Professor Dr. Peter Zec as design and business expert at the International Business Advisory Conference 2008 in Seoul

On 30 October 2008 the annual meeting of the “Seoul International Business Advisory Council”, the circle of advisors of the city of Seoul, will take place in Seoul. This year’s meeting will be held under the motto “Seoul: A City of Culture-Nomics with Creative Design”. Professor Dr. Peter Zec, who has been the only design advisor supporting the advisory council for more than one year now, will as a design and business expert comment on the topic “How to build Seoul brand as a ‘Culture-nomic’ city?” in a discussion panel consisting of leading personalities from the business sector and international industrial organisations.

Furthermore, the strategies of the city of Seoul to combine culture and business will be discussed. In addition, the case studies of Dubai, Paris, Tokyo, New York and London as cities which have effectively used design, innovation and culture to generate a high increase in value and improve their competitiveness will be examined.

About the Seoul International Business Advisory Council
The “Seoul International Business Advisory Council” was founded in 2001, in order to support the mayor in giving Seoul the status of a world metropolis and turn the city with its more than ten million inhabitants into the most important economic centre in North-East Asia. At his inaugural speech in 2006, Mayor Oh Se-hoon emphasised the significance design has for his plan: “The 21st century is the age of design. From today on we are all designers, whose task it is to make Seoul the best city in the world.”

In May last year Oh Se-hoon visited the red dot design museum as the only stop in Germany during his trip to Europe in order to inform himself about successful design promotion. Impressed by Zec’s knowledge and competence, he invited him personally to become a member and exclusive design advisor for the “Seoul International Business Advisory Council”.  Besides Zec the council consists of commercial greats such as the Chairman of Bloomberg, Peter T. Grauer, Christopher Forbes, Vice Chairman of Forbes, and John P. Mullen, Global CEO of DHL Express.