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The World Energy Congress (WEC) Daegu 2013 was held from October 14 to 17 for 4 days and 3 nights in Daegu. The event was the largest WEC ever held, and included around 60 energy ministers and vice ministers as well as representatives from 6 international energy agencies hailing from 40 different countries across the world, and was attended by about 6,000 representatives from government, corporations, international banking institutions and research institutions.

In particular, the Daegu WEC was the first time that the Ministerial Roundtable discussed future energy policies, such as the development of shale gas and sustainable energy, and against this backdrop, the WEC and the Korean government jointly adopted the ‘Daegu Declaration’ and agreed to work together to respond to major international energy issues.

The ‘Daegu Declaration’ proposed strengthening energy security by constructing stable energy supply systems, achieving energy equity between advanced countries and developing countries, achieving rational energy mixes for each country and sustainable growth, solving global energy problems by connecting energy transportation networks in Northeast Asia, as well as other topics.

Also, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy agreed to inform the Clean Energy Ministerial (CEM) - hosted in 2014 - of the major recommendations made by the WEC Daegu, and the WEC agreed to support the work of Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) in the environmental goods and services sector, and agreed to ‘sustainble energy for all’ as advocated by the United Nations (UN).

A representative from the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy said, “the Daegu Declaration addressed concerns about the energy trilemma - a major issue experienced by international energy leaders that includes energy security, climate change, and strengthened access - and offered solutions for each sector”, and “it is meaningful that our government presented its policy directions and vision on international issues to the international community”.

The Daegu Declaration was an opportunity for members of the World Energy Association to improve energy systems, such as energy storage systems (ESS) and smart grids, strengthen energy security by establishing safe and reliable energy policies, and increase investment in R&D.

Also, in the Declaration, advanced countries agreed to develop innovative technology and developing countries agreed to expand infrastructure in order to increase the supply of clean energy. They also agreed to create a network by coordinating policies with each other and improving the business environment in order to jointly respond to major issues such as climate change and sustainable growth from a long-term perspective..

The 7th World Water Forum was held from April 12-17, 2015 for 7 days in Daegu and Gyeongbuk Province to solve the global water shortage problem. The theme for the forum was ‘Water for Our Future’. It was attended by leaders of 9 countries, ministers and vice ministers of 80 countries, representatives from international organizations, heads of local government and members of the National Assembly, as well as organizations, corporations, and research institutes in the water sector, for a total of about 30,000 people from 168 countries – all working together to search for solutions to the water problem, a challenge faced by all of humankind.

Unlike previous forums, this forum put implementation at the top of its agenda. The event had more than 400 sessions within a large framework of regional, political, thematic, and scientific and technological programs - the largest number of sessions ever held. Each country shared about water issues they are facing and various solutions for sustainable water use were discussed. The forum ended with the announcement of the ‘Daegu-Gyeongbuk Implementation Commitment’, which pledged water security for all, development and prosperity, sustainable water, and the establishment of feasible implementation mechanisms.

With this announcement, hosts Daegu and Gyeongbuk established a foothold to become the center of the water industry, and were praised for the great achievement of developing a roadmap that provided implementation guidelines to serve as the basis for preparing the 8th World Water Forum to be held in Brazil’s capital city of Brasilia.

President of the World Water Council Benedito Braga said, “the 7th World Water Forum was an opportunity for international water community leaders to push for and discuss political action,” and “the implementation plans that were discussed during the forum will play a big role in the adoption of the water-related sustainable development goals in New York in the 2nd half of the year.”

National Committee Chairman Jung-moo Lee said, “The World Water Forum Daegu-Gyeonguk opened new doors for implementing solutions that were developed at this forum,” and “more work and more investment is required for a joint response to solve water problems.”

During his farewell remarks, Daegu Mayor Kwon Young-jin said, “We will make the ‘Daegu-Gyeongbuk Water Week Event,’ a conference and industrial exhibition, into a global event in order to continue to advance the outcomes of this forum,” and “We will make an Asia water industry hub in Daegu by encouraging global companies and research institutes to participate in our city’s national water industry cluster.”

