SK E&S

“Local:Rise Gunsan, a Renewable City Project, sailing smoothly!”
SK E&S Holds “Local:Rise UP Festival” Together with 23 Venture Firms

- Companies participating in “Local:Rise Gunsan” present their startup results on October 12… time held to communicate with the local residents and visitors
- External crowdfunding pours in droves within half a year since their launching… actively discussing measures for cooperation with the central and local governments
- SK E&S to continue pursuing the local regeneration project by supporting startups for over three years… to make Gunsan into a mecca of urban regeneration
 
“Local:Rise Gunsan,” a renewable city project of SK E&S launched under the banner that “Making Gunsan into Korea’s Malmö,” is creating diverse changes to the local society within six months of its launching and it is sailing smoothly.
 
SK E&S (CEO Yu Jeong-joon, www.skens.com), an eco-friendly energy company of SK Group, announced that it held the “Local:Rise UP Festival” in Yeonghwa-dong, Gunsan-si, Jeollabuk-do Province, on October 12.
 
“Local:Rise Gunsan”* is the first urban regeneration project led by a private company that SK E&S launched at the beginning of this year, and it entails fostering social venture firms. The project’s main goals are to regenerate the Yeonghwa-dong area, which is the former downtown, into a culture and tourism center of Gunsan and to create jobs locally. The 23 social venture firms that are participating in the project have implemented urban regeneration projects of various themes in Gunsan for the last six months.  
 
*Local:Rise is an English word made by merging Localize and Sunrise. It is the name of SK E&S’s renewable city project.
 
SK E&S is supporting the provision of ▲ working and training space, ▲ local accommodation, ▲ and startup training to the participating social venture firms through the project. Last March, it built the “Local:Rise Town” as an incubation office in Yeonghwa-dong, Gunsan, to provide working space, a community lounge, and accommodation to the companies. In addition, it is providing professional startup training with “underdogs,” a company specializing in the training of socially innovative startup entrepreneurs. As such, it is providing all-in-one support for the social venture firms to smoothly settle locally.
 
During the Local:Rise UP Festival (http://localrise.co.kr/festival/) held under the theme of “New Way to Enjoy Gunsan,” the 23 participating companies shared their progress made with the project, and each company introduced their business items. The festival was distinctive in that it was a participatory festival wherein the companies communicated and harmonized with the local residents in line with the local characteristics and stories unique to Yeonghwa-dong.
 
First, the companies held an exhibition of videos and photos showing their growth stories and startup content customized to Gunsan. Then, the companies held time to share the meaning of the project with the visitors. Representatives of the local startup companies personally vividly delivered the contents as docents during the exhibition, making it all the more meaningful, according to reviews.  
 
Furthermore, the event drew much attention as it was filled with programs wherein the local residents and tourists coming to Gunsan could personally participate. The programs included a “flea market,” where one could personally try on and purchase products created with the brilliant ideas of the participating companies, and a “walking tour,” during which they could tour around hidden treasure sites of Gunsan that the local startup companies newly discovered. 
 
In the evening, an award ceremony was held to cheer up and congratulate the growth of the Local:Rise startups together with the local residents. SK E&S produced and delivered signboards showing the distinctive characteristics and meaning of each participating company to the 23 companies and held time to cheer up their new start in Gunsan.
 
In particular, global startup companies participated in droves in the festival, drawing much attention. The 15 startup founders of the total 11 global startups that visited Korea at the invitation of the Korean Ministry of SMEs and Startups, also visited the local site and held time to exchange with the Local:Rise startup companies. 
 
Since the “Local:Rise Gunsan vessel” weighed the anchor half a year ago, small but meaningful changes have occurred in all corners of Gunsan. Discussions for cooperation with government agencies and local governments empathizing with the purpose of the project are also actively unfolding. Last July, the Office for Urban Regeneration Planning of the Korean Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport visited Gunsan for program benchmarking. Earlier in May, Gunsan Mayor Kang Im-joon personally visited the Local:Rise Town to discuss measures for cooperation with the startup entrepreneurs.     
 
The Local:Rise companies are making remarkable and tangible achievements. Most of all, collaboration with the existing local merchants is actively unfolding. “so.dosi,” which is creating a self-guided Korea travel guide for foreign tourists, is joining hands with local craft workshops to produce goods that symbolize major tourist sites of Gunsan. In addition, “SUPER WORKER,” a company specializing in the production of video contents, is preparing to open a local creator academy to train local content experts together with Jibang Co., Ltd., a social enterprise in Gunsan.  
 
