The International Student Innovation & Entrepreneurship Conference (ISIEC) 2010 was held at KAIST’s Daejeon campus from November 18 to 20. The conference was hosted by KAIST Graduate School of Innovation & Technology Management (I&TM), Office of University-Industry Cooperation, and organized by Asia-Pacific Student Entrepreneurship Society (ASES) Korea.

Participants of ISIEC included about 100 undergraduate and graduate students from various universities in the Asia-Pacific region including China, Japan and the Philippines. ISIEC 2010 also included a tour of the Daedeok Innopolis and AhnLab Company.

Over three days, invited guest speakers gave lectures on the theme, ‘Innovative Entrepreneurship in IT industry.’ Topics of discussion included how to develop entrepreneurship and apply them accordingly to organizations.

The conference opened at KI Building’s Fusion Hall. On the first day, I&TM professors Hyunjoon Chang and Jay Ohm gave speeches on the topics ‘How to Ignite Innovation’ and ‘An IT Consulting Perspective: Start-Ups and Entry into New Market,’ respectively.

The second day included a tour of the Daedeok Innopolis, followed by seminars by Junesung Park, former CTO of Samsung SDS; Pyungchul Kim, CTO of NHN; and Alex Liu, Senior Manager of Business Development at Atheros Communications. Park’s lecture on ‘Entrepreneurship in IT Industry’ discussed ways to induce a paradigm shift by starting up a venture or creating a new market based on emerging IT technologies. Kim’s speech was on ‘Opportunities and Challenges for Young IT Leaders in the Cloud Era’ while Liu spoke about ‘Academic Entrepreneurship in an Asian Context’ to describe an upcoming Asian hybrid model which combines world-class science and technology with Asian values.

The Daedeok Innopolis, located just north of Daejeon, is a collection of research and development centers and venture companies. The cluster of research institutes and universities in Daedeok Valley constitute one of Asia’s top regions in science and technology.

The final day consisted of a tour of AhnLab Inc. and a lecture by CEO Hongsun Kim. AhnLab, which established appliances for network security such as the V3 product lineup, is the oldest and largest security solution provider in Korea.

According to Sujin Park, the Conference Director and President of ASES Korea, ISIEC was aimed to “create awareness and stimulate entrepreneurship… to overcome students’ tendency to rest on their laurels.”