Startups will share the spotlight with global pundits and entrepreneurs in their discussions on pandemic challenge before the global audience during the World Knowledge Forum run on Sept. 16-18 with their chances to pitch their innovations and inventions in the digital age.

Maekyung Media Group and Seoul Metropolitan Government field global business tycoons as mentors to the inaugural startup premier event of “Try Everything”, joined by some 400 startups, big tech firms and investors.

Tim Draper, an American venture capital investor and founder of Draper Fisher Jurvetson (DFJ), and Saeed Amidi, founder and CEO of Plug and Play Tech Center, are among the invites.

Draper, whose most prominent investments include Baidu, Hotmail, Skype, Tesla and SpaceX, will deliver a keynote speech on the conditions of successful startups and entrepreneurship on Sept. 17. Plug and Play under Amidi were early investors in more than 10 unicorn firms including Google, PayPal and Dropbox.

Marc Randolph, co-founder and first CEO of global video streaming giant Netflix, also joins the forum to share his tips and knowhow for fundraising. He serves as a mentor of various startups and travels the world speaking about his experience with Netflix and the lessons from his other startup investments.

Former Tesla President and Lyft COO Jon McNeill will explain how to bring success to startups. John Hennessy, chairman of Google parent company Alphabet, and Jack Ma, co-founder and former executive chairman of China’s e-commerce giant Alibaba Group, will speak on entrepreneurship.

Try Everything is to seek innovation momentum to combat the challenging times, held alongside the 21st World Knowledge Forum, annual business convention hosted by Maekyung. The inaugural event will offer online promotional and exhibition opportunities to startup participants on Try Everything website.

Offline promotional and exhibition booths will not be installed due to the virus risk. All sessions will be live-streamed on YouTube.

By Yoon Won-sup and Lee Ha-yeon

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