The city of Seoul held the global startup festival, ‘Try Everything 2022’ at Dongdaemun Design Plaza (DDP) between September 21(Wed) and 23(Fri).

The event was a festival with members of the startup ecosystem gathering, with 120 investors including 20 companies from abroad, and over 1,300 startups including 30 from abroad, and was the biggest in scale since it first started.

‘Try Everything’ is a global startup festival where members of the startup ecosystem, such as promising startups from all over the world, large and medium-sized corporations, investors, and accelerators, get together. The city of Seoul has been hosting Try Everything every September to invigorate the startup ecosystem since 2022.

As the city of Seoul has been selected this year as one of the Global TOP 10 cities to start a business, the city is sharing its success with various members of the startup ecosystem, such as global corporations, investment institutions, unicorn companies, and the media, and is searching for ways to improve the Seoul startup ecosystem.

The city of Seoul has risen by 6 ranks from its rank of 16^th in ’21 to be ranked 10^th this year in the global startup ecosystem report made by the global startup ecosystem evaluation institution, Startup Genome, which covered over 280 cities from 100 nations from around the world. The startup ecosystem of Seoul was valued at 223 trillion KRW ($177 billion USD).

The ‘Try Everything 2021’ event was able to attract a total of 56.1 billion KRW in investments through events like the on/offline meetup and competitive exhibitions. This year they are aiming to attract 75 billion KRW in investments and have the attendance of 60,000 people including promising startups, large and medium-sized corporations, investing companies, global startup ecosystem experts, and regular citizens.

Despite the COVID-19 crisis in 2020~2021, 1,434 promising startups from 21 nations around the world, 549 global startup ecosystem experts, and 150 investing companies attended the event. Opportunities for startups and investors to meet will also be provided this year, through processes like investment institution-startup meetups and investment attraction activities (IR pitching), supporting startups in attracting investments from Korea and abroad, advancing into global commercialization, and pioneering markets.

On the opening day on September 21^st(Wed), ‘The Sandbox’ founder, Sebastien Borget, got on stage as a keynote speaker and shared insight on ways to achieve cooperation and the sharing of information and technology between companies, cities, and nations.

World authority in the field of economics, Professor Tyler Cowen, then followed with a keynote speech on the autonomy of the private sector and the role of the public.

Then the ‘Seoul Open Innovation Vision proclamation ceremony’ was also held, where the city of Seoul becomes a platform to become a link. The city of Seoul and around 50 Korean and foreign companies and startup support associations, such as Benz Korea, Continental Group, SKT, and Kyowon Group, will provide a platform for the growth of startups and establish a system to settle innovative technology into the market.

Open Innovation has positioned itself as a universal management trend for the securing of innovative engines in global companies. The attendance and adoption by companies to secure future growth engines in the 4^th industrial revolution is accelerating.

The city of Seoul is supporting the establishment of a mutual growth ecosystem where major corporations, medium-sized companies, SMEs/ venture companies, and startups are able to share each other’s strengths and coexist through open innovation which utilizes the technologies and ideas of universities, large and medium-sized companies, and startups for innovative growth of companies.

Meanwhile, the city of Seoul has been selected as a Global TOP 10 city to start a business. Various players of the startup ecosystem, such as global corporations, investment institutions, unicorn companies, and the media will attend to accelerate the invigoration of the Seoul startup ecosystem. Accordingly, over 40 programs, such as competitions, lectures, and seminars, will be held at Try Everything 2022, and various global institutions and Korean and foreign startup ecosystem experts, such as South Summit, Extreme Tech Challenge, Startup Genome, and the U.S. EMBASSY & CONSULATE, will be in attendance.

This year's 2022 TRY EVERYTHING special articles were jointly planned and conducted by AVING NEWS and the Seoul Business Agency (sba), which contributes to the revitalization of the Seoul economy through comprehensive and systematic nurturing of small and medium-sized enterprises in Seoul.