Chungnam Innovation Center, Asan Facilities Corporation Drive Public Facilities Innovation through Startup Collaboration

The innovative 'Nexus Connect Open Innovation Meetup Day,' jointly hosted by the Chungnam Center for Creative Economy & Innovation and the Asan City Facilities Management Corporation, successfully concluded on September 23rd. This meetup was planned to create a platform for collaboration with promising startups, aimed at promoting smart management and enhancing the safety of public facilities. For this meetup day, a remarkable 40 startups from across the nation applied to participate with great interest, and after a rigorous document screening process, a final 5 companies had the honor of showcasing their innovative technologies. The selected startups vividly presented their technologies in front of approximately 15 field managers from various departments of the Asan City Facilities Management Corporation. Through in-depth Q&A sessions, thorough discussions were held regarding the on-site applicability of the technologies and concrete collaboration methods. Notably, it was impressive that approximately 15 Corporation officials per company actively participated and very concretely reviewed the possibility of introducing the technologies on-site. As a result, three out of the five presenting companies secured the opportunity for 'follow-up meetups' to directly demonstrate their products at the Corporation's industrial sites and conduct additional meetings. This holds great significance as it goes beyond a mere presentation and lays a solid foundation for collaboration that can lead to actual on-site verification and commercialization. The Chungnam CCEI evaluated this event as serving as a bridgehead for startups to enter the public market, while simultaneously presenting an ideal collaboration model that accelerates the smart transformation of local public institutions. The center plans to continue providing full support for verification through follow-up meetups and, through connections with next year's programs, will pursue continuous and concrete collaborations. An official from the Chungnam CCEI cited this meetup as 'an exemplary case of open innovation fostered jointly by local public institutions and innovative startups,' and expressed the ambition that they would 'further solidify the B2G (Business to Government) cooperation foundation that leads to successful verification and practical commercialization in the public sector.' This will be an important turning point, showing the potential for a new cooperation model that accelerates innovation in the public sector and contributes to revitalizing the local economy.