Welcome to Virtual Seoul 2.0, a customisable 3D virtual MICE event platform to host memorable events in Seoul with K-experiences that accessible from anywhere. The Virtual Seoul platform was introduced last year with the aim to relieve the burden of MICE businesses associated with building their own event platform and to promote Seoul as a representative city of the MICE industry.
Where tradition and future coexist, Virtual Seoul platform serves as the intermediary between the virtual and the real in the South Korean capital, Seoul, embracing the futuristic skyline and modern technologies while incorporating the past with centuries of history to connect everyone around the world with a variety of virtual K-style content for MICE industry.
In the new normal era coexisting with Covid-19, the latest Virtual Seoul 2.0 was designed and upgraded from Virtual Seoul 1.0 to accommodate the ongoing hybrid trend with new venues and a new content management system, making it easier for planners to customise the platform for various event types of the MICE industry and strengthen Seoul’s position as one of the preferred global hybrid destinations. The attractive Virtual Seoul 2.0 will also take into account the time zone of each of the host city, and feature either a day or night setting.
Exclusive Virtual Seoul 2.0
Virtual Seoul 2.0 offers a total of 9 virtual venues and more than 20 virtual event functions, allowing the platform to accommodate a greater number of online events according to the specific needs of local and international event planners from a webinar to trade fairs and exhibitions. All venues are designed in simple and realistic 3D graphics based on real architectures that exist in Seoul, showcasing the actual Seoul city in virtual space and its beauty through these iconic landmarks.
Let’s have a glimpse on the beautiful venues in Seoul, where each venue can be customised to serve different functions according to the specific needs of an event, from e-conference broadcasting, virtual exhibition function, PSA meeting and networking, event branding function to content management system.
E-conference Broadcasting
There are 3 venues available for event planners to broadcast various types of online conferences through live streaming and video on demand (VODs), as well as run several breakout sessions simultaneously.
(i) Seoul City Hall : Open Stage
Seoul City Hall, a striking eco-friendly building with a unique exterior, making it one of the city’s most prominent architecture landmarks for locals and international visitors since its completion in 2012. With a total floor area of 90,743 sqm, the newer city hall building was designed to be a place for conducting municipal affairs as well as welcoming citizens, where the older traditional building was converted from the original city hall to Seoul Metropolitan Library.
In the virtual platform, Seoul City Hall serves as open stage where participants can watch live streaming or recorded videos, and Q&A made available via real-time chat. It is also the venue for the Yunnori in Virtual Seoul Playground.
During the event, participants can
- click on the main screen in the centre to participate the ongoing session.
- click the replay banner on the left screen to replay the previous sessions.
- click the speakers banner on the right screen to check out the details of speakers.
(ii) Changdeokgung Palace : Conference Hall
Designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1997, Changdeokgung Palace is regarded as a finest masterpiece of Korean palace architecture in East Asia where the buildings are integrated into harmony with natural setting. It is the most beautiful and well-preserved palace of all the royal palaces from the Joseon Dynasty (1392 – 1910) in the heart of Seoul.
By using the beautiful palace as the motif, the heritage venue serves as Conference Hall, a main event venue with virtual conferencing function in the platform. In this virtual Changdeokgung Palace, you can admire the Korean floral patterns that painted on the roof beams in this virtual palace by scrolling the cursor in 360 degrees direction as how you will observe it during your visit to the palace.
During the conference session, you can
- click on the main screen at the middle of the venue to participate your favourite session.
- click on the speakers banner on the right to check out the details of events speakers while waiting the next session to begin.
- click the replay banner on the left side of the venue if you has missed the early session or wish to replay the previous sessions.
(iii) Some Sevit: Boardroom
With the meaning of “awesome” in recognition of the wonderful space that awaits visitors there, Some Sevit is the world’s first floating cultural space that was built on the Hangang River at the southern end of the Banpo Bridge in 2011.
