ICML in Seoul

What was discussed

The reason for throwing this party was simple. We have always been the ones traveling abroad to learn, but this time the world came to Seoul. Watching researchers who had flown in for the conference ask about Korean culture and look for chances to meet locals, we started to believe that a day would come when they would seek us out. It felt like proof that Seoul could become a global city.

Then, thirty minutes before the doors opened, everything went sideways. The DJ we had booked was under the impression that the party ended at 10 p.m., when it actually ran until midnight. With 130 people about to arrive, we suddenly had no one to play music.

The fix came together on the spot. Teddy, who had lent us the bar, helped us hurriedly install DJ software on a laptop, and as luck would have it, one of the guests was an American who DJs as a hobby and carries a USB drive of his playlists everywhere. He became the DJ for the night. What we said to each other in that moment became the motto of the evening: Nothing is impossible.

The party went off without a hitch. The guests who had come from overseas told us they were grateful for the chance to meet Koreans and experience the local culture firsthand. On our side, we spent the night scrambling to clean up a mess, but what stayed with us in the end was simply this: people who had just met in Seoul talked until morning.