The Korea Information Society Development Institute (KISDI) held “KISDI Global Conference 2014: ICT Convergence and Industrial Innovation” at the International Conference Room of the Korea Chamber of Commerce on November 7.

The main interest of this conference was to discuss how the wave of ICT convergence, especially 3D printing technology and the Internet of Things, will affect the innovation of the manufacturing industry and what the key policies of major economies such as Germany and the U.S. on manufacturing innovation are.

KISDI Global Conference 2014 was kicked off with a keynote speech by Peter Marsh, former Financial Times editor and author of “The New Industrial Revolution: Consumers, Globalization and the End of Mass Production”, titled “Digital Technology and Manufacturing: Opportunities for the World”.

The first session of the conference was moderated by Professor Yang Yoosuk of Chung-Ang University and Kim Heesu, Vice President of KT Economics and Management Research Institute (“How the Internet of Things Will Change Every Industry”) and Daniel Thomsen, General Manager of Stratasys Korea (3D Printing...More Than Just Prototyping) delivered their presentation. In the following panel discussion, Chang Sukin, Senior Research Fellow of the Korea Institute for Industrial Economics and Trade and Park Hyunje, Creative Planner of the Institute for Information and Communications Technology Promotion exchanged their thoughts on the topic.

With Professor Kim Sangtaek of Ewha Womans University as a moderator, the second session began with presentations by Markus Eisenhauer, Head of the User-Centered Computing Department at Fraunhofer FIT (“Manufacturing in a Value-Driven Internet of People, Things and Services ­ Some Aspects of IoT and CPS from Industrie 4.0 and the EU”) and Professor Sridhar Kota of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Michigan (“Innovation Policies and Federal Initiatives to Revitalize American Manufacturing”) and followed by the panel discussion between Kim Jeongeon, Head of the ICT Industry Research Division at KISDI and Yum Yongsup, Head of Information and Communication Research at SK Research Institute on the unique industrial structure and conditions of the Korean economy.

Under the theme of “ICT Convergence and Industrial Innovation”, this conference served as a venue to review and discuss the global trends of manufacturing innovation as well as the current status and challenges of the domestic industrial structure. It is expected that the outcomes of this conference will lead to further discussions in the academia, industry and government on this issue.

Contact: Jung Sook Oh, Senior Research, Department of ICT Industry Research (Tel: +82(0)43 531 4264)