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SDF2020 The World We've Never Experienced : New Ways to Survive

SBS D Forum
A Bold Exploration of the Future

SBS has, since 2004, organized a major knowledge-sharing global forums- SDF (Seoul Digital Forum) and FKR (Future Korea Report) as a way to give back to society. SBS started SDF Season 2 in 2018 with the launch of SBS D Forum, an all-new forum that both merges and builds on the rich traditions of SDF and FKR. SBS D Forum will involve not only the offline forum in the fall but also wide-ranging online content produced year-round. Special projects, interviews, discussions by leaders in various fields, and experiments that the public can take part in, all of which will help us find solutions together to the challenges we face as a society.

  • YEARS2020
  • SPEAKERS702
  • AUDIENCE29905

*As of September 2020

SBS 30th anniversary, SDF2020

For a world in the grips of global crisis, the only way forward is into the unknown

Month into 2020, novel coronavirus has brought the world as we know in to a grinding halt. The ongoing pandemic has reached proportions unseen in over a century. The invisible virus has exposed the fragility underlying our seemingly robust social and economic systems. In the landscape of converging threats, individuals, companies, societies, nations, and the international community are being forced to confront new and unfamiliar challenges.

As global crisis proves, our existing systems have their constraints

Moving among us unseen, coronavirus is fundamentally changing the routines, conventions, and systems that compose our daily life. Amid such changes, we have witnessed in stark terms how, by allowing market logic-namely, a priority on cost minimization –to prevail on a global scale, we have impoverished the medical and public health system critical for our existence. We have also seen how lack of transparency in crisis responses by government can exacerbate anxiety. The question arises: what must we work to change, and what must we ensure we protect?

“What are the conditions for survival in a completely changed world?”

Throughout history, pandemics, wars, and other major threats to human survival have marked major turning points for human civilization.Today, we find ourselves at just such a truing point. It is time to discover new ways to live and understand the new conditions for survival.
SDF2020, held on the 30th anniversary year of the founding of SBS, will be the beginning of this bold journey toward the future. We will explore the different crises converging on our world today from a variety of perspectives and seek concrete and actionable solutions through research, collaborative projects, and relevant case studies from Korea and around the world.

SDF Invitation

Park Jung-hoon

This has been an extraordinary year for us all.

We are living in a world changed beyond recognition – one in which the terms “pre-Corona” and “post-Corona” now refer to two distinct periods of history.

Plunged by the pandemic into a chaos and confusion unseen in modern times, individuals and families, schools, companies, and nations have been forced to seek new modes of survival.

Against this backdrop, and in conjunction with the 30th anniversary of SBS, our flagship CSR program SBS D Forum (SDF) aims to shine a light on how, in the bleak, uncertain post-COVID present, we might work to shape a brighter future.

Hence the theme for this year’s SDF, “The World We’ve Never Experienced: New Ways to Survive.” Ways of life we once took for granted were upended in one fell swoop by the pandemic, necessitating new ways of working, and learning, and even spending our leisure time. In our communities, we are struggling to keep our spirits up. SDF will look for the solutions that can help us to thrive once more.

In line with our theme, this year’s forum will also be held in a new completely online format. Given the infeasibility of gathering in the same physical space, we will utilize Augmented Reality to create a special platform for dialogue that bridges both physical distances as well as time differences to bring people together in dialogue.

There’s a saying that some things can only be seen clearly when you stop long enough to let yourself look.

To a world brought to a temporary halt by the coronavirus, I hope SDF can offer reasons to hope. Thank you for your continued interest and support.

Park Jung-hoon
President
SBS

Members of SDF Project

  • KOH Chuljong KOH Chuljong Editorial Room Executive Director
  • Ha Seungbo Ha Seungbo Executive Producer
  • LEE Chong-ae LEE Chong-ae Reporter/ SDF Team Leader
  • Jeong Seongyeop Jeong Seongyeop Reporter
  • Choi Sungrak Choi Sungrak Producer / Director
  • HA Daeseok HA Daeseok Reporter
  • Ryu Ran Ryu Ran Reporter
  • Choi Yejin Choi Yejin Writer
  • Choi Yujin Choi Yujin Writer
  • Shin Sohee Shin Sohee Art Director
  • Lim Sehjong Lim Sehjong Director of photography
  • JIN Hwaseon JIN Hwaseon Video Director