World's largest character creators, buyers to attend Seoul fair

SEOUL, July 13 (Yonhap) -- The world's leading cartoon and animation creators and
market makers will flock to Seoul next week to take part in the Seoul Character
Fair, which has grown into Asia's largest cultural-content licensing show over
the past years, the event's organizers said Monday.

The five-day event, running from July 22 at COEX, southern Seoul, will be
attended by 168 big names in the character business market including BBC
Worldwide, Paramount Pictures and Chorion, the Korea Content Export Information
System, co-organizer of the event, said in a press release.
Established in 2002, the number of visitors to the event has been increasing by
10-15 percent annually with the previous event drawing more than 180,000
participants including 150 business enterprises and 4,200 buyers, according to
the festival's Web site.
Vice President of Paramount Pictures Ryan Gagerman and directing manager of BBC
Worldwide Maggie Wong will come this year, according to the organizers.
With the domestic character market growing more than three fold over the past
five years, largely due to the success of characters like Bororo and Pucca, local
firms are hoping to gain increased business through the event.
"The fact that so many global firms and buyers are taking part indicates the
growing attention the Korean character business is gaining in the international
market," said Lee Jae-woong, head of the Korea Content Export Information System.
"We hope local firms will see big business effects through this year's event."
hayney@yna.co.kr
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