Opened to the public in 2014, the cultural complex comprises of three man-made floating islands connected with overpasses that embody the process by which a seed ‘Some Solvit’ turns into a flower bud ‘Some Chavit’ and transforms into a flower in full bloom ‘Some Gavit’, and a media gallery named ‘Some Yevit’, shining like a jewel at night. With a unique waterside to enjoy the Hangang River, Some Sevit showcases comprehensive multi-functional cultural spaces and facilities for various exhibitions, international conferences, art performances and wedding, with a convention center, an entertainment hall, restaurants, a marina and shops.
In Virtual Seoul platform, the artificial island venue acts as a boardroom where participants can take part in various workshops, forums and meetings. After you enter into the venue, you can click on the main screen in the center to participate the Webinar of respective event. If you receive a permission request message, turn on your microphone by clicking [Allow], then you can join the Live Group Chat to start your webinar session.
Virtual Exhibition Function
Virtual Seoul 2.0 allows organisers to create as many exhibition booths as needed, to broadcast the event and to create business opportunities through a buyer-seller meet. There are two exhibition spaces available, either indoor or outdoor, based on event planners’ preference. Here, exhibitors can register promotional contents in the exhibition booth and use various features such as hosting live-streaming shopping, storing visitor’s business cards and showcasing products. One to one chat and video consultation between visitors and exhibitors are also available.
(i) Coex: Exhibition Hall
Strategically located in the heart of Gangnam, Coex Convention and Exhibition Center (Coex) is Seoul’s largest and Korea’s busiest convention and Exhibition Center, offering 4 flexible exhibition halls and 55 spacious meeting rooms that spread over four stories above ground with a total of 36,000 sqm of exhibition space and a floor area of 460,000 sqm.
More than just an event venue, Coex has extended its business and is well equipped with advanced event technologies to host and service all types of physical, virtual and hybrid events. From the Coex Broadcast Studio and production services of Coex Live to its AR Portal service and XPACE screens, Coex’s in-house professionals trained to provide digital and hybrid solutions for any event and ready to leverage the power of Coex’s resources to fully support event organisers to reach wider audiences with memorable virtual and in-person experiences, and increase operational efficiency, engagement and sales.
In the virtual platform, Coex serves the same function as a modern and sophisticated exhibition hall. Once enter to the virtual exhibition hall, you can
- click on the exhibition hall you wish to visit.
- check out the exhibitors by reading on displayed company introduction or clicking on the company name and explore on the detailed corporate information. If you wish to visit the respective exhibition booth, then click on the [Visit] button
During your visit to virtual booths, it is just like you are present in-person as you can explore more on the respective company by watching its promotional video and Live-commerce, reading on its product showcases and zoom in by clicking the images or purchase page, browse and download useful brochures, pay a visit to official website and check out more information on particular company. If you interested, you can send your message together with digital business card and have a 1:1 business meeting session with exhibitors.
(ii) Nodeul Island: Outdoor Exhibition Area
Nodeul Island, an uninhabited artificial island for urban activities or special events, melding together with its natural landscape and breathtaking view of Hangang River. On 28 September 2019, a music-based integrated cultural complex opened on the Nodeul island, offering locals and visitors with more opportunities to enjoy music and other cultural performances.
The new cultural complex consists of an outdoor music space that can accommodate about 3,000 people and a 456-seat live pop concert hall, as well as fashion studios, artists’ workshops, markets, book stands, restaurants, food culture salons and a multipurpose hall. The 120,000 sqm Nodeul Island has an ecological park where you can experience a glimpse of rural life in the middle of city.
Nodeul Island is a virtual outdoor exhibition area, where you can discover more on the exhibitors’ company through its promotional video and Live-commerce, product showcases and brochures.
PSA Meetings (1:1 Business Meeting) & Networking
In these virtual venues, event planners can offer pre-scheduled appointment (PSA) meetings (1:1 business meeting) through pre-matching between buyers and sellers.
(i) Seoul Tourism Plaza : Business Meeting Room
Opened on 29th April 2021, Seoul Tourism Plaza serves as a hub for Seoul’s tourism sector, creating a space where related parties can organically connect and participate through collaboration to recover effectively from the challenging time and prepare for the coming years after the pandemic. This one-stop plaza plans to provide four strong points, namely communication, governance, incubating and innovation in establishing a robust ecosystem for the local tourism industry, as well as playing a vital role in revitalising tourism and bouncing back strong in a combined strength.
