With the opening of 'CES 2025,' the world's largest IT and consumer electronics exhibition, on January 8 in Las Vegas, the 'Gwangju Joint Pavilion' and the 'Gwangju Pavilion within KOTRA's Integrated Korea Pavilion' officially opened.

Gwangju City held the opening ceremony for the Gwangju Joint Pavilion at 7 a.m. on January 8 (2 p.m. local time on January 7) both online and offline.

Mayor Kang Gi-jung, along with the deputy mayor and department heads, participated in the ceremony via an online video connection. Locally, representatives from participating companies such as Park Sung-chul of Inbiz and Song Jong-woon of E-Soltec attended, along with Lee Kyung-joo, Director of the Gwangju Information and Culture Industry Promotion Agency; Ha Sang-yong, CEO of Gwangju Creative Economy Innovation Center; Kim Byung-in, Vice President of Chonnam National University; students; Kim Dong-jin, President of Gwangju University; Park Se-jin, Executive Director of Kumho Express; and Yang Hyang-ja, former National Assembly member.

Initially, Gwangju City had planned for a delegation led by Mayor Kang to attend CES 2025 in person. However, due to efforts to respond to the Jeju Air passenger plane accident, all schedules were canceled, and only essential personnel were dispatched to minimize participation.

Mayor Kang connected online to review the opening ceremony and visited each booth of the participating companies at the Gwangju Joint Pavilion. The pavilion features 11 companies—including Inbiz, Junction Med, Twigfarm, E-Soltec, Artlab, IndieDJ, Hogreen Air, River Tree, UniCompany, EcoPeace, and Blue Capsule—exhibiting their advanced technologies and electronic products.

Mayor Kang and his team conducted a tour where they listened to explanations about the companies and their products and technologies. He encouraged them by saying, “Please promote Gwangju’s outstanding technological capabilities widely in the global market.”

This year’s CES 2025 includes support for 15 companies: 11 in the Gwangju Joint Pavilion and 4 in KOTRA’s Integrated Korea Pavilion. The city has strengthened global market entry programs such as supporting CES Innovation Award applications, business education, and business matchmaking. After the exhibition concludes, it plans to maximize outcomes through export support projects. Including companies supported by Gwangju City, a total of 36 local companies are participating in CES 2025 to showcase their exceptional technological capabilities.

The city emphasized that AI remains a core focus this year as it was last year. It expects CES 2025 to serve as a platform for promoting new AI products and technologies developed by Gwangju as "Korea's representative AI city" to the global market. Additionally, it sees this as an opportunity for local companies to expand into overseas markets and boost exports.

The Gwangju Joint Pavilion is designed as an open space to enhance convenience for buyers and visitors while maximizing exhibition impact. An information booth is set up at the front to provide guidance about the pavilion while simultaneously promoting Gwangju City. Inside the space are areas dedicated to company promotion and product pitching.

The pavilion highlights local companies that have won CES Innovation Awards by showcasing their innovative products. Exhibits include Junction Med’s senior healthcare solution using voice technology; Twigfarm’s customized multilingual service platform; Artlab’s AI beauty solutions for skin care; and River Tree’s real-time librarian support solution aimed at eliminating disparities in global book information access.

Following his online tour of the Gwangju Joint Pavilion, Mayor Kang visited Samsung C-LAB’s booth to view products exhibited by GhostPass—winner of the CES 2025 Best Innovation Award—and MindSpace—a recipient of an Innovation Award.

Mayor Kang stated: “CES 2025 focuses on AI and mobility, which confirms that Gwangju’s direction for future industries aligns perfectly with global trends. With more companies participating each year and their capabilities growing annually, I am confident this will become a driving force for growth. Please showcase the strength of Gwangju as Korea's representative AI city to the world.”

Meanwhile, CES is an exhibition organized by the Consumer Technology Association (CTA). Held every January in Las Vegas, it provides a comprehensive view of groundbreaking technologies and products as well as global market trends. The theme for 'CES 2025' is “Connect, Solve, Discover. Dive In,” aiming to connect technologies with each other and with people to solve problems and discover new opportunities.

Gwangju = Kim Han-sik, Reporter hskim@etnews.com