Busan to Host Global Startup Event Slush'D

Slush, the world’s largest startup event, has announced plans to expand its reach with a new spin-off event, ‘Slush’D,’ to be held in Busan, South Korea. 

Korea Startup Forum has been selected as the domestic organizer for the event, which will be held in the country for the first time.

Slush, held annually in Helsinki, Finland, is considered one of the most important startup events in the world, along with TechCrunch Disrupt in the US, Web Summit in Portugal, and Viva Technology in France. 

Under the new ‘Slush’D’ program, 5 to 6 cities are selected every six months to host local events with 100 to 1,000 attendees. The goal is to discuss issues related to startups in the region, strengthen local communities, expand the global network, and promote collaboration in the ecosystem.

The choice of Busan as the venue for the first Slush’D event in South Korea is significant, as the city was selected as one of the final five venues out of 30 candidate cities worldwide.

This highlights Busan’s competitiveness as a startup city and the achievement of the Korea Startup Forum in promoting the town for the event. 

Korea Startup Forum is a global startup platform working to connect Busan’s Slush’D event to the international and national ecosystem and leverage its experience and expertise to activate the local startup ecosystem.

“Hosting Slush’D in Busan proves that Busan has great potential as a global startup hub,” said Jake Park, chairman of Korea Startup Forum. “We will work to make the event a success by attracting global investors to Busan and providing opportunities for local startups to expand overseas.

This move is a step in the right direction for the Korean ecosystem. 

To establish Busan as a hub for innovative startups representing Asia and contributing to the proliferation of startups in various locations, this event could be a step forward in mitigating the concentration of startups in the metropolitan region and diversifying the startup ecosystem.