Virtual reality is now evolving into a digital twin in which people connect the real and the virtual to complement each other. Through this, Hybrid MICE, which holds various events that take place in real space at the same time in virtual space, such as domestic and international fairs and festivals, has emerged. What this virtual space should have is not how much it resembles reality, but how much it can solve the shortcomings of real space and make it easy for people to use.

 

▲ THE PICT / CEO Changdae Jeon

Reaching 9.08 million page views by hosting the GTI International Trade & Investment Fair online

THE PICT, a unique XR/metaverse company

THE PICT is a web-based realistic contents company that breaks down the boundaries between reality and virtual and provides various web-based metaverses where everyday life and fun coexist.

CEO Changdae Jeon had journalist in mind as his future career but came to know VR during university years. “I thought about what it would be like to become a VR reporter. I wanted to become a reporter who vividly conveys the space itself, rather than putting various events and accidents into frames and letting readers or viewers see them.” says Jeon. Since the days when VR technology was not yet noticed, he focused on this technology and created a start-up club at a university to create a service that introduces Gangwon-do tourism products and local real estate status through VR, and he drew attention. In 2017, he moved into the Gangwon Center for Creative Economy and Innovation and realized his dream of establishing THE PICT.

It was the GTI International Trade & Investment Fair that the company showed off its capabilities. The fair was the largest fair in Gangwon-do at the time, and it was an event that aimed to increase exports of small and medium-sized enterprises by gathering various and excellent products such as cosmetics, IT, medical devices, bio, and food to revive the local economy, as well as to develop domestic and overseas markets. At the time of 2021, it was almost impossible to hold due to the pandemic, but the company turned it into an online fair, and as a result, the platform achieved a great success of reaching 9.08 million single page views. THE PICT received an achievement award from the governor of Gangwon-do, and has now expanded its team capabilities to become a startup with high VR, AR, and XR technology capabilities.

 

Providing web-based metaverse

2D homepage into 3D virtual space

The company is demonstrating its best capabilities by organizing seven teams equipped with event management experts, including 2D/3D content creators and developers. The company is striving to lead users to virtual worlds such as AR, VR, XR, virtual exhibitions and fairs, and the metaverse platform composed of corporate and festival types. The company produces creative contents in line with the changing media market by producing various media contents such as metaverse team and development team that realize creative virtual worlds, MICE headquarters that provides various contents and events through interactive communication, and video graphic design. A total of 6 teams, including the New Media team, have made every effort to provide services.

THE PICT is creating a metaverse, a digital twin platform that people can easily approach through professional personnel. To this end, the company developed its own web-based metaverse instead of an app-based metaverse that is being developed haphazardly. App-based metaverses are commonly used in game development, such as foreign game engines such as Unity or Unreal engine, which has the advantage of shortening the development period. However, in order to use the app metaverse, it is difficult for a wide range of people to access it because it is necessary to install apps and programs as well as have high-end device specifications that can drive them. In addition to this, from the developer’s point of view, it is inevitable that it is provided in a closed structure due to the nature of the game engine, which is not based on open source. To solve these problems, THE PICT chose the Web 3.0-based open web metaverse service.

CEO Jeon was convinced that the existing two-dimensional homepage, which consisted of only text or images, would gradually change to a metaverse space, and based on this, he built various web-based services. One of them is Kangwon National University’s Metaverse, and he went beyond simply introducing the campus and built campus life such as course registration and registration inquiry within the metaverse space. He developed various web-based metaverses, such as the Korea Exchange Financial Education metaverse platform, the Central Fire Academy metaverse, and the Daegwallyeong Music Festival metaverse, to create virtual spaces and contents that many people can enter online.

 

Simultaneous on-line and off-line events on metaverse platform

Grafting IT technology into MICE industry

THE PICT has various capabilities and achievements in the MICE field as well. MICE is an abbreviation of Meetings, Incentives Travel, Conventions, Exhibitions/Events, and is a newly emerging tourism resource. In particular, hybrid MICE is a non-face-to-face/face-to-face event convergence method that has emerged from the pandemic, and holds existing offline events through ICT technologies such as AR, VR, and XR. It is a concept that overcomes the limits of time and space.

The company has been collaborating with various companies that are not ready to go online when the pandemic hits, and is also introducing various hybrid MICE programs through the capabilities it has accumulated. Representative examples include Chuncheon Coffee City Festa, Chuncheon Sul Festa, and Chuncheon Pet Festival, which implemented small business stores in Chuncheon with VR. The company developed its own funding solution and succeeded in demonstrating it at the Gangwon Startup Festival and Gangwon Content Festa.

The company is also conducting a ‘receipt concert’ to contribute to balanced regional development, and since 2019, with Arts, and the Public Culture Research Institute, the company co-held the Pyeongchang Peace Music Festival, Gangneung Receipt Concert, and Jecheon International Film and Music Festival Receipt Concert have contributed to direct sales of small business owners. The ‘Receipt Concert’ is an event in which a certain portion of the ticket price is recognized as a receipt purchased through a local small business to enjoy a high-quality performance. “It is a 100% local win-win concert in which 40,000 won of the 50,000 won ticket is brought as a receipt from a local small business, and 10,000 won is exchanged for a local gift certificate on site after pre-payment at Interpark. If the audience uploads the receipt received after purchase to the authentication solution we developed, they can quickly enter the venue through the artificial intelligence (AI) approval process.” As such, it is a win-win business where audiences can attend concerts while helping the local economy, and local small businesses can increase sales. Thanks to the hot response and various profit-generating effects, other regions are competing to attract the system. The company is stepping up to grow into a glocal company with the ability to expand to the world through local development, and through this, it won the grand prize in the metaverse category at the 2023 Korea Future Management Awards.

권동호 기자  dongho2010@naver.com