secretaryfor Institution Reform Yoon Nan-sil, and Professor & Director Seo Yong-seokof KAIST Future Strategy Research Center.

Minister Kwon Chil-seung of MSS said, “Amidthe prolonged COVID-19 pandemic, Korea demonstrated its true capability toovercome the crisis and was able to revisit the meaning of failure andrechallenge in a genuine sense.” He added, “We will continue to removeobstacles so that failure cannot keep people down and shy away from retrying.Moving forward, the government will concentrate its policy capabilities to makeexperiences of failure recognized as social assets.”

Minister Jeon Hae-cheol of MOIS noted, “TheFail Expo, first launched in 2018, has played a significant role over the pastfour years in creating a greater awareness of failure and promoting thepositive values of the failing experience and a culture of embracing it acrosssociety,” adding, “We hope that this year’s World Rechallenge Forum will be avaluable setting for gathering and sharing precious experiences and wisdom fromone another with world-renowned scholars.” He then added, “Through variousmeasures in place, such as the Fail Expo, we will provide full support forhelping people go back to normal life disrupted by COVID-19 and taking courageto try again.”

This forum will be broadcast live from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. on October 13 via the YouTube channels of MOIS and the Fail Expo. Video clips will be available in Korean on the Youtube channel of MOIS (https://bit.ly/38253ZH) while in English on the Fail Expo’s channel (https://bit.ly/3BCLV5X).