Event Overview: The World Korean Business Convention took place April 17–20 at the Gas South Convention Center in Duluth, Georgia, drawing over 15,000 attendees and 400+ exhibition booths.
Purpose of the Convention: It connects Korean small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) with international partners to strengthen global trade, innovation, and business partnerships.
Five Key Objectives:
Support global trade and partnerships
Promote innovation and showcase Korean technologies
Facilitate networking through business matchmaking
Exchange knowledge between Korea and the U.S.
Stimulate economic impact by attracting investment and creating jobs
Booth Highlights: Featured products ranged from AI machinery, red ginseng, flooring materials, pet products, tourism promotion, to calligraphy and children’s toys—many of them straight from Korea.
Business Matchmaking: A major draw was the one-on-one meetings between Korean vendors and U.S. buyers, facilitating real-time business deals.
Cultural Elements: Included K-pop performances, luncheons, and networking dinners to celebrate Korean culture and foster relationship-building.
Product Sales: While the event was mainly for B2B connections, some retail sales took place—skin care and ginseng products were available to the public.
Notable Participants: Major Korean conglomerates like Samsung, LG, Hyundai, and SK participated, many of which already have operations in Georgia and nearby states.
Success Stories from Past Events:
Sip and Slurp gained viral attention
Total Rental Solutions sold out their inventory
Cydex secured U.S. investment
BTR golf apparel opened a store in Atlanta
Local Impact: The convention reflects the growing Korean population in metro Atlanta (top 3 in the U.S.), and promotes Duluth and nearby cities as major Korean-American hubs for business and culture.
What’s up you guys this is Tim Trevathan with Tim Trevathan Homes in this video we’re going to cover the World Korean Business Convention that just took place a few weeks ago in Duluth Georgia if you’ve been following my channel you know that there is a huge Korean population here in Atlanta Georgia in fact we’re in the top three for most populated cities in America for Koreans including Korean-Americans and Native Koreans from South Korea what’s so special about this World Korean Business Convention well a couple things for one the whole reason why this is done and in fact already took place as I mentioned is because of the fact that there is a huge Korean population of different small businesses that can connect with the companies in Korea they have this World Korean Business Convention also located in LA and we all know that there’s a lot of Koreans in LA so what is this World Korean Business Convention exactly well it is a convention that is aimed to strengthen global trade and innovation by connecting Korean small and medium-size enterprises with international partners so all of these people as you’re going to see here in this video they have booths set up for their businesses these are indeed Korean companies directly from Korea i actually went here on the first day on April 17th which it took place from that day until the 20th at the Gas South Convention Center in Duth Georgia uh with my wife and my wife made an interesting comment how she felt at home being there walking down the aisles because she knew that these were indeed native Koreans from South Korea so it felt like she was just in her own home turf and with this convention there were five key objectives that they tried to uh basically aim for and that was supporting global trade as I mentioned before facilitating meetings trade agreements and partnerships between companies and institutions another reason being to promote innovation in businesses so showcasing the actual products and technologies on a global stage thirdly to advance networking and advocacy so building connections among companies government agencies and institutions through business-to business matchmaking sessions and many times I was walking through here and I was seeing that there are actual businessmen they’re sitting down at tables next to their own booths and and striking up conversations and having business transactions take place on the spot a fourth objective was revitalizing crossber knowledge so basically offering programs to develop knowledge and insight because a lot of which uh is here in America but we don’t know what’s going on in Korea and vice versa and lastly to kickstart economic impact by driving economic influence by discovering startups attracting investment and initiating new business transactions and creating jobs when I walked through these aisles which it took a good I’d say 2 hours if I was to take my time it was a massive convention there are so many businesses here i mean I saw things such as you know trying to bring over a special type of red gins singing and one that is a pure concentrated uh type to Hanji flooring material creating different types of flooring material with different materials to uh increasing tourism through Gyong Sanang Boto which is a province that is south of Seoul that maybe most are not as familiar with to things like HIPPA which is like a basically a arm rest or face rest for putting on top of a sink it’s definitely good for young kids as well as those that are elderly so something that looks very innovative that I haven’t seen before as well as calligraphy as we know there’s a type of art form when it comes to writing and Korean calligraphy was one of the highlights there as well to other things like different kinds of children’s toys to air purifiers and heating systems to robotics to AI machinery and different kinds of uh brushes for your dog even types of toothbrushes that specialize for dogs and different pets of all sizes whether it’s small dogs or large dogs now this is not to be confused as an actual marketplace where you buy products this is more so to make and establish business connections now there there were some products that were for sale so my wife and I we bought some skin care products that were for sale as well as some Jens Singh products but the majority of that went on sale on Saturday but we ended up attending on the first day so we missed a lot of that but there were still a couple retail products for sale and so we ended up seizing that moment but basically this event was just incredible all around because it featured over 400 exhibition booths and it attracted more than 15,000 participants including those in the US Koreans government agencies and municipalities once again one of the highlights of the event was the businessto business matchmaking sessions so personalized one-on-one meetings that would connect buyers and vendors for a mutually beneficial partnership other reasons or other highlights rather would be a startup and VC forum so a platform for startups to pitch their ideas to venture capitalists and investors and lastly cultural performances and networking events so exclusive lunchons dinners and cultural showcases designed to foster collaboration and celebrate shared success of course I would be remiss to say that there was also a Korean pop group to a K-pop group of guys and they’re trying to promote a type of ramen and by eating it and having a whole bunch of people take videos of them and post on social media some of the notable participants that were here were huge Korean conglomerates that most of the world recognizes such as Samsung LG Hyundai and SK which some of those are already established in Georgia where we got you know the Kia car plant that’s in West Point Georgia and the Hyundai car plant which is not in Georgia but it’s in our neighboring state in Montgomery Alabama and then even in Savannah they’re going to have a huge car plant there as well not to mention we also have some EV battery plants that are over in Commerce Georgia so once this event is over you’re probably thinking well what was the impact or what are some success stories well in past events which this has been taking place every year here in Duth is that it’s led to significant business growth for attendees so for instance Korean food brand Sip and Slurp gained viral attention on social media and was featured on local US news easy Network’s Total Rental Solutions sold out its entire product line during the convention and Cydex secured investment from a US-based venture capital firm to expand in North America culping and BTR a golf apparel company opened a storefront in Atlanta after connecting with US buyers so those are some of the success stories you can see that there’s a reason why they come all the way from Korea for basically a business trip of their of their own uh to promote their product their brand their service whatever it is that they’re trying to sell whether it’s already in America or there’s some kind of innovation to it that is unique in Korea that needs to be brought over to the US marketplace so I hope you enjoyed this video stick around to see the rest and make sure to like and subscribe and check out my Korea Town videos in Suwanee John’s Creek and of course Duluth and all the other videos that I’ve done about Korea Town just to promote the awareness of Korean culture here and why so many people are moving here i have helped a lot of Korean clients move here purchase homes and settle down in metro Atlanta that have moved from LA San Jose Seattle Chicago New Jersey Dallas and many other places so be sure to give me a call if you are looking to make a move to Georgia!
