SK Group Opens Icheon Forum on the 18th… Emphasizing 'Fundamental Competitiveness Enhancement' in the AI Era

[Financial News]SK Group will explore practical measures for strategic business promotion based on artificial intelligence (AI), innovation in the way members work, and fundamental competitiveness enhancement through its representative change-promotion platform 'Icheon Forum'.
SK Group announced on the 17th that it will hold the 'Icheon Forum 2025' for three days from the 18th to the 20th. The Icheon Forum is a representative event of SK Group that started in 2017 when Chairman Chey Tae-won proposed the need for a change-promotion platform to respond to the rapidly changing business environment. Domestic and foreign scholars and internal and external experts participate to intensively discuss global industry trends, innovative technologies, and future business directions. 
The core agenda of this year's 9th Icheon Forum is 'AI and Digital Transformation (DT)'. Discussions will focus on strategies to activate the AI industry ecosystem in Korea, SK's role, AI and DT-based industrial site innovation cases, and AI-based work method change promotion cases. In addition, there will be a member discussion session to enhance the practice of SKMS (SK Management System), SK Group's unique management philosophy. 
The first day's schedule, themed on AI and DT, will be held at the Walkerhill Hotel in Gwangjang-dong, Seoul. Chairman Chey Tae-won, Senior Vice Chairman Chey Jae-won, Chairman of the SUPEX Council Chey Chang-won, along with key executives from affiliates, academia, and industry experts, totaling over 250 participants, will attend. Leaders from various sectors in the AI field, the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the Choonghyun Scholarship Foundation, and the Higher Education Foundation will also participate. Many representatives from the 'K-AI Alliance', a promising domestic AI startup coalition formed under the leadership of SK Telecom, will attend to suggest measures for building the AI and DT ecosystem. 
The opening on the first day will be led by Kwon No-jeong, President of SK Hynix. President Kwon will explain the expectations for changes that AI will bring across industries and the global success background of AI memory such as high-bandwidth memory (HBM).
The first session, themed 'Reorganizing the International Order Led by the U.S. and Seeking Solutions for Korean Companies', will feature keynote speeches by Victor Cha, Korea Chair at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), and Jing Chen, Director of the China Analysis Center at the Asia Society Policy Institute, who will attend online. In the session themed 'Building Korea's AI Industry Ecosystem and SK's Strategic Role', William Fong, Chief Strategy Officer of the AI consulting firm Digby Consulting, and Joo-hwan Lee, CEO of Sweet, a Silicon Valley-based collaboration tool startup, will suggest ways for Korean companies to achieve AI independence. In addition, major SK members such as SK Hynix, SK Innovation, and SK AX will share their AI application plans in their manufacturing sites.
On the second day, the 19th, each member company will focus on discussing operational improvement and strengthening SKMS execution through workshops. On the last day, the 20th, at SK Seorin Building, Chairman Chey Tae-won and CEOs will have time to review the forum's achievements with SK members. The Icheon Forum schedule will conclude with Chairman Chey's closing speech.
An SK official said, "Last year's Icheon Forum focused on understanding the management direction in response to the AI transformation, while this year will be an opportunity to review the practical changes due to the expansion of the AI ecosystem and explore ways to strengthen each company's execution," adding, "Based on the active participation and discussions of the members, we will accelerate the group's fundamental competitiveness enhancement and future innovation." soup@fnnews.com Im Soo-bin Reporter