The Ministry of SMEs and Startups launched its three-day Growth Ecosystem ScaleUp Workshop in Changwon, South Gyeongsang Province, on Wednesday, highlighting a new vision to revitalize the local economy and create more jobs through customized solutions.

The workshop, which is being held at the Pullman Ambassador Changwon hotel through Friday, is led by professor Daniel Isenberg. It includes participants and key leaders from various fields including public institutions, banks, universities and research institutes in Changwon. The Korea Startups and Entrepreneur Mentors Association also participated as a partner organization.


Isenberg is the developer of the Babson Entrepreneurship Ecosystem Project, which was established to help leaders around the world create policies, structures, programs and cultures that foster entrepreneurship.

According to Isenberg, at the core of BEEP are local entrepreneurship stakeholders. “We design and implement a variety of carefully planned proof-of-concept programs that are tailor made, and when they generate those critical quick wins, we work to scale them up,” he says. “Each BEEP project is result oriented, customized and addresses an important element of entrepreneurship.”

According to a statement by the Ministry of SMEs, the Changwon workshop is expected to be an important starting point to launch discussions regarding the importance of the local ecosystem; collaborate organically to build a successful scale-up environment; and apply aspects from successful overseas scale-up cases to the city.

“Considering the current status and geographical conditions, Changwon is a good place to build a scale-up ecosystem through a new growth momentum,” said Isenberg in the ministry’s statement. “In order to build a sustainable scale-up environment, it is very important for core leaders in various fields to share the same goals and directions. I hope this three-day workshop will encourage a consensus and culture for scale-ups in Korea.” 

By Julie Jackson (juliejackson@heraldcorp.com)