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Clean tech, aerial mobility, food tech will be the primary focus at 2022 WKF

2022.09.05

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The 23rd annual World Knowledge Forum (WKF), Asia’s biggest business forum hosted by South Korea’s major business media group Maekyung Media Group, will bring together experts and leaders from climate-driven technologies (C-Tech), urban air mobility (UAM), robot, and food technology sectors.

Speakers with expertise in C-tech will discuss the current climate and energy crises amid the surging natural gas and heating supply prices from the ongoing Russia-Ukraine War. Attention to C-tech has been growing since Washington passed the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), which expands investment in renewable energy sources and enhances benefits for U.S.-made products.

Per Mejnert Kristensen, who was recently appointed the President of Ørsted’s Asia Pacific Region, will give a presentation on the energy outlook of the Asia-Pacific region during C-Tech sessions at the three-day forum that kicks off Sept. 20.

Kam Ghaffarian, the founder of X-energy, will also discuss the future of small modular reactors (SMRs) that are used for power generation and hydrogen production among other industrial uses, with Korean nuclear researchers.

Ecolab CSO Emilio Tenuta will give a lecture on eco-friendly technologies that optimize the usage of water, while Gautam Kumra, the chairman of McKinsey`s offices in Asia, will head a session about energy transformation and sustainable corporate management.

From the urban air mobility (UAM) field, Joby Aviation, a U.S. venture-backed aviation company that develops electric vehicles, will take part in this year’s WKF. Joby currently holds a record for the longest flight of an (electric vertical takeoff and landing vehicle) eVTOL passenger aircraft to date.

Felipe Chavez Cortes, the CEO and Co-founder of Kiwibot - a Columbia-based robotics sidewalk delivery startup - will discuss the future of robots at the WKF symposium. Kiwibot is a largely autonomous sidewalk delivery system that carries out food deliveries in California as well as on university campuses across the country.

Food-tech companies are also expected to take a big part of this year’s forum amid global food instability. French food services company Sodexo’s North American Chair Sarosh Mistry and plant-based meat startup Next Gen Foods CFO Rohit Bhattacharya will discuss the recent meatless meat craze.

This year’s WKF will be held from September 20-22.

By Choi Seung-jin, Lee Seung-yoon, and Susan Lee

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