Leading figures in cultural communication from around the world will join offline panel members to discuss the changes in how cultural contents are delivered in the post COVID-19 era at the 11th Cultural Communications Forum being held from Aug. 26-27.

The two-day forum will feature speakers from the EU in the evening of the first day and speakers from North America in the morning of the second day, due to the time difference of the countries from where the speakers will join via video call. Experts in cultural communications and several ambassadors in Korea will gather at the Grand Hyatt Seoul to discuss the current situation and the future of cultural content platforms and communication methods.

The discussion topic for this year was sparked by the results of CICI’s online survey in February that asked what people did in their leisure time as the COVID-19 spread worldwide. The survey showed that Koreans spent time watching television the most, followed by watching YouTube and reading books. With increasing contact-free cultural communication, CICI President Choi Jung-wha thought to invite experts through video calls and discuss the change.

“I felt that all communication can and should go contact-free after seeing the survey results, so I thought to combine video calls to the forum,” said CICI President Choi Jung-wha. “When I contacted various figures to speak at the forum, many thought a discussion on the change of delivery method of cultural content was needed and gladly accepted.”

Many internationally notable names in cultural communication will participate in the forum.

On Aug. 26, Secretary of State for the Digital Sector of France Cedric O will give his congratulatory remarks through video call and hold a Q&A session. Also, French scholar Jacques Attali will give a keynote presentation, followed by presentations from Spanish author Javier Moro and BBC television and radio presenter Francine Stock.

President of Ontario College of Arts and Design University Ana Serrano and K-pop columnist Jeff Benjamin, will give speeches the following day along with a pansori preformance by French singer Laure Mafo.

CICI hosted Culture 20 with leading cultural figures from G20 countries in 2010 to coincide with Korea‘s hosting of the G20 summit. Since then, CICI has held the CCF every year, inviting foreign leaders to learn Korean culture and share their own cultures.

By Lim Jang-won (ljw@heraldcorp.com)