The Seoul Conference kicked off on July 8, 2014, with a public lecture by Professor Ulrich Beck of the University of Munich. Scholars, students, and reporters flocked to the Korea Press Center to listen to his lecture, "Emancipatory catastrophism: What does it mean to Climate Change and Risk Society?" Opening remarks were given by Sung-Gon Kim, National Assemblyman and Co-Chair of the National Assembly Forum on Climate Change, and congratulatory remarks were given by Jang-Moo Lee, Chairman of the Board of the Climate Change Center. Professor Sang-Jin Han of Seoul National University provided the introduction, and Professor Beck's lecture was succeeded by designated dialogue from Professors Yui Kiyomitsu (Kobe University, Japan), Chen Yulin (Tsinghua University, China) and Chan-Sook Hong (Seoul National University, Korea).
Following the lecture, the Seoul National University conference was held from July 9 to 12. Under the unifying banner of "Climate Change and Risk Society: New Trends of Megacity Transformation", the jam-packed conference included 19 presentations by scholars from around the world. On July 9, the representatives of eleven institutions signed a memorandum of agreement and established the Europe-Asia Research Network (EARN).
Concurrently, the University of Seoul Conference and the Seoul Institute Forum were held on July 10 and 11 respectively. In particular, the Seoul Institute Forum included Professor Ulrich Beck's meeting with Park Won-Soon, Mayor of Seoul, and the establishment of the Megacity Think-Tank Alliance (MeTTA). Professor Beck and Professor Sang-Jin Han also discussed plans for The Seoul Project, which is slated to begin in January of 2015, in cooperation with The Seoul Institute, the think-tank of the Seoul Metropolitan Government.
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