Seoul wants to host the world — and it is building the room to do it. The city has approved a vast MICE complex at Jamsil, roughly 334,605 square metres, pairing convention and exhibition halls with a 900-room luxury hotel and sports facilities. Set beside Lotte World Tower and Seokchon Lake and linked by subway to the existing COEX center, it is designed to form a single "MICE cluster" with COEX and the neighbouring GBC development.
The ambition behind the concrete is competitive. Seoul's exhibition space has sat at about 64,000 square metres for a decade — "a standstill," in the words of one Korea trade official — while Hong Kong (around 200,000 sq m) and Singapore (around 240,000 sq m) kept expanding. The Jamsil venue would add roughly 120,000 square metres of exhibition and conference floor, nearly triple COEX on its own.
Why a city builds a convention hall
MICE — meetings, incentives, conventions and exhibitions — is a city-scale business. Whoever hosts the summits, trade fairs and congresses captures the hotel nights, restaurant covers and brand showcases that travel with them. For a decade, Seoul has watched that traffic flow to rivals with more floor space; the Jamsil cluster is its move to pull the region's gatherings back toward the Han River.
Illustrative image generated by AI.
Why it matters
This is a city, not a brand, making the first move — and that is exactly the kind of gathering bcd-W's Connect lane is built to watch. The exhibition hall is the lever: expand the floor, and you can bid for the congresses that currently can't fit. Seoul is betting that infrastructure, not marketing, decides where the world convenes.
What it signals
Across Asia, megacities are competing on measurable floor space — Singapore expanding its halls, Seoul clustering Jamsil with COEX — because the next decade of international events will be won on capacity. The venue is the strategy.
The bcd-W angle. This is a city building the stage on which the world will gather. Not a brand meeting a brand — a city deciding to convene, and pouring concrete to win the right. Seoul against Hong Kong and Singapore, measured in square metres.
FAQ
What is the Jamsil MICE cluster?
An approved Seoul complex of about 334,605 square metres, combining convention and exhibition halls, a 900-room hotel and sports facilities, clustered with the existing COEX center and the GBC development.
How much exhibition space does it add?
Roughly 120,000 square metres — nearly triple COEX — against Seoul's decade-long plateau of about 64,000 square metres.
Why does it matter?
It is Seoul's infrastructure bid to compete with Hong Kong (~200,000 sq m) and Singapore (~240,000 sq m) for international events and the economic traffic they bring.
Sources
Draft — bcd-W News Team. Web only; not sent by email. Floor-area figures and the project timeline should be re-verified against the city/primary sources before publishing.
