Taeyoung Lee, Director of Korea Coffee Week Foundation

She is a planner who views coffee as a language. After years of working in Seoul’s specialty coffee industry and experiencing numerous brands and projects, she settled in Jeju in 2019 and began to explore what it means to create planning that allows people to live together. Seeking ways for Jeju’s small coffee brands to thrive sustainably, she initiated Korea Coffee Week. This event has grown into an experimental platform that shares sentiments and messages, rather than a conventional trade fair. Each year, under themes such as “Coffee Is Blue,” dozens of brands interpret coffee in their own ways and create one exhibition together. She describes planning as “observing values closely and delivering them more clearly.” Today, she runs Cosmos Coffee Company on the first floor of the Jeju Communication & Cooperation Center, where new encounters between coffee and the local community continue to unfold.