In the virtual platform, Seoul Tourism Plaza serves as a business meeting room where participants can schedule 1:1 Business Meetings through “My PSA Schedule”. The pre-scheduled appointment (PSA) system will directly determine the meeting time of the seller and the buyer to match with the desired partners beforehand.
(ii) Seoul Botanic Park : Networking Lounge
Seoul Botanic Park is the first urban-style botanic garden of Seoul City that will blow all your stress away with its beautiful trees and flowers, which is an ideal urban healing spot that awaits you to explore the beauty of nature! Boasting a massive area of 504,000 sqm, the first botanical park in South Korea showcases over 3,100 different plant species and features four themed gardens namely Botanic Garden, Forest Field, Lake Garden and Wetland, as well as an outdoor garden and Plant Culture Center that exhibits a greenhouse with plants from twelve different cities abroad.
Combined with a garden to advance urban ecology, Seoul Botanic Park serves as a virtual networking lounge for buyer and seller, as well as a beautiful place for participants to take a break from the event. After entering the lounge, you can communicate with other participants in real time through Zoom or a chat, or check on other attendees’ business card and invite them to 1:1 meetings. Buyers and sellers can also use 1:1 walk-in meetings. A new meeting appointment with each other can be set up instantly as long as they have spare time in between the pre-scheduled meetings. You can also check the on-off status of the participants on “1:1 Meetings with Delegates”, and messages can be delivered between participants by clicking on the message box.
Here, you can create a personalised “PLUS SEOUL Membership” card with Korean name, which is auto translated from your English name. Don’t forget to participate in survey to input your valuable thoughts of the event.
Event Branding Function
Various video contents can be uploaded at the theatre to be utilised for a virtual tour and event branding space for participants. The PR booth will also allow intensive exposures of promotional contents of the event, organiser and sponsor. In addition, event planners can also use the stamp tour and gamification features to induce more engagement from attendees and make visitors stay longer on the platform.
(i) Dongdaemun Design Plaza (DDP) : Theatre
Opened on 21 March 2014, Dongdaemun Design Plaza (DDP) is a massive event space in downtown Seoul which hosts all kinds of exhibitions and fashion shows, serving as an arena for fashion industry events and fulfils its motto “Dream, Design, Play” by pursuing innovative ideas, searching for new talent and striving to make life better for everyone.
The scale of DDP is magnificent, with a total area of 86,574 square meters that is three times larger than a regular football field, including three basement floors and four floors above ground reaching a height of 29 meters. The spectacular venue provides five facilities with 15 flexible spaces such as an Art Hall, learning Center, Design Lab, Dongdaemun History and Culture Park and Oullium Square. In the post COVID-19 pandemic, DDP also leads digital transformation by offering Seoul ON studio for both online or offline conferences, forums, and diverse MICE events with advanced technology equipment.
In the Virtual Seoul, DDP functions as a VR theatre where the attractiveness of Seoul’s MICE industry is carefully extracted into well-made 360 degree VR videos including Seoul’s landmarks, unique venues, hotels, convention centres and team building activities. In the Seoul MICE VR Field Trip, there are 19 venues for buyers to explore and experience venues more vividly, where each venue provides 360 degrees viewing options, together with a location map that appears as the viewer walks into the hotel from the entrance. You can find information about the venue from detailed specifications to size, as well as a 360 degree-view of the properties at a first glance. It is a great way to experience various signature places in the Seoul city without visiting the city in person during this pandemic.
Participants can share their opinions about videos by using the “LIVE Chat Box”. The online contents created with themes to represent each array of what MICE participants would have done in Seoul, as well as supported by co-marketing cities such as Gangwon, Gwangju, Gyeongnam, Gyeonggi, Jeollabuk-do and Chungcheongbuk-do to put their stories together, making Seoul to be one of your choices in selection of MICE destination for future events.
