The K.E.Y. PLATFORM celebrates its 10th anniversary in 2022. Each and every step taken has left a footprint of innovation in Korea. Before the K.E.Y. PLATFORM was born, the world was living in the age of infinite competition for innovation.

In 2011, Apple's Steve Jobs passed away, but the seeds of innovation he sowed have blossomed, transforming the world. In the mobile world where smartphones are widespread and doors are wide open, global tech companies such as Google, Amazon and Meta (Facebook) are redefining the world beyond the corporate values of traditional companies.

MoneyToday thought a lot about this: How can we contribute more to society beyond news articles as a media company? How can we leverage our capabilities to deliver new values to the world?

The product of those thoughts is the K.E.Y. PLATFORM.

K.E.Y. PLATFORM had to be different. The world and markets were already moving away from traditional formulas, and we didn't think that there would be any point in delivering insights in the same old ways.

This is why we concluded that we should break free from existing types of conference that invite well-known scholars from overseas, such as Nobel laureates, and former and incumbent politicians from major countries just to listen to their stories.

This is how K.E.Y. PLATFORM was born – a platform where all participants are free to discuss anything (Knock around), to learn new things (be Educated), and to generate helpful knowledge (Yield everything) in order to tackle business challenges together.

Launched in 2013, the K.E.Y. PLATFORM surprised the world with its forecasts on changes in the global economic environment over next five years, using scenario planning techniques.

To raise the credibility of our global scenarios, we put them together based on the results of a survey of 100 global hedge fund and private equity managers who have the quickest and most accurate eyes to read the world.

In 2014, we unveiled a report of global innovation trends titled “Disruption of Business Models” through in-depth interviews with innovators and management gurus around the world. We vividly conveyed what was really going on at the sites of the 100 companies that have achieved the most successful innovations and growth in the world.

Having laid bare the true colors of innovation in Korea on two previous stages, the K.E.Y. PLATFORM unveiled innovation solutions for a better Korea in 2015. Our journalists covered innovators from around the world, including the United States, Germany, Sweden, and Japan, and uncovered the secrets that enabled them to innovate successfully. The answer was “execution power.” The K.E.Y. PLATFORM called for "bold execution" from Korean society.

In 2016, the world was an arena for competition among unicorns, and the K.E.Y. PLATFORM paid attention to them one step ahead of others. It analyzed and presented the common processes of 100 global unicorns to nurture Korean unicorns. They had something in common: searching persistently for touchpoints of products and markets and quickly seizing opportunities in front of them.

In 2017, Koreans experienced an unprecedented development – the impeachment of an incumbent president. Externally, the US- China confrontation started in earnest after the inauguration of U.S. President Donald Trump, and a great transformation into a digital economy backed up by various technologies including artificial intelligence (AI), the Internet of Things (IoT), and big data has been taking place since Google's AlphaGo defeated humans on Go. MoneyToday and the Heritage Foundation in America, one of the world's top think tanks, put their heads together to provide insights on how to pull through a chaotic age under the theme of "Pandemonium 2020."

The world was shaken up once again in 2018 when Bitcoin and blockchain technologies, which were introduced to the world through nine papers published in 2009, was jolting the world market. The K.E.Y. PLATFORM focused on covering blockchain companies in Silicon Valley, USA to find solutions to navigate through a decentralized new world of frenzy. We also sought for answers about how we should look at the age of blockchain and what opportunities we should seize.

In 2019, there was a growing uncertainty and concern about the global economy due to increases in U.S. federal funds rates, the end of quantitative tightening, and successive warnings about a looming crisis by the IMF and the WTO. With the world fraught with risks, including continued US-China trade tensions and tariff increases, the possibility of the Brexit becoming a reality, and the acceleration of China's economic slowdown, the K.E.Y. PLATFORM explored and presented solutions to turn a crisis into an opportunity.

In 2020, the age of the COVID-19 pandemic came upon us, which is ongoing even now. With the global economy thrown into great shock, the K.E.Y. PLATFORM revived its imagination of 2017 when it presented “Pandemonium 2020”. We came up with a solution called “Surrogate Economy” to instill courage into companies and their members shrinking for fear of the pandemic.

In 2021, the COVID-19 pandemic changed everything from the way we think of life to the values we cherish, our priorities, and the way we work. As the world was preparing for a new future with full-fledged vaccination and vaccine distribution, the K.E.Y. PLATFORM presented a new vision of the future and strategies for the post-pandemic era by scrutinizing everything from irreversible fundamental changes to changes in daily life and workplaces.

We have come a long way, but K.E.Y. PLATFORM’s journey has just begun. Many pioneers say that there is no end to innovation. You can continue to check out another 10 years and 20 years of innovation and change at K.E.Y. PLATFORM conferences.