Seoul held the Global Startup Festival 'Try Everything 2022' at Dongdaemun Design Plaza (DDP) from September 21^st (Wed) to 23^rd (Fri).

This event was a festival with members of the startup ecosystem, including 120 investment companies including 20 overseas companies, and more than 1,300 startups including 30 overseas companies, and was the biggest in scale ever.

‘Try Everything’ is a global startup festival where promising startups, large and medium-sized companies, investors and accelerators from all over the world come together. Since 2020, Seoul has been holding Try Everything in September every year to revitalize the startup ecosystem.

As Seoul was selected as one of the Top 10 global cities to start a business this year, the city shares its achievements with various members of the startup ecosystem, such as global major companies, investment institutions, unicorn companies, and media companies at the 'Try Everything', and plans to explore the direction for the development of the Seoul startup ecosystem.

Startup Genome, a global startup ecosystem evaluation agency, published the Global Startup Ecosystem Report by targeting 280 cities in 100 countries and Seoul ranked 10^th this year, up 6^th place from 16^th in ’21. Seoul’s startup ecosystem was evaluated as 223 trillion KRW (177 billion USD).

At the 'Try Everything 2021' event, a total of 56.1 billion KRW in investment was attracted through online and offline meet-ups and competitions. Through this year’s event, their goal is to get 75 billion KRW in investment and the participation of companies, investors, experts in the global startup ecosystem, and 60,000 visitors.

Despite the COVID-19 crisis in 2020-2021, they achieved the result of 1,434 promising startups, 549 global startup ecosystem experts, and 150 investment companies participating the event from 21 countries around the world. In this year’s event, through Meet-ups and IR pitching, they will provide opportunities for startups and investors to meet, and support startups' domestic and foreign investment attraction, global commercialization, and market development.

On the first day, September 21^st (Wed), Sebastien Borget, the founder of ‘The Sandbox’ took the stage as a keynote speaker and talked and shared insights about ways to achieve cooperation such as information and technology opening between companies, cities and countries.

Followed by Sebastien, Professor Tyler Cowen, a world-renowned authority in the field of economics, delivered a keynote speech on the topic of the autonomy of the private sector and the role of the public.

Seoul also held the ‘Seoul Open Innovation Vision Proclamation Ceremony’, where the Seoul will become a platform and created a link. Seoul, Benz Korea, Continental Group, SKT, and Kyowon Group and 50 large and medium-sized domestic and international enterprises and start-up support associations will work together to lay a foothold for the growth of startups and establish a system that enables innovative technologies to settle in the market.

Open innovation has established itself as a universal management trend to secure innovation engines in global companies. In the 4^th industrial revolution, the participation and introduction of companies is accelerating to secure future growth engines.

Through Open Innovation where utilizes technologies and ideas from universities, large and medium-sized enterprises, and startups for corporate innovative growth, Seoul is supporting the establishment of a shared growth ecosystem that can coexist between large enterprises, medium-sized enterprises, SME/ventures, and start-ups where they can share each other's strengths.

Meanwhile, Seoul was selected as one of the top 10 cities in the world this year where it is best to start a business. Various players in the startup ecosystem, including global major companies, investment institutions, unicorn companies, and media companies, will participate to further promote the vitalization of the Seoul startup ecosystem. Accordingly, in Try Everything 2022, more than 40 programs such as contests, lectures, and seminars will be held to expand the global advancement of domestic startups and revitalize the Seoul startup ecosystem. Various global organizations such as the US embassy in Korea and experts from domestic and foreign startup ecosystems, such as South Summit, Extreme Tech Challenge, Startup Genome, will also participate.