Center for Asian Business Hosts Training Program for Korean MBA Students
In late June, LMU’s Center for Asian Business hosted a training program for MBA students from Yonsei University, one of the top universities in Korea. The weeklong program focused on “Innovation in the Entertainment Industry” and included lectures at LMU and corporate visits to local entertainment companies Machinima, YouTube and Sony Pictures Entertainment.
“In recent years, the Korean entertainment sector has gained global attention as a result of "Hallyu" which is a term for the Korean cultural wave that is spreading all over the world,” said Yongsun Paik, director of LMU’s Center for Asian Business. “With LMU having one of the top entertainment programs in the country, we were able to help Yonsei MBA students better understand the evolution of the entertainment industry and how social media generates intellectual properties and causes a paradigm shift in traditional marketing strategies.”
In addition to a program overview and campus tour by Dr. Paik, Yonsei students were treated to morning lectures by Dr. Andy Rohm, LMU Marketing Professor, who discussed the new world of branding and advertising; Dr. David Craig, producer/partner of Media Nation, who described the evolution of the entertainment industry; and John Heinsen, CEO of Bunnygraph Entertainment and VP of New Media at the Producers Guild of America, who shared insights on building community through multi-platform storytelling.
Afternoons were spent visiting local entertainment companies including Machinima, one of the largest online video platforms in the world; YouTube, a distribution platform for original content creators and advertisers large and small; and Sony Pictures Entertainment, the American entertainment subsidiary of Japanese multinational technology and media conglomerate Sony.
A farewell reception and awards ceremony took place on the final day of the program. Feedback from Yonsei students was overwhelmingly positive. They enjoyed their time in Los Angeles and learned a lot of valuable information about how the entertainment industry has changed over the years.
“This is the first time we’ve offered a program of this nature at LMU and my hope is that this will build momentum for collaboration with other top schools in Asia,” said Paik.