Gyeonggi Province and the Gyeonggi Content Agency (Director Yong-seok Tak, hereinafter referred to as Gyeongconjin) announced on the 3rd that they will hold the 'K-Culture Trend 2026 Forum' at Exhibition Hall 2 of the Suwon Convention Center for two days from September 26th to 27th.
This forum, now in its fourth year, has been held annually since its inaugural event in 2022, providing a platform to review trends in Korean cultural technology (CT) and popular culture and forecast trends for the following year. This year, it will be included as a key program of the 2025 Gyeonggi Content Festival, expanding the forum to encompass all aspects of K-culture, including cultural technology, artificial intelligence, music, webtoons, films, dramas, and entertainment.
The forum consists of five sessions: ▲Culture Technology & AI, Popular Music, and Webtoons on the 26th, and ▲Film, Drama & Entertainment on the 27th. Each session lasts approximately 90 minutes and consists of presentations and discussions by experts in the relevant field.
In the 'Culture Technology & AI' session, Shin Bo-seul, curator of Total Museum of Art, Jeong Hae-un, CEO of Dotmil, and media artist Son Mi-mi will participate and discuss the convergence of technology and art and the possibility of expanding culture and art in the AI era.
The "Popular Music" session will feature speakers including Professor Cho Il-dong of the Academy of Korean Studies and music critic Kim Young-dae, who will address topics such as AI music copyright issues, the second act of the Korean Wave, and changes in the Chinese market. In the "Webtoon" session, Professor Kim So-won of Kyung Hee University and Director Park Seok-hwan of Jaedam Media will analyze key issues in the webtoon industry, including changes in distribution structures and the expansion of middle-aged readership.
On the 27th, Professor Jeong Min-ah of Sungkyul University and film journalist Kim Hyeong-seok will examine ▲redefinition of movie theaters ▲changes in international film festivals ▲trends in the Hallyu 4.0 era in the "Film" session. In the final session, "Drama & Entertainment," Professor Ahn Sung-beom of Kyunghee University, TV critic Kim Kyo-seok, and drama critic Kim Seon-yeong will present and discuss topics such as ▲intensifying platform competition ▲K-content intellectual property (IP) sovereignty ▲polarization of entertainment programs.
This forum will be open to all interested members of the public, as well as experts from academia, industry, and the media. Following the event, a book titled "K-Culture Trends 2026," summarizing the discussions, will be published in December.
Tak Yong-seok, the president of K-Culture Trend Forum, said, “The K-Culture Trend Forum will provide an opportunity to analyze the rapidly changing trends of cultural technology and popular culture and to look into the future,” and added, “We expect it to serve as a forum for discussion in which professionals, academia, and citizens can participate together, and as a compass for the content industry.”
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