Governor of Gyeongsangbuk-do Province Kim Kwan-yong said, “At this forum we have had significant outcomes such as the actualization of a solution to the water problem through policies and alternatives,” adding “the forum was a valuable time with people from all walks of life working together and governments investing in water resources for the global community.

The largest parasitology field conference in the world, the 14th International Congress on Parisotology (ICOPA 2018) was held from August 20-25, 2018 for 6 days.

The conference was co-hosted by the Korean Society of Parasitic Medicine and Tropical Medicine (President Hyun Park of Wonkwang University) and the World Federation of Parasitologists (President of ICOPA 2018 Jong-yil Chai, and President of the Korean Association of Health Promotion, and Chair of the Organizing Committee Tai-Soon Yong, Professor at Yonsei University). The conference was attended by over 1,500 parisitologists and experts from 80 countries, and a total of over 1,500 theses were presented across 150 sessions under the theme of ‘Parisite: Harms & Benefits to Animals and Humans’.

The International Congress on Parasitology 2018, held every 4 years by the World Federation of Parasitologists (WFP), is the largest international event in the field, and it was quite meaningful in that it was the first time the international conference had been hosted in Korea

At ICOPA 2018 various measures were discussed about ways to utilize parasites, which are seen by people only as no good, harmful pathogens, to solve disease and life science problems by approaching them from a new perspective. Also, with the trend of an increasing likelihood of foreign parasites becoming indigenous to Korea, recent data on parasites was shared and infection prevention and management measures were discussed.

Even before the start of the conference, ICOPA 2018 was drawing attention from attendees not only for its excellent scholarship programs, but also for the region’s excellent tourist and cultural experience programs. Also, there was an official tour program composed of a 10-part course, which was developed to allow attendees to experience Daegu and its colorful countryside. As a result of these efforts, attendees were able to really enjoy their experience, and Daegu, a city of international conferences and medical services, was praised for taking advantage of this opportunity to promote itself to world-class scholars.

Distinguished scholars from around the world, including nobel laureates, meet to discuss the future outlook of neuroscience

The World Congress of Neuroscience (IBRO 2019), the so-called ‘Brain Science Olympics’, held every 4 years by neuroscientists from around the world, was held on September 21-25 for 5 days at the EXCO Convention Center in Daegu.

The 10th World Congress of Neuroscience was hosted by the International Brain Research Organization (IBRO), and the rotating congress is the largest academic conference in the brain science fields. The event in Daegu was attended by over 4,000 participants from 92 countries to share new trends in research, build networks, and discuss global cooperation. The number of attendees was the largest ever recorded, exceeding the 2,500 attendees from 9th World Congress held in Brazil.

The conference started with an excellent lecture at the opening ceremony on the 21st that diagnosed the current state of neuroscience and forecasting its future. The conference was composed of a variety of programs, including guest lectures given by 11 world-class scholars such as the Max Planck Institute renowned biophysicist, Erwin Neher, who was awarded the 1991 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. There were also 40 symposia sessions held under 10 themes and the International Brain Bee, a neuroscience competition for students.

On the third day of the conference there was a seminar co-hosted by the Women in World Neuroscience (WNN), the Korea Brain Research Institute (KBRI), and the Korea Federation of Women’s Science & Technology Associations (KOFWST), which was attended by over 200 female neuroscientists.

The Ministry of Science and ICT, recognizing that global cooperation is required to fully understand the brain, said it expects IBRO 2019 was an opportunity for the Korean government to inform the international community about the country’s future vision for brain science and to boost Korea’s national profile during international cooperation. The co-Chair of the Organizing Committee, Pann-Ghill Suh (President of the Korea Brain Research Institute) said, “IBRO is the most prestigious international event in the brain science field and is attended by Nobel laureates,” and that the event “will serve as an opportunity to overcome brain disease and create new future growth industries through joint international research.”

