Suwon City and Ajou University Host 9th National Youth Idea-thon Competition

At the "9th National Youth Idea-thon Competition," hosted by Suwon Metropolitan City (Mayor Lee Jae-jun) and Ajou University (President Choi Ki-ju) and organized by Ajou University's Anchor Project Group, the team "PIECE MAKERS," which proposed the idea of "MY SUWON PIECE: Gathering Suwon and Completing My Suwon," was selected as the grand prize winner.

The competition, in which youth presented policies and ideas for "Creating Suwon-style Tourism Ecosystem in Anticipation of the 2026-2027 Suwon Year of Tourism," was held over one night and two days on September 19-20 at Suwon Youth Hostel and Suwon Convention Center.

A total of 105 ideas were submitted, including 48 team-based ideas and 57 individual ideas. Sixteen teams and 33 participants from universities and youth across the nation advanced to the finals and developed their ideas around two sub-themes: "Visit, Stay, Consume, and Revisit Strategy Design" and "Global Landmark Development of Gwanggyo Lake Park."

Participants in the finals visited the Suwon Convention Center, a facility related to the theme, participated in lectures and expert mentoring, and then refined their ideas to present their final works. The judging panel evaluated the presentations and selected the award-winning works.

The "PIECE MAKERS" team was selected as the grand prize winner (prize money of 2 million won) for proposing an interactive tourism idea where people collect magnetic pieces symbolizing each location whenever they visit major tourist attractions in Suwon, thus creating their own "Suwon Story."

A total of nine teams were selected, including one grand prize team, two excellence award teams (1 million won each), one outstanding award team (500,000 won), and five encouragement award teams (200,000 won each).

The National Youth Idea-thon Competition is a town-gown collaboration project that Suwon Metropolitan City and Ajou University have jointly pursued for nine years. It is a venue where youth can view local issues from a new perspective and propose creative solutions.

An official from Suwon City said, "We were able to view Suwon's tourism resources from a new perspective and discover fresh ideas from youth," and added, "We hope that the various ideas proposed at this competition will lead to attractive tourism content and policies unique to Suwon and serve as a foundation for creating a sustainable Suwon-style tourism ecosystem."