When the World's Top AI Researchers Came to Seoul

The world's top AI researchers gathered in Seoul

This week the International Conference on Machine Learning, ICML, ran at COEX in Seoul. The name may mean nothing to you if you are not a researcher, but for graduate students it sits somewhere close to the Olympics. Vancouver hosted last year and this year the stage was Seoul. It was a rare chance to have AI people from all over the world in one city at the same time. Watching ICML side events pour onto Luma, we wanted to put something of our own on top of that flow, so at the last minute we took the concept of an ICML Bar Crawl, booked out a friend's bar for the whole night, and ran an afterparty.

It was not a large event, but around 130 overseas researchers came, and the room felt closer to New York than to Seoul. What moved me most was that a single space held researchers from OpenAI, Google DeepMind and Alibaba, along with Stanford, ETH Zurich and Peking University, which is to say the top AI researchers in the world. For that one night Seoul became the crossing point of global AI.

A one night afterparty, and Nothing is Impossible

The episode that made us sweat hardest came out of booking the DJ. Someone on our side had passed on the wrong end time and told him the event finished at 10 p.m., when it actually ran until midnight. If the music stopped halfway through, the room would deflate. We only noticed 30 minutes before the doors opened.

What we shouted at that point was Nothing is Impossible. We called an emergency huddle and borrowed the gear from the original DJ, who obliged. Since DJing needs a laptop, one of the organizers installed DJ software on his own machine there and then. Among the guests was a foreign friend who DJs in Hongdae as a hobby, and he happened to be carrying a USB stick with his usual playlist. Within 30 minutes we had him ready and swapped him in without a break in the music. It was a minor variable in hindsight, but at the time it had us on edge, and what saved the night was execution on the floor, not a perfect plan.

The direction where they come to find us

We have carried a question for a long time, which is whether Seoul can really become a global city. The answer is still not clear to us. What encouraged us anyway was that the overseas guests arrived with real expectations about coming to Korea at all, and while they were here they enjoyed the culture, mixed with local people, picked up new experiences, and told us they wanted to come again.

Coming back to a country that sits geographically far from both the United States and Europe will of course take a genuinely good reason. Even so, I let myself dream that the flow reverses one day, so that we are no longer always the ones flying out to meet people and they are the ones coming to find us. A global conference ran in Seoul, a local community opened a room at the end of it, and I heard several times that night that people had met good people there. That was a small piece of evidence pointing in the direction we want.

From Seoul to Singapore, a community going abroad

The next stage after that was Singapore. This time we are working with the local Claude community there to run a Bloom event, and while we are in town we are also running a Cliwant seminar, which is the day job. Who would have imagined that a community could expand overseas. We are not selling anything, so it does not turn into money right away. Still, at a time when the network feels more important than ever, I expect these small pieces of global momentum to stack up one by one and become the seed of something larger.

The night the world gathered in Seoul and the steps carrying this community from Seoul to Singapore are two scenes from the same story. One is the power to pull people in, and the other is the power to go out and build connections. When those two grow together, a community becomes an asset that crosses borders.

What companies should take from this

Put the evening into the language of daily work and four things are left.

1. Set the table when the world is in town. The week a large international conference runs is a chance to have people you would normally struggle to meet gathered in one city, so a single small room placed on top of that flow becomes a contact point for a much larger network.
2. Execution protects the night more than a perfect plan does. Unexpected variables always turn up, and the outcome is decided by quick thinking 30 minutes before the crisis and by using whatever resources are already on the floor. Nothing is Impossible is an attitude rather than a slogan.
3. Build the power to pull people in. Instead of always flying out, the long term global strategy is to give people an experience and a welcome good enough that they want to come back.
4. Accumulate the network as an asset. Even without immediate revenue, a steady stack of small global moments turns the community and the brand into a seed that crosses borders.

Frequently asked questions (FAQ)

Q: What kind of event is ICML?

• The International Conference on Machine Learning, which for AI researchers carries enough weight to be compared to the Olympics. Vancouver hosted last year and this year it ran at COEX in Seoul, where the top researchers in the world came together in one place.

Q: How can we make use of a big international conference week?

• It is a rare chance to have talent and organizations you would normally struggle to meet gathered in one city. Opening a small room on top of that flow, such as a linked afterparty or a meetup, creates a strong network contact point without much cost.

Q: What does it mean for a community to expand overseas?

• It is about widening relationships and trust rather than selling a product. Even when it does not lead to immediate revenue, the global momentum built by working with a local community becomes a long term asset for the brand and the network.

Q: Can Seoul become a global AI hub?

• Sitting geographically far from both the United States and Europe is a real limit, but the overseas guests were very satisfied with the visit and said they intend to return, which is positive. The key is growing the power to go out and the power to pull people in at the same time.

Watch it back

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Bloom builds offline rooms where people and technology meet. We run them in Seoul, and now beyond it.

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Based on Bloom's ICML week afterparty in Seoul, run with Expedite and Playco.