The South Korea Experience

The obvious suspects as far as target markets go for Israeli startups is either the u.s market, for the ease of doing business and lack of language barrier, or the relatively close by European market. No company is disregarding the Asian markets, but their distance from the entrepreneur’s comfort zone is delaying the interaction to an unknown time.

The combination of curiosity and some positive interactions at conferences joined together to an invitation to participate at Bixpo 2017, which took place at Gwangju, South Korea. BIXPO 2017 serves various needs required by the fast-changing world of smart cities and electric power industry through its New Technology Exhibition, International Conference, and International Invention Fair.

Opening Ceremony

Preparations for the trip were made by the knowledge that Israel and South Korea are now negotiating a free trade agreement when this door opens we want to amongst the first walking through it.   The trusted google maps were having troubles providing consistent information, such as our beloved hotel booking platform. And guess what we learned?  Most of the Koreans don’t speak English.

But, since we got help from the expo’s organizer and Yudi, from GT Korea Israel, we could complete the preparations.

We landed in a beautiful and clean country with fantastic views. Korea is a mid-size country and relevant as a market. Arriving at exhibition grounds, we find our pavilion ready to go, and all we needed to do is place our brochures and plug in our DOK, fun fun fun! High profile visitors characterized the expo itself, so the dynamics were as a big B2B seminar, which was terrific!

High Profile Visitors

Scenic country

Also,  You couldn’t look away from the the colors and the movement, the local hospitality and kindness of people.In our short visit, we had the chance to have dinner with the mayor of Gwangsu and even took a selfie with a local Italian tv star

Local T.V star

Smart City Night

Another point worth mentioning is the western start-up’s brotherhood that was formed there, a great chance to meet the people behind the companies that are making things move faster around the world. But, it is important to remember, we a are commercial company, and this trip was a business one, so the bottom line could only be written some months later.

To conclude – the future certainly looks bright in South Korea