Unanimously selected as host despite Mexico City being proposed by the International Headquarters

The 12th IOHA International Scientific Conference, to be held in 2020 and expected to be attended by 1,200 people from 40 countries, was selected to be held in Daegu on June 16, 2016. After submitting the proposal, excluding South Africa, which had given up, the two potential host cities remaining were Daegu (Korea) and Mexico City (Mexico), which represented the Latin American region. According to the announcement after the host was selected, Mexico had already been designated as host for the 2020 event, as IOHA’s international headquarters had proposed Mexico City as a host in order to expand IOHA’s presence in the Latin American region.

However, with condolences to Mexico City (translator note: this is awkward but not sure how to phrase it), the reason why Korea was unanimously chosen by the board of directors as the host country was because of Korea’s indisputable passion to host the event and its perfect bid proposal. The board of directors were swayed enough to change their vote from their original choice owing to the Korean Industrial Hygiene Association’s well-constructed conference program, the impeccable bid proposal, and a bid presentation that could answer any question thrown at it.

It was the good fortune of Professor Dong Uk Park, who chaired the bid team, to choose Daegu and push for the city to host the IOHA 2020 as it was the biggest key to the bid’s success.

The city of Daegu won the bid to host ‘ACM SIGGRAPH Asia 2020’, one of the three major computer graphics and interactive technology field international conferences.

After an inspection visit to Daegu in early October 2018 in order to select the host city, Chairman Yong Tsui Lee announced during the opening ceremony of ACM SIGGRAPH Asia 2018 Tokyo, held December 4-7, that Daegu had been selected to host ACM SIGGRAPH Asia 2020.

At ACM SIGGRAPH Asia 2020, over 6,000 people, including computer graphics and visualization engineers, software developers and academics, from 50 countries are expected to attend.

IGGRAPH Asia was first held in 1974 representing the Asian region, and is one of the three major international computer graphics conferences along with Europe’s EUROPICS (held every April) and America’s SIGRPAPH (held every August). ACM SIGGRAPH Asia 2020 is the largest computer graphics and interactive technology conference and exhibition held in Asia, and is hosted by the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM).

Daegu organized a bid promotion team together with the Daegu Convention Bureau (President Charlie Bae), an organization dedicated to attracting international conferences, Korea University of the Arts Professor Jinny Hyejin Choo, a member of ACM SIGGRAPH ASIA CAF, the Korea Computer Graphics Society, the Korea Tourism Organization, and the Daegu Digital Industry Promotion Agency, to win the final selection as the host city for the conference after a fierce competition with candidate cities Singapore and Taipei, Taiwan.

The reason Daegu was selected as host city is that Daegu, along with the Seoul Metropolitan Area, is home to many ICT-related companies and it has the benefit of being located near a number of UNESCO World Heritage Sites, and the city of Daegu, Daegu Convention Bureau, and the Daegu Digital Industry Promotion Agency’s passionate support for the event led to the landslide victory.

ACM SIGGRAPH Asia is composed of new products, demonstrations, showcases and academic presentation sessions in the fields of virtual reality (VR), robotics, augmented human (AH), which are technologies that expand upon 3D interactions and augmented reality, the Computer Animation Festival, a festival for computer animation and visual effects, and an exhbition with exhibitors from global corporations in the software and hardware industries, such as Pixar, Sony, Dell, and Hwawei.

This event showcases everything there is to see on computer graphics and visualization, including medical video, autonomous vehicles, games, augmented reality and virtual reality, and displays, and will be a good opportunity to introduce cutting edge technology to local industries.

Professor Jinny Hyejin Choo, the SIGGRAPH Asia 2020 Conference Chair, said “Hosting this event will create an international network in the fields of computer graphics, games, and software in Daegu, and will provide an opportunity to related corporations located in Daegu to explore overseas markets.”

Daegu Mayor Kwon Young-jin said, “Hosting SIGGRAPH Asia 2020 will be a good opportunity for Daegu’s high-tech industries and related technologies take the leap up to world-class levels, and in particular, this is a great opportunity for growth for the IoT and robotics industries, which Daegu has been fostering as new growth engines. We will provide our full support in order to showcase local corporations’ excellent technologies, and to provide an opportunity to experience our rich cultural heritage to attendees.