(ii) Namsan Seoul Tower : Promotion Booth
Namsan Seoul Tower, a classic landmark representing the upper part of the Hangang River in Seoul. Located at the top of Namsan Mountain, the N Seoul Tower delights its delegates with beautiful views of Seoul and its surrounding area through the virtual observation deck. During the virtual tour, the “window” will rotate slowly to give a 360 degree stunning view of the city.
In the virtual platform, Namsan Seoul Tower represents a virtual Seoul promotional booth to introduce general Seoul MICE information as well as provide a chat service with staff from STO. In addition, you can check the ongoing events on the right display stands and join the virtual stamp tour to stand a chance to win amazing gifts by completing the special missions during the event. If you are looking for MICE venues in Seoul, you can click on Venue Search that will link you to the Seoul Convention Bureau site to search your favourite venues. Moreover, you can download the Seoul tourism and MICE related brochures for free, including the detailed information of PLUS SEOUL support programme, Seoul tourists guide, Seoul Bleisure guide and more.
Content Management System (CMS)
Newly introducing Content Management System (CMS) allows event planners to customise the platform by selecting functions based on their needs at the fingertips without going through any IT staff. In order to maximise convenience of utilising the Virtual Seoul 2.0, CMS provides event organising functions including selecting a virtual venue based on event’s needs, setting the conference time, broadcasting the event at a set time and branding functions like uploading logos, banners and promotional videos across the platform. The upgraded platform also offers a function to view and download key data sets such as the number of attendees, the number of viewers and the number of visitors per booth in real time.
Guide videos for setting a conference and corporate meeting, virtual exhibitions, PSA business meetings are uploaded to aid event planners and a demo page is open as well. Now, you can create your own event platform and customise the settings on your own just the way you like it on the exclusive Virtual Seoul 2.0!
With the PLUS SEOUL support for online or hybrid events, event planners can utilise the platform at no extra cost thereby expands destination marketing of Seoul as an optimal MICE city. For inquiries regarding the support for hosting online and hybrid events on Virtual Seoul 2.0, you can send an email to plusseoul@sto.or.kr.
Case Studies of the Virtual Seoul Platform
Seoul is the first city to create a virtual space to hold international events and promote the city. Launched in September 2020, the Virtual Seoul 1.0 well received attention locally and globally as an innovative case of destination marketing while travelling was strictly restricted. Let’s have a look on several local and international events that were held on Virtual Seoul platform, as virtual or hybrid events recently.
2021 Virtual MICE Show: SEOUL LIVE ON
On 21 July 2021, STO hosted a two-day 2021 Virtual MICE Show: SEOUL LIVE ON with the slogan “Always Connect ON Seoul” on its innovative Virtual Seoul platform. The virtual event provided a virtual gathering space for about 155 attendees from MICE industry professionals and oversea buyers to meet with 30 exhibiting local service providers from Seoul MICE Alliance (SMA) members. A range of fruitful programmes were prepared for attendees, allowing local sellers to engage in virtual business discussions with global buyers and gain access to exclusive virtual content available through Seoul’s exclusive online platform.
66th International Pharmaceutical Students’ Federation (IPSF) World Congress 2021
The 66th IPSF World Congress is the first international congress by a private organisation, which successfully held online for the first time on Virtual Seoul platform from 22nd July to 1st August 2021 at Dongguk University after a year of postponement due to the pandemic. On its way to set the new standard of virtual conferences, the virtual IPSF world congress attracted about 2 thousand university students in the college of pharmacy participating in its real time lectures and discussion sessions in Changdeokgung Palace conference hall to learn about Transforming Pharmacists’ Role and network with future pharmacists. This congress is a great opportunity for all the pharmacy students around the world, to interact and share pharmaceutical knowledge and opinions with new friends from various countries, not just listening to lectures.
Seoul International Travel Mart (SITM) and Seoul International Travel Mart For Medical Tourism (SITMMT) 2021
The Seoul Metropolitan Government (SMG) and the Seoul Tourism Organization (STO) hosted 2021 SITM for 9 days from 26th October to 5th November 2021 to lead the tourism industry and rebuild the domestic and international tourism industry networks in the new normal era coexisting with COVID-19. Celebrating its 7th anniversary in 2021, SITM was integrated with SITMMT to enhance its competitiveness and actively promote the emerging new tourism trends, such as beauty, medical and wellness that will lead the future of Seoul Tourism.
