A New Kind of Energy for the ConTech Industry: Inside VIP Networking Night

On the evening of Wednesday, July 8, 2026, a rooftop bar at Soundklaska in Seongsu-dong filled up with familiar faces from furniture, interior design, and contech. Hosted by Archisketch and organized by the Korea Furniture Association, the VIP Private Networking Night marked two milestones at once: Eric Lee's appointment as the association's new chairman, and the association's 70th anniversary.

But the real reason we put this night together went deeper than a celebration. People working in furniture, interior design, and contech rarely get the chance to compare notes with each other. There aren't many spaces where they can. So when Archisketch, a spatial design platform, ended up at the helm of the association, it felt like a sign that this industry was ready for something different. This event was our attempt to bring the kind of loose, energetic community culture you'd find at any tech meetup into a space that hasn't had much of it.

Monsoon season made the weather a genuine gamble right up until the afternoon, but the sky cleared just before the event started. That stroke of luck gave us the open, breezy rooftop evening we'd hoped for, and it set the tone for the rest of the night. If this industry has long carried a reputation for being buttoned-up and traditional, that easy, open air was exactly what we were going for.

Customer-First, Down to Every Detail

Three words guided every decision we made while planning this event: customer-oriented, customer-first, customer-only. Rather than turning that into a tagline, we tried to build it into the details instead.

The first thing guests noticed was probably the staff. Our entire team greeted guests wearing MLB caps from F&F, one of our newer client partners. Instead of putting our own logo front and center, we chose to spotlight the brands of the companies we work with.

The gift boxes followed the same logic. Every VIP guest went home with products from Movement Lab, Deello, Casamia, and MLB, all Archisketch clients. Rather than commission custom swag, we used the gifting moment to showcase the brands we're growing alongside.

Networking Without Borders

Guests came from far more than one corner of the industry. Furniture and manufacturing were in the room, but so were IT platforms, fashion and retail, edtech, and academia, leaders who wouldn't normally cross paths. We spent a lot of time thinking through the room layout and traffic flow so that mix could actually mingle without any awkwardness. It worked. Instead of the reserved, formal energy this industry is known for, people were walking up to strangers, trading business cards, and talking through collaborations across industries they'd never worked with before.

The night opened with welcome remarks from Eric Lee, Archisketch's CEO and the newly appointed chairman of the Korea Furniture Association. "We wanted to create a space where everyone in Korea's furniture industry could build real competitiveness," he said. There were no assigned seats. Guests moved freely and kept talking long after the formal program ended, drifting from table to table well into the night.

Dinner followed, paired with a live jazz set and open mingling. The second half of the night belonged to an open mic session: eight companies, each with just a few minutes to introduce what they do, followed by a business card raffle to spark even more introductions.

Aqara Life: Aqara introduced itself as a global smart home company with both the hardware and software to back it up, from smart lighting and blinds to smart locks. Their pitch leaned less on technology and more on "experience" and "design tooling," and they made it clear they're looking to collaborate with interior, furniture, and architecture companies to build smart homes together.

Italian Chamber of Commerce in Korea: She talked about the Chamber's work matching Italian companies with Korea's furniture industry, and shared plans for a B2B event in May 2027 that will bring Italian furniture and interior companies to Korea.

Deello: Deello has run its own metal fabrication factory for 26 years, handling design, engineering, and production in-house for its modular furniture line. Their pitch centered on a real problem: modular furniture is flexible and customizable, but customers struggle to picture how it'll actually look in their space before buying. Their new collaboration with Archisketch lets customers build out modular furniture directly on the platform to solve exactly that.

Samsung Electronics: His message was simple: Samsung wants to move beyond just selling appliances and become a real partner to people who understand space, working alongside furniture and interior professionals rather than just selling to them.

CoolSchool: Drawing on years of consulting on classroom redesigns for K-12 schools, CoolSchool introduced Coolspace, a platform that uses AI to recommend edtech setups based on a school's budget and policy requirements. They mentioned they're already using Archisketch for the spatial planning side, and pitched the room on new ways furniture and interior companies could get involved.

Fritz Hansen: CEO Henrik Steenskov spoke about Fritz Hansen's 154-year history of sustainable design, and reflected on the growth he's watched since the brand opened its Korea office in 2020. He closed with a clear commitment to keep building on that partnership with Korea's furniture industry. (He also sat down for a one-on-one interview with Korea Economic Daily on-site.)

Modusign: Modusign called out how much of the industry still runs on paper contracts, then walked through their AI-powered e-signature platform, which covers everything from legal risk review during drafting to tracking renewals and expirations after a contract is signed.

LG Electronics: LG shared that they're building a new business line connecting appliances, furniture, and space design. They're actively looking for furniture partners to co-develop kitchen, living room, and closet pieces built around their appliances.

A Small Move, A Bigger Shift

Furniture, interior design, and contech have long been seen as slow-moving industries. What this networking night showed us is that there's real room for a different kind of community here, one with the same energy and openness you'd find in any tech scene.

Thank you to the Korea Furniture Association for making this night possible, and to everyone who showed up and made it worth showing up for. We'll keep building spaces like this one, wherever this industry needs more connection and better ideas.