Los Angeles, USA – CJ E&M announced that over 75,000 fans attended KCON 2015 USA (58,000 fans converged on the flagship event in LA, and another 17,000 celebrating KCON’s arrival to the East Coast), which presented all aspects of Korean entertainment from July 31 through August 2 at STAPLES Center in Downtown Los Angeles, as well as the one day convention and concert held at Prudential Center in Newark, NJ on August 8.

In its fourth year, KCON LA hosted two nights of the M COUNTDOWN concert, featuring hottest K-Pop stars: August 1 –Super Junior, SISTAR, GOT7, Roy Kim, and MONSTA X, August 2 –SHINHWA, Block B, AOA, Red Velvet, and Zion. T & Crush. Each artist group performed their hit songs in front of tens of thousands of fans in two days. During the inaugural one-day concert at KCON NY, fans got ecstatic by popular K-Pop acts Girls’ Generation, Teen Top, VIXX and AOA.

Sponsored by Toyota, KCON 2015 USA was packed with over 227 special guests and panels, 127 activities, various foods and many more in order to give visitors a sense of what Korean pop culture is all about. Programs included K-Beauty sessions led by beauty specialists from Korean Cosmetic retailers and K-beauty creators (YouTubers):Ssinnm, Beautyfymeeh, Sunny’s Channel, and Lamuqe. Famous Korean model Irene Kim also participated to share her beauty tips and fashion trends with fans in LA. Charlotte Cho of SokoGlam and Sunny’s Channel participated in both installments of KCON 2015 to share their Korean celebrity skin secrets and makeup tips.

Besides the aforementioned K-Beauty events, there were many panel activities and classes on K-Pop song, dance, K-Drama, K-Movie and K-Fashion. Korean cooking classes were held to teach how to make popular Korean food such as Bibimbap, Ramen and Shaved-ice dessert. Some of the famous K-Dramas “Let’s Eat” and K-movies like “Ode to My Father” were screened while K-Drama stars Kim Soo Hyun, Daniel Henney and Son Ho Jun had their own fan engagement sessions. Meanwhile, K-Pop star Roy Kim served as the ambassador for UNESCO’s Girls’ Education campaign during KCON 2015 LA, in order to raise awareness of providing educational opportunities to underprivileged children.

Partnered with Korea’s Small and Medium Business Administration along with the Large & Small Business Cooperation Foundation and KOTRA, 40 small- and medium-sized Korean companies joined KCON LA as well. They had 117 export consulting sessions with American business buyers invited by the Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency. Incorporating K-Pop into consumer goods, they showcased products like Korean language education programs and character goods of K-POP artists. A small startup called ‘Neofect’ presented its innovative digital sunglasses, Chemi-On, which is equipped with Bluetooth and LED lamp to enable festival audiences to easily root for their favorite artists, using the gadget’s digital texting functions.

Integrated content of Hallyu and Korea’s cutting-edge technologies, such as 3D scanning and Hologram, was also introduced at K-ICT Dream Zone hosted by the Korean National IT Industry Promotion Agency (NIPA), Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI), and Korea Radio Promotion Association (RAPA). On display were augmented reality service programs, UHD & 3D systems as well as humanoid robots.

During KCON NY at the Prudential Center, various panel activities and workshops including ‘Meet the Reaction Video All Stars,’ ‘Ultimate Hallyu Knowledge Challenge,‘ ‘Cook with Crazy Korean Cooking’ and ’15-Minute Mask Tutorial for Natural & Glowing Skin were held. In addition, 2015 K-Pop Festival NY was hosted by the Korean Cultural Service New York. Promising 6 contestants covered K-Pop songs with dance moves and competed against each other to become a winner.

Shin Hyung-kwan, Executive Vice President of Mnet, in charge of organizing KCON 2015 USA notes, “We are proud to have successfully hosted this year’s KCON in LA and NY. We would like to thank all KCON fans for their ever strong support for the bi-coastal event.” Shin adds, “We are excited to expand our journey with the inaugural KCON in the East Coast for the first time. By hosting events in both coasts of America, KCON 2015 USA shows our global business partners how K-culture can be incorporated into a variety of business models.”