Hello.
This is my second time here since yesterday’s rehearsal.
Standing on this stage, you might feel the atmosphere quite warm and calming.
This may be my first time
speaking in such a cozy atmosphere with a group of audience this big.
So I want to present my story in the same warm and calm manner.
I think this space itself is innovative.
I’ve already listened to the previous three presentations
at yesterday’s rehearsal,
but they seem more innovative today.
They can innovate in a day.
I wish I could be like that.
What I’m going to talk about today involves new terms,
but in some ways,
I think you can identify with them in your everyday lives.
We all have dreams.
We all dream of a better future, a happier world,
or a world where our self-esteem can be respected.
At every lecture, the first thing that I do
is to ask the audience whether they are really happy
at the moment or in their daily lives.
Today, I would like to ask you the same question.
Please raise your hand if you believe you are happy.
Put down your hand, please.
Now you can put your hands down.
On average, 50% of Koreans answer they are happy.
And today, we have about 65%
though I didn’t count exactly.
I think I am with very happy people today.
When I ask this question,
usually young people do not raise their hands, to my surprise.
When I had a lecture at Yonsei University, only 30% raised their hands.
When I had a lecture at Sungkyunkwan University,
it was 30%.
And at a law school, it was also 30%.
Thus, I began to think that life is difficult for young Koreans today.
Recently, someone told me
that a preschooler said that his dream
is to grow up to be someone with a permanent job.
So I said, “Don’t lie.” But he said it was true.
In another case, a kid in grade school said
that his dream is to later have a house of his own.
That moment, I thought something was wrong - really wrong.
Then what can we do about this?
We go to Google.
I do that myself.
But everybody knows
that using Google alone does not change the world.
Benchmarking, preparing plans, or sympathizing with others
does not change the world.
Then how can we change the world into a happier place?
I want to talk about this today.
When I look back,
I feel like I have always been with the word “Innovation.”
In my 30s,
I worked as a leader of a management innovation team in a conglomerate,
a line of work disliked by most team leaders.
Then I devoted my time
to social innovation-related volunteer work with an NGO.
And in my 40s, I ran an incubation center with Hyeong-su Kim and Jeong-hyeon Kim,
the previous presenters.
I have operated the consulting or incubating business
for social entrepreneurs and social innovators for some time.
Now, I am running Seoul Innovation Park, a social innovation platform
to build the future of Seoul with 1,000 innovators.
When I talk about my experience,
many would ask me, “What do you think innovation is?”
I was asked the question even this morning.
Someone asked me that yesterday as well.
What is innovation?
This is the question that I feel most uncomfortable about answering.
What is innovation?
Is it an idea? A methodology?
A macroscopic strategy to change the society?
I have gone through various discussions but to no avail.
The word still stays on the periphery.
But every change begins from margins.
Perhaps in every history, every civilization.
So, today, I would like to sort out what I think about innovation
and share it with you.
This is the cylindrical bus station and retractable bus in Curitiba, Brazil.
The UN designated the city as the most habitable place in the world.
This city has a system that solves problems that couldn’t be solved
by the traffic administration alone, by incorporating various values.
It constantly attempts to increase convenience
for infants and people with disabilities
in an eco-friendly manner.
So they did not only enhance the convenience for the marginalized
but also raised the environmental value,
gaining a satisfaction rate of 86% among its residents.
I want to talk about those who are leading these innovations
and how the innovations are made possible.
This is where I work now - Seoul Innovation Park.
It is where Korea National Institute of Health
and Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention once were.
In the 1950s when tuberculosis was considered a ‘national disease'
numerous patients were treated here,
with almost 1.5 million Koreans suffering from it.
Now, it is reborn as a place to treat social ills.
We have recruited 1,000 innovators who aim for social change.
And we will provide them places to run their business freely.
We plan to build a platform where they can do various social experiments,
fun activities in which citizens can participate
and stage fun and meaningful events in Seoul Innovation Park.
And through the first recruitment,
500 people from 111 organizations were selected to move in.
And they came from various unexpected fields.
Overall, 20% are the usual business innovators
and the rest focus on projects such as
urban restoration, lifestyle, ecosystem, pleasure
and there's even a group called “Wifi" that aims to support them.
Truly, the park is now becoming a place
where they can solve all kinds of problems.
But why are they gathering at Seoul Innovation Park?
Today, social problems or changes can no longer be resolved
by certain extraordinary individuals, organizations, or sectors.
I sometimes attend counseling meetings for social issues.
In the past, people from particular sectors
met with the government officials to find solutions.
But now, people from various sectors,
profit or nonprofit, gather together to solve problems.
It has its own limits.
They meet from time to time,
and the final decision is made by the public sector or a particular body.
But the reason these people get together
is because social problems are extremely complicated,
have serious ripple effects,
and concern so many different interest groups.
This picture shows
that when a city begins to develop,
all kinds of intertwined social problems arise,
which are actually aligned with rural problems.
The problem is that the rural area is saddled with urban problems.
In the end, current problems cannot be solved
by certain individuals, particular sectors, or organizations.
Luckily, we have a number of innovators
who are doing their utmost to solve those problems.
They are invisible because they are scattered and separated,
but they are making tremendous social changes at the margin of society.
