South Korea’s Ministry of Science and ICT is opening the country’s largest virtual convergence industry exhibition to showcase technology trends in virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), extended reality (XR), digital twins and artificial intelligence (AI)-based content in one place.
The ministry is holding the 2026 Korea Metaverse Festival (KMF 2026) from June 10 to 12 at Hall B on the first floor of COEX in Seoul.
Now in its 11th year, KMF 2026 is being held under the slogan “Beyond Limits, Next Reality”. The event features 140 companies and 270 booths. It comprises a governance zone introducing achievements by the government, public institutions, academia and industry, a business zone showcasing technologies from leading and promising companies in virtual convergence, an innovation zone with companies recognised for their capabilities on global stages such as CES and MWC, and an experience zone focused on hands-on activities for visitors.
Visitors can see major virtual convergence exhibits and hands-on programmes, including V리스V알’s digital twin-based VR truck safety experience hall, Retinal’s optical module for AR smartglasses, Inno Simulation’s immersive movie viewing system XoundR, and Dot’s braille tactile pad for the visually impaired.
The event also includes an “XR smartglasses experience zone” where visitors can try on smartglasses. Devices include products from South Korean companies such as P&C Solution and Seerslab, as well as XREAL AR glasses, “Galaxy XR” jointly developed by Samsung Electronics, Google and Qualcomm, Meta’s “Ray-Ban Meta” and Apple’s “Vision Pro”.
An “XR mini museum” within the experience zone will also show 30 years of XR device development, from Nintendo’s Virtual Boy in 1995 to the latest XR devices. The event experience hall will run various e-sports programmes centred on the AR sport “HADO”.
A job fair will also be held with participation from 8 promising companies in the virtual convergence sector. It will offer a special lecture on hiring trends among AI and XR companies, company-specific recruitment briefings, one-on-one job consultations and AI mock interview experiences. Participating companies are Big Pictures, Mind VR, bHaptics, Tilron, The Fit, Ducogen, V Lunch and VentaX.
A global conference running for two days on June 10 and 11 will include 10 expert speakers from South Korea and abroad, including Nvidia, Asteria Moonvalley and Native Foreign. They will deliver lectures on topics including AI and XR convergence, technology changes in the era of spatial computing and innovation in AI-based content production.
Also being held at the same venue on Tuesday is a performance-sharing session for the “virtual convergence graduate school” programme, with participation from 8 graduate schools including Sogang University and the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST). It will introduce research achievements by master’s and doctoral-level talent expected to lead the AI and virtual convergence era, and measures to strengthen cooperation among the government, specialised institutions and universities.
Ryu Je-myeong (류제명), second vice minister at the Ministry of Science and ICT, said the combination of virtual convergence and AI is a key driver creating new value for industry and everyday life. He said the government will also actively support efforts so virtual convergence technologies, together with AI, can create new realities and generate growth opportunities across various fields.