As the host venue for the 2021 World Gas Conference, Daegu attended the 2018 World Conference in Washington DC to promote the city of Daegu and the upcoming conference. After the Washington conference concluded, Korea was put in a position to lead the international gas industry with Dr. Joe Kang named president International Gas Union (IGU) for the 2018-2021 triennium. The 28th World Gas Conference will be held at the Daegu EXCO over 5 days from June 21-25, 2021.

The World Gas Conference, known as the Olympics of the global gas industry, is an international event held every 3 years and hosted by the IGU to promote exchange between global gas industry participants and strengthen business between major energy corporations and other businesses. Korea finally won the bid to host the World Gas Conference 2021 on its third try in 2014, and it will be the third time the conference will be held in Asia, with previous conferences held in Japan and Malaysia.

The World Gas Conference 2018, held in Washington D.C. from the 25th to the 29th was attended by 12,000 people from 100 countries, with 600 speakers and 350 exhibitors.

The Korea Gas Corporation, the Korea Gas Corporation Shared Growth Ministry, Donghwa Entek Co., Ltd., and Polytech Co., Ltd. attended the conference. Gastron Co., Ltd., Inochem Co., Ltd., Sunju Electronics Co., Ltd., Clad Korea Co., Ltd., Wonil T&I Co., Ltd, VALMAX Technology Co., Ltd., Korea Unicom Valve Co., Ltd., and Dongsan Valve Co., Ltd., attended the conference with the Korea Gas Corporation Shared Growth Ministry.

At the conference the Korea Gas Corporation, Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, the city of Daegu, EXCO convention center, and the Daegu Convention & Visitors Bureau participated in official events such as the opening and closing ceremonies. Through observation of the event, the WGC2021 PR center and various promotional activities, Daegu informed participating corporations and attendees about the city and encouraged them to visit Korea and participate in the World Gas Congress 2021 to be held in Daegu.

Mayor of Daegu Kwon Young-jin said, “Daegu not only has extensive experience with large-scale international events such as the World Energy Congress 2013 and the World Water Forum 2015, but it is making great efforts to ensure the success of the World Gas Conference 2021, and we are currently working on the construction of a second EXCO exhibition center.” Mayor Kwon went on to say “with the successful hosting of the World Gas Conference 2021, we will make efforts to take the next step forward in the fostering of future gas-based industries in Daegu.

Daegu wins the bid for international conference despite stiff competition from other major international cities

On May 17, 2016 at the Montreal Convention Center the four candidate cities to host the World Biomaterials Conference 2024 gave their presentations and voting commenced. During the voting, the Korean bid team (led by Professor D.J. Chung of Sungkyunkwan University), composed mainly of members of the Korean Society of Biomaterials, eagerly waited for the results to be announced. Although there was supposed to be a second round of voting, there was news that the voting had been completed in the first round with one venue already receiving a majority of the votes, and it was with a warm round of applause from World Biomaterials Congress participants that it was confirmed that Daegu won the bid.

With the biomaterials field composed of popular and intriguing cutting-edge technologies such as artificial joints and artificial organs, the World Biomaterials Congress 2024 is expecting up to 5,000 participants to take part. This conference had to be the fiercest competition among candidate cities to host, and it was no easy task for Daegu to win the bid to be host city with competition from USA (San Fransisco), the global leader in the biomaterials field, seeking to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Society of Biomaterials. Japan (Kobe) put forth a strong bid to host the conference after failing to host the previous conference, and Australia (Melbourne) had received extensive government support for its bid. In fact, Korea was surely lacking in the actions its undertook to win the bid and the time it had to prepare in comparison to Japan, which went so far as to hire a foreign agency and spent multiple years preparing for the bid.

However, Korea developed its bid strategy by analyzing the strengths and weaknesses of the competing candidate countries, and the bid team worked hard to contact key bid decision-makers in advance and inform them of Korea’s intentions to host the conference. Korea also garnered enthusiastic responses for its perfect bid presentation, which included a strong academic program. It was a moment where short but intense bid preparation coupled with Daegu’s conference hosting experience won the day.