About a month ago, I went to the World IT Show at the huge convention center, COEX.
First of all, the name "World IT Show" was misleading because 98% of the companies present were Korean companies. It's like Major League Baseball calling their championship games the World Series because one of the team that is able to participate is from outside the U.S. If Montreal still had an MLB team, I would be fine with calling it the World Series because French Canadians are a different breed, but I consider Toronto and any city in Ontario to be part of the U.S., eh.
Anyways, I digress. I have observed that Korean trade shows are funny because they open the show floor up to anyone, and not just qualified attendees/buyers. As long as they are willing to pay 5,000 won (~$5), come right in! It just so happened that the day that I went, every teen that lives in Seoul decided to descend on the IT show to play with the new emerging technologies. I must've been Robespierre in my past life to be cursed with such an experience of being surrounded by a sea of pubescent teens that day.
Three halls were displaying products for the IT show. The first two halls that I visited were pretty boring, but quickly became enjoyable because there were no teens here. It turns out that they were all in the final hall where LG, Samsung, SK Telecomm, etc. dominated with their huge interactive displays. It looked like they each easily spent over $1million on their interactive areas. One of the highlights for this show was the launch of smart TVs, including LG's and Samsung's.
One of the interesting/amusing things I learnedfrom this show was the launch of Diablo 3. I've never even heard of Diablo 1 or 2, but it's another one of Blizzard Entertainment's popular online game that Asian people obsess about. Apparently, it launched the same week that the World IT Show was happening, so the company was giving out free tickets to to visitors to play the game for an hour at a nearby PC 'bang' (PC room).
The second amusing thing I learned is that there's a cult group of amateur photographers who show up to any show at the COEX to take pictures of the display girls. Yeah, like equivalent to WWE girls or the Dallas Cheerleaders. These amateur photographers spent thousands of dollars on high end DLSRs just to take pictures of certain display girls. Papa-paparazzi.
First of all, the name "World IT Show" was misleading because 98% of the companies present were Korean companies. It's like Major League Baseball calling their championship games the World Series because one of the team that is able to participate is from outside the U.S. If Montreal still had an MLB team, I would be fine with calling it the World Series because French Canadians are a different breed, but I consider Toronto and any city in Ontario to be part of the U.S., eh.
Anyways, I digress. I have observed that Korean trade shows are funny because they open the show floor up to anyone, and not just qualified attendees/buyers. As long as they are willing to pay 5,000 won (~$5), come right in! It just so happened that the day that I went, every teen that lives in Seoul decided to descend on the IT show to play with the new emerging technologies. I must've been Robespierre in my past life to be cursed with such an experience of being surrounded by a sea of pubescent teens that day.
Three halls were displaying products for the IT show. The first two halls that I visited were pretty boring, but quickly became enjoyable because there were no teens here. It turns out that they were all in the final hall where LG, Samsung, SK Telecomm, etc. dominated with their huge interactive displays. It looked like they each easily spent over $1million on their interactive areas. One of the highlights for this show was the launch of smart TVs, including LG's and Samsung's.
One of the interesting/amusing things I learnedfrom this show was the launch of Diablo 3. I've never even heard of Diablo 1 or 2, but it's another one of Blizzard Entertainment's popular online game that Asian people obsess about. Apparently, it launched the same week that the World IT Show was happening, so the company was giving out free tickets to to visitors to play the game for an hour at a nearby PC 'bang' (PC room).
The second amusing thing I learned is that there's a cult group of amateur photographers who show up to any show at the COEX to take pictures of the display girls. Yeah, like equivalent to WWE girls or the Dallas Cheerleaders. These amateur photographers spent thousands of dollars on high end DLSRs just to take pictures of certain display girls. Papa-paparazzi.
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