Seoul hosts AI-focused Try Everything festival to boost startup growth and investment
Seoul held the Try Everything 2026 festival, showcasing AI-driven innovations and facilitating investor-startup matchmaking.
Try Everything 2026 took place at Dongdaemun Design Plaza, bringing together domestic and international startups, venture capitalists, and major firms under the theme "AI Changes Everything, Now Try Everything." The festival featured a global AI conference, hands-on demo zones, targeted investment meetings, and initiatives to discover future unicorns. Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon announced a city-wide R&D push for AI and related sectors, along with a new multi-trillion-won fund slated for launch in 2027 to back AI and cultural industries.
Stanford professor Erik Brynjolfsson warned that AI adoption requires complementary business-process investment, while several AI companies shared practical use cases. The event also hosted open-innovation sessions linking startups with corporations such as Hyundai, CJ, and Amorepacific, and offered numerous pitch competitions and networking opportunities.
