[Metaverse Colloquium] The future, culture and data that will captivate the MZ generation

The Metaverse Colloquium hosted by KUBS(Dean=Johngseok Bae) Startup Station(Director= Hojung Shin) and the Center for Digital Transformation & Business (CDTB; Head= Baeho Kim and Byung Cho Kim) was held on October 22(Fri). The main theme of the colloquium was “Culture and Data that will captivate the MZ generation.” Galaxy Corporation CEO Choi Yong Ho, director of Hana Financial Investment Park In Gyu, and director of Hilstone Partners Cho Sung Yeon participated as the speakers of the colloquium. Due to COVID-19, the colloquium was held online via Zoom with those who signed up for the event in advance.

KUBS Dean Johngseok Bae welcomed the participants and said, “KUBS is doing a lot of research and industry-university collaboration based on digital platforms and is running a startup station rooted on entrepreneur mindset. We have prepared three sessions that will interest the MZ generation. Thank you to all the speakers and participants of this event.”

Galaxy Corporation CEO Choi Yong Hoi conducted the first session on the topic of ‘Metaverse in the entertainment industry.’ Starting from his own magazine publishing company at 23, Mr. Choi entered the media sector. He later developed algorithms used by Naver and commercialized more than 200 brands and started his business with a dream of becoming a ‘unicorn.’ He emphasized the importance of the metaverse and suggested Mamison’s sub-character (부캐) as an example. “sub- characters are endlessly reproduced within metaverse, as well as business models,” he said. He defined the goal of the metaverse era as generating IP and digital data from sub-characters, satisfying fandoms and artist management firms, and diversifying contents with artists.

The 2^nd session was led by director of Hana Financial Investment Park In Gyu on the topic of ‘The 4^th Industrial revolution and Real estate metaverse.’ Mr. Park defined the 4^th Industrial revolution as the fusion of reality and virtual worlds to benefit humans. He emphasized that we must predict and adjust to the virtual world to optimize the real world. Regarding AI and 12 TECH, he said that “the 4^th Industrial revolution will be an age that information of real and virtual worlds exchange in a virtuous cycle with blockchain as a medium.” He also explained about the relation between the industrial revolution and Maslow’s hierarchy of needs and predicted new higher-level needs that surpass self-actualization in the age of the 4^th Industrial revolution. He concluded the session by explaining the concept of smart city.

The last session led by the director of Hillstone Partners Cho Sung Yeon was conducted with ‘metaverse expanding into industries’ as the topic. Mr. Cho explained metaverse and general-purpose technology and emphasized that the core technology to metaverse is ‘a compound of general-purpose technology.’ He mentioned the uncanny valley theory and emphasized the incremental publicization and development of related technology as a strategy. He mentioned Maslow’s hierarchy of needs that was introduced in the previous session and explained that metaverse satisfies the four higher level needs (self-actualization, esteem, love and belonging, and safety needs). Mr. Cho introduced the virtual workplaces and virtual interviews by presenting videos of metaverse companies ‘NVIDIA’ and ’EXP’ as examples. Lastly, he concluded his session by explaining the applications of metaverse in medicine.

After the three sessions, head of CDTB Baeho Kim thanked everyone for participating, and the Metaverse Colloquium hosted by the CDTB and Startup Station was concluded.

Editor | Yoon Seon Woo (Media and Communication ’18)