November 9, 2010-The International Media Center has finally opened in COEX. The Center holds 1,330 seats at the main press center, and 132 broadcasting booths at the International Broadcast Center, catering center, resting areas, IT experience halls, and interpretation centers that are all ready to accommodate the 4,288 reporters coming in from around the globe. The International Media Center is noted as the largest of all the G20 meeting venues in history.
The International Media Center is equipped with a large screen TV and 50-inch digital screens to broadcast in real-time the press conferences throughout the vast halls of the venue in fourteen different languages. A real-time interpretation center for foreign journalists has been set up to minimize language barriers.
With the newest RFID technology, registered reporters can have instant access to the media center with utmost efficiency and security.
Head of the planning committee for the G20, Sa Gong-il said, "We are very pleased to open the media center, a state-of-the-art facility. As many eyes from around the world are on the G20, a premium global forum, we hope that this media center will play a vital role in successfulness of this great meeting."
Sa Gong-il, Head of the planning committee for the G20; Yoo in-chon, Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism; Hong Sang-pyo, Senior Secretary for Public Relations at the Presidential Office; Park Jung-chan, President of Yonhap News Agency, and President of KT were all present at the opening ceremony.
As of November 5, 4,288 journalists from 63 countries were registered to report on the G20 Seoul Summit. It was the Japanese media that showed the greatest interest in the event by presenting more than 200 reporters to the G20. The next majority number of reporters are registered from America and Russia.