Last year, we had a network party with 200 innovators
at the social innovation place “There”
and we drew a network map of the selected 1,000 innovators.
To my surprise,
even the innovators who want to change the world are mostly connected
only with the parties in the sectors in which they are included.
Only 20% of the public sector innovators
are connected with other sectors.
So, what is the most connected sector?
They are the social entrepreneurs like those whom you met today.
The people who exercise social economic activity are those
who are most actively and diversely communicating.
So, in a sense, they are making the most dynamic changes
although they are on the margins of society.
As you’ve already seen,
they are doing jobs that have been unimaginable until now.
I think the works began from the connections
that go beyond boundaries, beyond sectors.
The industrial revolution, the most groundbreaking event in history,
began at a train station.
And the smart innovation began from the iPhone.
Then what is the next platform for social change?
For me, innovation is
a new connection that breaks fixed ideas and goes beyond boundaries.
In the end, social change is a sort of platform,
which is not built by individuals, organizations, or institutions.
What breaks established ideas
and goes beyond boundaries to make a connection.
Connex- that is innovation.
You have already seen the examples of such innovation,
but I will show you a few more.
This is Sungmisan Village, an urban community town
in which I live.
For better parenting, some people who are raising children
gathered to plot and work together to build villages.
It is amazing that they built villages in a city.
Last weekend, I attended a plot meeting.
A middle school social studies teacher, an employee at a conglomerate,
a business newspaper journalist, and four artists were talking
about their plans to build a guesthouse
in Yeonnam-dong for foreign travelers.
They have no measures at all.
They are dreaming of a jackpot without measures.
By the way, they already raised
half of their total budget goal of KRW 1.3 billion.
It was possible
because they had a close relationship with the members of the village.
And their connected experiences generated opportunities.
And now there are more than 30 social enterprises
or social economic bodies formed in such ways.
Restaurants, theaters, and dancing clubs.
Such changes are still at margins, but the communities are growing.
Another example is the Olle road of Jeju on the right side.
Many of you might have been there.
This road that attracts about 1 million tourists a year
was built by five people.
Then how could these five people build this road connecting all of Jeju?
A huge number of interested parties worked with them.
The process was interesting.
For example, some seaside roads and mountain paths
were simply too difficult for them to build.
Meanwhile, the leader of the Olle project had a lecture at a marine corps camp.
After the lecture, he asked,
“I have to lay out some roads; can you help me out?”
“We have to carry out our own operations. We can’t do it.”
“You’re the ghostbuster marine corps who can do anything.”
“Okay. We’ll do it.”
So, they built the seaside roads.
Then what about the mountain road?
He had a lecture at a special force camp.
He asked them too.
“We can’t.”
“The marine corps did it, and you can’t?”
“Okay. We’ll do it”
That is right.
The unexpected connection of borderless experience
made the Olle road.
Previously, you have met
some of the most recognized social entrepreneurs in the business.
Now I would like to introduce a few other companies.
“A Company” is a social enterprise that plans art projects.
They help rising artists.
Because my job is to work with social enterprises,
I see these businesses start from problems relating to social values.
And I've come across various shocking statistics about Korea,
one of which is regarding culture and art.
The employment rate among culture and art major graduates
is under 10%.
So there are many social entrepreneurs who work for culture and art projects.
They account for more than 20%.
Among them is A Company,
which arranges exhibitions called Breeze Art Fair,
and provides exhibition spaces at guesthouses and cafes,
where the emerging artists can have the chance to show their works
and to meet travelers and the public.
The company serves as a platform
that promotes both social and economic values.
The second one
is a therapeutic counsel platform called “Todac Todac.”
You might have never heard of it before.
Todac Todac has the same base with A Company.
What do you think about counseling?
We usually think counseling should be done in an office.
That’s what I used to think too.
But they thought this traditional form of counseling would never become popular.
So, they proposed to open counseling cafes.
At first, everyone, including myself, disapproved of the idea.
But, as of yesterday, Todac Todac is about to open its third branch
that is well designed and furnished.
What do they do?
They were able to link two disparate experiences
of counseling and visiting a cafe.
In addition to the actual counseling, they provide opportunities
such as barista training, musicals, or movie production.
As it happens, one of the counselees
had attempted to commit suicide twice,
but while he was there, he was trained as a barista.
He then expanded his relations,
even directed his own movie, and further developed himself.
Now, he has a job and is leading a normal life.
Todac Todac is a Daegu-based social enterprise
that connects different aspects of counseling
to a cafe business in an innovative way,
helping people with their mental health in the process.
Almost 40% of social enterprises and social ventures
with the aim of creating a better future
are attending projects now in Seoul Innovation Park.
You probably could find various cases
of similar social innovation projects in other countries,
But I don’t think you will find anywhere else in the world
such an experimental space that brings them together.
Some are successful but are too small, some have little impact.
In some cases, a large complex is built, but only a few people actually use it.
So, by doing these experiments at the Innovation Park,
we dream of building
an unprecedented intellectual complex of social innovation,
which is a new connection
that breaks stereotypes and goes beyond boundaries.
And lastly, I would like to tell you,
that old roads and outdated methods cannot open new frontiers anymore.
A better future and a happier world
cannot be earned only by searching Google,
but by connexing, which breaks stereotypes
and goes beyond boundaries.
Thank you.
(Applause)