This event is a prime example of how various facilities offered on the Virtual Seoul platform such as conference hall, the virtual exhibition hall and the video theatre can be fully utilised. The main programme of SITM, virtual one-to-one business conference, was held 24 hours a day on the Virtual Seoul platform from 27th October to 5th November 2021 and all other programmes including opening ceremony was held offline at the Floating Island Convention Centre, Sebitseom Island on 26th October 2021. Six medical tourism-related companies established online booths in the Coex exhibition hall and showcased their services promotional videos and brochures to visitors. At the DDP rooftop garden, a talk concert was held with a makeup demo and a fashion show to add excitement and spice up the event.
According to the participant satisfaction survey, a total of 3,301 business meetings between buyers and sellers were satisfied, with 87.4% of oversea buyers and 81% of domestic sellers were satisfied. The event received positive reviews from the industry for facilitating an online business networking opportunity in the Virtual Seoul even in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic.
7th Korea-China Economic Cooperation Forum (KCECF)
On 29th October 2021, the 7th Korea-China Economic Cooperation Forum was held at the Shilla Seoul in the form of an e-conference focused on discussions and lectures for about 177 virtual attendees with speakers attending online from abroad. The opening ceremony and keynote speech session were held under the theme of “Our Sustainable Future” at Seoul Tourism Plaza in Virtual Seoul with only a limited group of people invited to attend in person due to the pandemic. Officials from the Gwangju Metropolitan Government, Chengdu of Sichuan, China, and Tel Aviv of Israel made virtual presentations on their city projects. The session was held at the Changdeokgung Palace conference hall decorated with images and videos featuring the forum using Virtual Seoul’s customising functions.
10th World Coffee Leaders Forum (WCLF) 2021
Celebrating its 10th anniversary, World Coffee Leaders Forum is a global conference for coffee professionals around the world, which was held as hybrid model at Coex from 10th to 13th November 2021, running alongside the 20th Cafe Show Seoul and the 5th Seoul Coffee Festival. As it was a paid conference, the Virtual Seoul was configured to allow only paid visitors to log-in and access to the virtual conference venue, offered a virtual gathering space for about 85 attendees and knowledgeable leaders from coffee industry to discuss time sensitive topics as how to revive the coffee retail community in the post Covid-19 era.
The opening ceremony and keynote speeches were held at the open stage of Seoul Tourism Plaza and individual lecture sessions were held at the Changdeokgung Palace conference hall. Eight partnering companies operated virtual exhibition booths in the Seoul Cafe Show. When interested attendees clicked on one of coffee machines showcased in the virtual booth, they were taken to the e-commerce page of the exhibitor. The forum served as a good case study of how various functions of the Virtual Seoul platform can be customised in real event settings.
2021 Seoul Tourism Cooperation Startup Demo Day
The Seoul Tourism Cooperation Startup Demo Day was held for the second time on the Virtual Seoul 2.0 platform this year following last year’s event hosted on the Virtual Seoul 1.0 platform. Each of the 24 participating businesses was given an account to the Content Management System that they could use to decorate and customise their exhibition booths, expressing their unique corporate identity and characteristics and differentiating themselves from the rest of the participants.
About 200 online participants accessed Virtual Seoul and viewed the demo day event held at Seoul Plaza. The event was simultaneously broadcast on the Virtual Seoul and the official YouTube channels of the Seoul Tourism Organization. Judges and venture capitalists toured the exhibition booths and left digital business cards and questions, which were delivered to and answered by participating startups. Meanwhile, 1:1 chat for more in-depth discussions was held at Seoul Botanical Garden, set up as a networking lounge.
Virtual Seoul is an all-inclusive event solution capable of conferences, virtual exhibitions, buy-seller meet, gamification and networking. It enables organisers to host an event and collect required data sets without too much hassle.
Virtual Seoul 2.0 awaits your event!
More information about PLUS SEOUL and Seoul Convention Bureau is available at www.miceseoul.com.