Furthermore, “munglab,” “2nd Tomorrow,” and three other startups succeeded at drawing external investment worth about KRW 200 million through crowdfunding. “Gunsan Sumgim,” which is branding and distributing laver as a specialty product of Gunsan, has completed preparing the sale of products, and it expects to start selling them online soon.
 
“The ‘Local:Rise Gunsan’ project of SK E&S is creating changes that are difficult to achieve when led by the public sector. It is providing the opportunity to rediscover some aspects of Gunsan to the local residents while also multilaterally and sensually publicizing Gunsan to the outside world. It is, therefore, all the more meaningful,” evaluated Dr. Yoon Zoo-sun of the Architecture & Urban Research Institute, who is widely known as an urban regeneration expert in Korea.
 
SK E&S plans to support the project for another three years until 2021 to stabilize the local projects and businesses that the participating startup companies are pursuing. While this year was the first year for preparing the base for the project’s management, starting next year, the plan is to largely reinforce collaboration with the local governments in order to build a sustainable ecosystem and contribute to the win-win development with the local society.
 
"Gunsan is a city with infinite potential capable of being reborn into a culture and tourism center thanks to its rich historical heritage infrastructure found in all corners of the city. We will steadily support so that the Local:Rise startup teams would stably take root in Gunsan and contribute to the development of the local culture and economy,” said CEO Yu Jeong-joon of SK E&S.
 
 
* Refer to the photo files below.
 
【Inquiries】
Manager Koh Him-chan of the Communication Team (himchan83@sk.com 010-9045-5078)
Manager Kim Chung-hoi of the Communication Team (kimchunghoi@sk.com 010-9462-8487)
Manager Kim Beom-su of the Communication Team (kbs862@sk.com 010-7109-6171)
Manager Noh Tae-yun of the Communication Team (ty.noh@sk.com 010-9372-9692)
Team Leader Kim Hye-jin of the Communication Team (bluekim@sk.com 010-9069-0570)
 
[Reference] Introduction to major companies participating in the Local:Rise Gunsan project
 
The 23 social venture firms participating in the project are discovering business items largely specialized in “connecting tourism,” “culture and arts,” and “media contents.” Their goal is to draw more tourists and create local jobs in Gunsan through the businesses.   

- Connecting tourism : Developing travel goods specialized to Gunsan, discovering and branding local specialties, developing local festivals, and building cultural and commercial spaces through remodeling
- Culture and arts : Planning exhibitions and events specializing in local contents, managing working space for local creators, and culture and arts businesses using black and white photos, etc.
- Media contents : Producing media contents introducing the city and developing on and offline publicity contents, etc.

[Ten incubating teams]
 

No.	Team Name	Field
1	BeAdventure	Connecting tourism
2	Haneul Baekseo (Sky White Paper)	Connecting tourism
3	Hammer Design	Connecting tourism, and culture and arts
4	Cloud 9	Media/contents
5	Sumgim	Others (specialty branding)
6	Space Alternative	Culture and arts
7	Y-LAB (YWCA youth research center)	Connecting tourism, culture and arts, and vitalizing community
8	Hyun Film Studio	Media/contents
9	Hwajeopdo	Connecting tourism
10	Design Trait (09 Studio)	Connecting tourism and media/contents

 
 
[Thirteen accelerating teams]
 

No.	Team Name	Field
1	MOA STORY	Connecting tourism and media/contents
2	UniLink	Connecting tourism, culture and arts, and vitalizing community
3	SUPER WORKER	Culture and arts, and media/contents
4	Mr. Porter	Vitalizing community
5	Zaram Family	Vitalizing community
6	Mangoarr	Others (pets)
7	so.dosi	Media/contents (travel)
8	RediV	Connecting tourism / culture and arts Media/contents (travel)
9	Kkotilda (youth craft cooperative)	Culture and arts
10	Mugbangi and Friends	Connecting tourism and others (franchise)
11	Gunsan Bam Night Market	Connecting tourism, and culture and arts (vitalizing food zone)
12	Mulnamoo Edu	Connecting tourism, culture and arts, vitalizing community, and others (art education business outside of school)
13	2nd Tomorrow	Connecting tourism, vitalizing community, and others (creating jobs)