Celebrating the 80th anniversary of Korea's liberation, the Global Entrepreneurship Week Korea (GEW KOREA 2025), themed on the growth and innovation of "K-entrepreneurship," opened on the 18th at the Fairmont Ambassador Seoul in Yeongdeungpo-gu, Seoul. According to an announcement from the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, the event will run until the 23rd and will be attended by approximately 700 entrepreneurs, educators, policymakers, students, and the general public.
Program structure and industrial implications
The event will feature a variety of programs, including awards ceremonies, talk concerts, an entrepreneurship connect meetup, a startup tour, and an entrepreneurship film festival. The awards ceremonies highlight key contributors to the ecosystem, thereby fostering policy direction and best practices. The talk concerts, an interactive format that shares on-the-ground experiences and perspectives, foster mutual understanding among entrepreneurs, educators, and policymakers. The connect meetup is useful for fostering early networking and establishing contact points that can lead to collaborations, pilots, and joint research. The startup tour provides a practical understanding of the application of products and services through on-site contact, providing reference data for investment considerations and partnership formation. The entrepreneurship film festival serves as a cultural channel for attracting talent and broadening social consensus by familiarizing the general public with the spirit of entrepreneurship.
From a startup perspective, these hybrid programs serve as a platform for clearly demonstrating the identity of "mission, product, and team." Networking and field tours, in particular, have the potential to lead to proof-of-concept (POC) and customer discovery, serving as a means of mitigating early commercialization risks. From a policy perspective, on-site feedback can help realign priorities for system improvement, and from an educational perspective, it provides case studies essential for designing practical curricula.
Implications for the Startup and Investment Ecosystem
The theme of "K-Entrepreneurship" can be interpreted as an attempt to interpret the domestic startup ecosystem by connecting it to its unique cultural, institutional, and market structures. The six-day, collective discussion of approximately 700 participants can contribute to bridging fragmented early-stage networks, broadening deal flow and accelerating entrepreneurs' market validation loop. The organic linkage between programs—for example, issues raised at a talk concert transforming into partnerships at a Connect Meetup, or insights gleaned from a tour transforming into educational content—will accelerate the ecosystem's learning curve.
From an investment perspective, tangible results depend on "follow-up touchpoints." The more elaborate the post-meetup management, including follow-up meetings, joint pilots, and connections with policy support tracks, the steeper the growth curve for early-stage companies. Best practices visualized through merit awards serve as benchmarks for risk assessment, and participatory film festivals have the indirect effect of expanding the pool of startup talent. This event is expected to achieve tangible impact if it continues to maintain its network, measure performance based on data, and improve the system based on feedback from the field.
The event runs until the 23rd, with sessions for each program taking place sequentially. The structure, which combines hands-on interaction with open discussions, focuses on strengthening ecosystem connectivity and bridging the gap between policy, education, and practice. Within the symbolic context of the 80th anniversary of liberation, it will be interesting to see whether this attempt to reinterpret Korea's entrepreneurial spirit at the intersection of culture and industry will lead to tangible collaboration and initial results.
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