The 22nd World Knowledge Forum, the largest business forum in Asia hosted by South Korea¡¯s largest business media Maekyung Media Group, will kick off on Tuesday at the Jangchung Arena and Hotel Shilla in central Seoul for a three-day online and offline run in the biggest-yet scale. About 300 gurus and leaders from political, economic, business and technology sectors around the world will attend this year¡¯s forum comprised of 160 sessions under the theme of ¡°Terra Incognita: Redesigning the Global Architecture.¡± Guest speakers include Michael J. Sandel, an American political philosopher and the Anne T. and Robert M. Bass Professor of Government at Harvard University Law School, and Mike Pompeo, former U.S. Secretary of State under the Donald Trump administration. Sandel will meet with Song Young-gil, the chairperson of Korea¡¯s ruling Democratic Party, and Lee Jun-seok, the leader of the opposition People Power Party, to discuss the fairness for the current era. Edwin J. Feulner, founder of the U.S. conservative think tank The Heritage Foundation who joins the event for five times, on Sunday hopes that this year¡¯s forum can guide world to a smooth landing after near two-year-long global pandemic. Security and economic cooperation between the U.S. and Korea is a must at a time of facing challenges after Taliban¡¯s takeover of Afghanistan, Feulner emphasized, raising anticipation of meaningful messages for both countries during the event attended by Pompeo. Esko Tapani Aho, Finnish politician who served as Prime Minister of Finland in 1991-1995, arrived Seoul on Sunday and emphasized the importance of discussing and agreeing on rules and regulations to deal with the unprecedented situation like the Covid-19 pandemic during public forums like the World Knowledge Forum. This year¡¯s WKF will be run with both online and offline sessions like last year. Fifteen free sessions including the opening ceremony and keynote speeches will be live-streamed on WKF¡¯s YouTube channel and available on Naver TV, Twitter and Tik Tok Live as well. Pay subscribers will be able to watch the entire sessions throughout the year by downloading the WKF app. By Hong Sung-yong, Han Sang-heon, Song Min-geun, Lee Jong-hyuk and Lee Ha-yeon[¨Ï Pulse by Maeil Business News Korea & mk.co.kr, All rights reserved]
2021.09.15
Members of Twenty Twenty Club, an exclusive membership for Maeil Business Newspaper readers in their 20s, will be offered the opportunity to join sessions of this year¡¯s World Knowledge Forum on Sept. 15 and 16 via a virtual world, Twenty Twenty Campus, that will be set up in SK Telecom¡¯s metaverse platform ifland. This year¡¯s WKF will fully incorporate a metaverse platform to share the WKF sessions of renowned global speakers and the virtual forum audiences will also receive various souvenirs including Kakao¡¯s digital coin KLAY through drawings. [¨Ï Pulse by Maeil Business News Korea & mk.co.kr, All rights reserved]
2021.09.10
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) chairman Thomas Bach is joining former United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to promote global peace at the World Knowledge Forum (WKF) which will run from Sept.14 to 16 in Seoul. He is stopping in Seoul after the Tokyo Summer Olympics and ahead of the Winter Games held in Beijing in February 2022. Bach will have talks with former Secretary-General of the United Nations Ban Ki-moon to give his experiences of leading the 2020 Tokyo Olympics amid pandemic and opinions on escalating conflicts between the U.S. and China and sports diplomacy. He will also introduce a behind-the-scenes story of how North Korea joined the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics. Ban will give his own insights as the chairman of the IOC¡¯s Ethics Commission. The talks between the two will be introduced by Kim Yeon-koung, the world¡¯s top woman volley ball player. She will also deliver her speech on the Olympic spirit at the stage. Daron Acemoglu, co-author of ¡°Why Nations Fail,¡± will have talks with Seoul City mayor Oh Se-hoon on which roles national leaders should play for the future of a country. The professor of economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) was named twice one of Foreign Policy¡¯s Top 100 Global Thinkers. The Turkish-American economist received John Bates Clark Medal for being a top economist under 40, the Nemmers Prize in Economics, the BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award and an Andrew Carnegie fellowship. Graham Allison, a professor at the Harvard Kennedy School, will sit down with Jia Qingguo, a professor at the Peking University, to analyze the power struggle between the world¡¯s two biggest nations – the U.S. and China, and discuss the international order in ¡®Thuchydides trap.¡¯ By Kim Tae-jun, Song Min-geun and Choi Mira[¨Ï Pulse by Maeil Business News Korea & mk.co.kr, All rights reserved]
2021.09.07
Almost half of 300 speakers sharing their insight on the post-pandemic world order at the 22nd World Knowledge Forum (WKF) are heads of states, conglomerate chairmen, chief executive officers and leaders of international institutions. Under the theme of ¡°Terra Incognita: Redesigning the Global Architecture,¡± this year¡¯s WKF will hold six tracks – New Business Path, Wealth Discovery, Global Power Dynamics, Race to Net-Zero, Beyond Gravity and Hellom New World!. The forum will also be attended by Hollywood moguls. [¨Ï Pulse by Maeil Business News Korea & mk.co.kr, All rights reserved]
2021.09.07
Nigel Topping, the United Nations High Level Champion for Climate Action from the United Kingdom, is among top-tier environmental specialists addressing climate and sustainable theme at the upcoming World Knowledge Forum (WKF) in Seoul. Appointed by the U.K Prime Minister, Nigel Topping is one of UN¡¯s two High Level Champions for Climate Action together with Gonzalo Munoz from Chile. The climate action champions are responsible for strengthening collaboration and driving actions from businesses and other non-state organizations, and coordinating the work with governments and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. Nigel will be attending the 22nd World Knowledge Forum, Asia¡¯s largest annual business forum organized by Korea¡¯s Maekyung Media Group, slated for Sept. 14-16 before he goes off to the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference, or COP26, to be held in Glasgow, Scotland from Nov. 1 to 12 with participants from 196 countries. He is joined by social and corporate leaders in the global climate change initiative addressing the path to carbon neutrality, or net-zero carbon dioxide emissions through a balance between carbon emission and elimination. Jesper Brodin, president and CEO of Ingka Group that owns the world¡¯s largest home furnishing retailer IKEA, will discuss the company¡¯s efforts to reduce carbon emissions. Robert Metzke, Global Head of Sustainability at Philips, will also join the forum. Philips, a Dutch multinational conglomerate that manufactures personal healthcare and consumer electronics products, is fully committed to net-zero initiative that it turned U.S and Dutch facilities to be 100 percent powered by renewable electricity in 2020. Paul Bodnar, Global Head of Sustainable Investing at BlackRock, will share his insights in socially responsible investing, also known as ESG (environmental, social, and corporate governance) investing. Finn Mortensen, Executive Director of State of Green, a non-profit organization for public partnership with the Danish government will speak at the WKF. He will talk about Denmark¡¯s efforts to achieve the country¡¯s target of reducing emissions by 70 percent by 2030. By Kim Tae-joon and Cho Jeehyun [¨Ï Pulse by Maeil Business News Korea & mk.co.kr, All rights reserved]
2021.09.03