The Korea e-Sports Industry Society (President Song Seok-rok) will hold its spring academic conference on the 10th at Hocheon Hall, Seoil University, under the theme ‘Development plans for the e-sports industry by local governments’. With the 6·3 local elections approaching, the event is expected to serve as a venue to present region-by-region plans to invigorate the e-sports industry in connection with the Lee Jae Myung administration and its ‘5 Special·3 Pole Growth Engine’ strategy.
The e-sports industry is expanding beyond simple games into a future industry that integrates culture·tourism·education·technology. Accordingly, the core aim of this conference is to explore policy directions that allow local governments and local communities to grow together. In particular, strategies for leveraging e-sports to ease the Seoul metropolitan area-centered industrial structure and to promote balanced regional development and youth job creation will be key topics of discussion.
The conference will begin with an opening ceremony and a keynote address, followed by presentations covering the current status and development strategies of the e-sports industry across regions nationwide. Professor Song Seok-rok of Kyungdong University will deliver the keynote on the theme ‘The role of local governments in the e-sports industry’, and there will be regional presentations for Gangwon (Dr. Kim Tae-dong, Gangwon Research Institute), Yeongnam (Professor Seo Dong-hwi, Daegu Catholic University), Honam (Professor Jeong Yeon-cheol, Honam University), Chungcheong (Professor Kim Se-yoon, Dankook University), Gyeongin (Professor Kim Yong-bin, Osan University), and Seoul (Professor Heo Geon-sik, Seoil University).
In the subsequent academic presentation session, a range of topics will be presented, including ▲training effects in e-sports for persons with disabilities ▲analysis of changes in Asian Games e-sports disciplines ▲sportainment strategies for e-sports events ▲research on AI-based evaluation systems, enabling substantive discussions that combine industry·academia·policy. The comprehensive panel discussion will be chaired by Professor Kim Min-kyu of Ajou University, with participation from Professor Kim Ki-han of Seoul National University and Senior Research Fellow Cho Hyun-joo of the Korea Institute of Sport Science, among others.
This conference will also include an awards ceremony for the ‘2026 Republic of Korea e-sports contest’. The contest is designed to discover university student talent that will lead the future e-sports content industry, and will run across four categories: ▲game art (character·background design) ▲panel comics (story-based content) ▲AI art (works using generative AI) ▲AI animation (video content production).
At the event, along with in-depth discussions, cooperation plans between industry and the academic society will also be discussed. Punchline Film CEO Lee Sang-hun, Sidewalk Entertainment CEO Guk Gi-bong, and Asprit CEO Yoo Young-jin will participate to bridge academic research and industry practice and to propose cooperation models for building a sustainable e-sports ecosystem.
Professor Park Eun-ae of the e-Sports Content Innovation Committee of the Korea e-Sports Industry Society (Baekseok Arts University) stated, “This conference is a venue where local governments, academia, and industry participate together to discuss practical strategies to develop e-sports as a new regional growth industry”, “We expect that the creative talent and content discovered through the contest will become important assets for future industry development.”
