APEC CEO Summit: How an Energy Company Earns Its Place on the Global Stage

International PR is a different game entirely.

Unlike a press release aimed at domestic journalists, on a global stage the answers to "who, what, and how" change completely. At the APEC CEO Summit in Gyeongju in October 2025, that reality hit home.

Why APEC?

The APEC CEO Summit brings together top decision-makers from 21 Asia-Pacific member economies. Because it runs alongside the leaders' summit, the caliber and density of attendees is exceptional. It was a rare opportunity for an energy company to tell its own story.

There were conditions, though: English as the working language, a 4×4m footprint, and visitors passing through in a matter of minutes.

"Energy for Sustainable Life"

Everything had to come together in under a month, which made nailing the concept the hardest part. The challenge was to connect with APEC 2025's official theme — "Building a Sustainable Tomorrow" — while expressing something that only an energy company could say.

We landed on "Energy for Sustainable Life." The message: energy is the force that makes life sustainable. Rather than downplaying our identity as a refining company, we chose to start from that identity and extend toward the future.

The story ran along three axes:

• BX (Business Transformation): Making decades of refining expertise safer and more efficient
• DAX (Digital & AI Transformation): AI factories, process optimization, autonomous manufacturing
• GX (Green Transformation): CCUS, hydrogen, SAF, carbon-free steam

The structure created a through-line from traditional energy to the energy of tomorrow. The time constraints made producing new videos impractical, so we worked from existing material — carefully curating content for the screens and designing the UX around what we already had.

The Language of Space

In a 4×4m booth, the space itself has to become the content. A large LED facade captured visitors' attention as they entered; three interior LED walls cycled through content on each of the three themes. Beacon devices let visitors actively select which section's video they wanted to see.

There was one docent. That's why we invested heavily in docent training during the five-week preparation period. The docent needed to hold a conversation in English with global attendees and deliver the core of the energy transition story in under three minutes.

The Role of the Online Exhibition

The physical booth was three days and 4×4m — physical limits are real.

So we ran an online exhibition in parallel, giving global attendees who couldn't visit the booth a way to access the content via link. Rather than just digitizing the booth, we designed a distinct web experience — a company history timeline, the three transformation visions — things that worked specifically in a web environment.

With President Trump also attending, the event was crowded enough that many people simply couldn't make it to the booth. We sent advance emails through the organizing committee to notify participants about the online exhibition. That also created a feedback loop — online visitors became in-person ones.

What's Different About Global PR

The starkest difference from domestic PR is the absence of assumed context.

When you send a press release to Korean journalists, you can count on a baseline of industry knowledge. But for business leaders arriving from across Asia and the Pacific, the company name itself is unfamiliar. You have to explain the company's history, its position in the Korean energy sector, and what it means to operate the world's fourth-largest single-train refinery — from scratch.

That work turned out to be the most fundamental PR training there is. Can you make a compelling case for your company to someone who has never heard of it, in under three minutes? Fortunately the response on the floor was strong, and many visitors followed up with business inquiries afterward.

What We Took Away

Telling the story of an energy company on the global stage isn't about listing technologies or business results. It's about answering: "Why do we matter?"

The APEC CEO Summit reminded us again that the foundation is the message — energy makes life sustainable — and what matters is showing the company's future direction and making people believe in it.