Smart-city events can be dense with slogans about the future. Smart Life Week 2026 is more interesting for a visitor when you treat it as a public showroom of what Seoul is trying to make tangible now. From October 6 to 8, COEX Halls A and B will host exhibitions, forums, awards and business programs under a physical-AI theme. Seoul’s official preview describes showrooms built around familiar urban settings and a Seoul AI Robot Show, inviting visitors to see and try technologies rather than only listen to policy presentations. That does not mean every prototype will become everyday city infrastructure. It does make the event a useful place to see which applications the city, companies and participating institutions currently want people to imagine as normal. The event also has a clearer visitor layer than many technology conferences. Seoul’s Culture Portal marks it free and open to anyone, while the organizer offers English pre-registration. The official program mixes public exhibition floors with conferences and business meetings, so a casual visitor does not need to treat the whole three-day schedule as one type of experience. For international readers, the practical approach is to start with the exhibition halls and then choose a forum or tour only if the subject is relevant. The organizer lists show-floor hours of 10:00–18:00 on October 6–7 and 10:00–16:30 on October 8. Seoul’s Culture Portal lists a slightly narrower schedule on October 6 and 8, so the organizer’s live notice should be checked before travelling. The editorial value is not in declaring Seoul the smartest city, or in assuming that a robot demo proves adoption. It is in watching how public institutions translate abstract ideas such as physical AI into staged, touchable scenarios for ordinary people. That is a useful window into how technology policy becomes culture, exhibition design and public persuasion.