The Korea Small Business Education Promotion Agency (Hansojin) is expanding its talent-sharing network aimed at revitalizing local economies.
On July 27, Hansojin held a ceremony to appoint national leaders and members of the "Our Neighborhood Small Business Media Angels (Usomi Angels)" and conducted a workshop to enhance the operation of local chapters.
The event was attended by 40 participants, including 25 newly appointed chapter leaders and 15 Usomi Angels members from across the country. Attendees received certificates and shared insights on the purpose of the Usomi Angels, operational frameworks for local chapters, member recruitment and management, certification of talent-sharing activities, and strategies for identifying local demand.
The Usomi Angels is a talent-sharing organization where experts in management, marketing, social media, artificial intelligence, and digital transformation share their knowledge and experience with small business owners. With the appointment of 25 chapter leaders, Hansojin aims to establish 100 local networks across metropolitan cities and provinces by the end of the year.
Since 2006, Hansojin has provided education in over 300 traditional markets and conducted 200 consulting sessions for small businesses. Last March, it launched the Small Business Talent Sharing Support Group and piloted tutoring on blog utilization at Jongno Gwangjang Market and Seongnae Traditional Market in Gangdong-gu, Seoul.
This year, it has deployed 36 Usomi Angels to eight traditional markets nationwide to support a pilot project for education on SNS and AI utilization.
The primary roles of local chapter leaders include recruiting members and managing monthly meetings, providing capacity-building training for members, planning support projects for local small businesses, promoting local economies through social media, and establishing collaborative frameworks with traditional markets, alley shops, and local governments.
Starting in 2027, Hansojin plans to link talent-sharing activities with local economic development projects, including joint marketing for alley shops, traditional market merchant universities, promising alley economies, local theme markets, and glocal markets, to foster tangible growth and create new business opportunities for small businesses.
Kwak Eui-taek, chairman of the Hansojin Usomi Angels Central Association, stated, "Talent sharing is not just a one-sided act of giving help; it is a process of building trust and growing together between experts and small business owners. We aim to be a strong talent-sharing network that assists small businesses in digital transformation and management improvement right in their communities."
* This article has been translated by AI.
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