World Knowledge Forum 2005 Opens

   With high expectations in the midst of great anticipation, the World Knowledge Forum (WFK) 2005 was launched on October 10 at the Walkerhill Hotel. This was the sixth World Knowledge Forum hosted by Maeil Business Newspaper, and this year?'s main theme was "Creativity & Collaboration: The Foundation for the New Era." Eminent scholars and businessmen from all over the globe, such as Paul Kennedy (Yale University), Jack Welch (Former Chairman & CEO of General Electric) and Hwang Woo-seok (Seoul National University) gave lectures on issues such as the role of American power in the future, the criteria for becoming a great CEO in the next era, and the future of stem-cell research.
   Approximately 1,500 participants were expected to come, but as the forum progressed, more than 2,500 participants joined the three-day event. Not only prominent businessmen and politicians attended the forum, but also students took part by both attending lectures and helping out with the operational process.
   The students attending the forum were sponsored by the Maeil Business Newspaper, which had invited approximately 100 students to attend the lectures.
   Park Go-woon (International Studies, 2) who participated in plenary sessions led by Paul Kennedy, author of "The Rise and Fall of Great Powers," and Robert Kagan, a neoconservative, said, "It was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to listen to a real lecture by such renowned scholars. I mean, even the college entrance exam for our division was based on Professor Kennedy's book." Professor Kennedy said that the atmosphere of the forum seemed to be uplifted by the university students' will to learn.
   Student volunteers were also the hidden hands that contributed to the proceedings of the forum. The volunteers were in charge of various matters, from setting up meetings and helping speakers register, to even giving wake up calls to the VIPs at the forum. Choi Soo-yeon (26) who worked as the personal assistant of Arnourd De Meyer, the Deputy Dean of INSEAD, a business school in Singapore and Frace, said, "It was an overwhelming experience to help Mr. De Meyer throughout the forum. I am interested in entering INSEAD myself, and to meet the dean of the university was just too exciting."
   Kim Song-ee (Sookmyung Univ., 4) who assisted Donald Johnston, Secretary General of the OECD, mentioned how working as a volunteer for the forum encouraged her in her aspiration to become a convention planner in the future. Most student participants agree that the forum spread both knowledge and experience. "This experience expanded my horizons," said Myung Suk-young (Yonsei Univ., 3).