Busan’s startup scene is easy to miss if you only read the city through beaches, film and festivals. FLY ASIA offers another view. The 2026 Asia Startup Expo at BEXCO brings conferences, startup exhibitions, investor meetings, awards and collaboration programs into one two-day event.
The most distinctive part of this edition is the way Busan’s economic geography appears inside the program. The city’s official announcement emphasizes maritime innovation and AI, while the expo brings international startup and investment organizations into the same venue. That does not prove that every company shown at the expo will succeed, but it does show which industries and cross-border connections Busan is actively trying to build around.
For visitors, FLY ASIA is more useful as a map of an ecosystem than as a list of pitches. The official schedule begins with an October 7 opening ceremony and continues through October 8 with conferences, exhibitions, meet-ups and BOUNCE programming. The access page lists BEXCO Exhibition Center 1 and gives subway, bus, airport and event-shuttle guidance, including a Busan Station–BEXCO shuttle during the two event days.
This is not a recommendation to invest in any participating company. The editorial value is seeing how Busan presents itself as a place for startups, maritime technology and AI—and how that story sits alongside the city’s better-known cultural identity.