Hi Monica, it’s a delight to be chatting with you today!

Firstly, for all our readers who might not know what you and FrontRow do, how would you describe it?

FrontRow is a global concert production and experience company focused on bringing K-Pop and Asian music to new audiences across Europe and beyond. We’re not just a promoter – we design immersive, fan-centered experiences in partnership with top Korean labels, and we localise them for each region. It’s a vertically integrated concert promoter and ticketing platform targeting Gen Z and millennial audiences in Europe.

I’m also the CEO of Konne Ticket, our tech arm, which powers our ticketing, fan engagement, and livestream platforms. Sometimes people call me London Rhino: I guess people think it quite suits my personality moving forward? Haha!

For many fans, they’ll see your work when they see all the marketing and promotions for SMTOWN LIVE in London!

How long have you been on the project and when did it start?

We started early conversations in mid 2024, and active planning began in Q1 2025. SMTOWN LIVE is not just another concert – it’s a cultural moment. We worked closely with SM Entertainment and venue partners to ensure London could truly host the scale and magic of a show like this. It’s been about 12 months of work, across multiple countries, to get to where we are now.

Can you give us a sense of every step you have to consider when it comes to putting together a project of this magnitude?

There’s a lot! It starts with artist booking and partnership alignment – making sure the vision is shared across teams in Korea and Europe. Then we delve into production design, ticketing logistics, brand partnerships, marketing campaigns, and fan activations. We also handle immigration, freight, local crews, and more. Every piece has to click, like a huge global puzzle.

What are you most excited for people to see when it comes to SMTOWN LIVE in London?

I’m most excited for people to feel what SMTOWN really is: the energy, the family of artists, the unity. It’s a show that spans generations of fans and artists. Seeing thousands of fans from all over Europe singing in Korean, waving their lightsticks together: it’s powerful, and it’s emotional. It’s not just a concert, it’s a community.

You’ve organised over 40 concerts across your career; an incredible number. Do any stand out in particular? Do you have a notable story or memory to share?

Yes: one performance that will stay with me forever happened during the pandemic. London had gone into lockdown, and I got a call from a friend working in broadcasting who asked me to come back to Korea and help produce a global virtual concert.

We ended up creating a special K-pop concert with 20 idol teams, in partnership with SBS, and streamed it worldwide. What made it so memorable wasn’t just the scale, but the emotion. These artists hadn’t performed in weeks – some in months – and when they finally got on stage again, the energy was explosive. There was this overwhelming sense of passion and relief that you could feel in the room, even through the screen. It reminded me why live performance matters so much – to both artists and fans.

What are the biggest challenges for a company like FrontRow in today’s climate, where budgets are tighter than ever, and where fans are more prudent that ever when it comes to spending money?

Balancing fan expectations with rising production and touring costs is tough. We want to make shows accessible but still deliver premium quality. Fans today are more thoughtful with their spending: they want value, connection, and trust. That’s why we prioritize open communication, fan-led initiatives, and hybrid access like livestreams.

What would you love K-Pop fans in particular to know or notice about what you do?

At FrontRow, we always put ourselves in the shoes of European fans and constantly think about what would truly make them happy. Every show we create comes from a place of genuine care – we build these experiences with heart, not just strategy.

One thing I really want fans to know is that we want to co-create our shows with them. We’re not just producing concerts for fans; we want to build them with fans. We’re always open to ideas, feedback, and collaboration.

For future shows, I would love to create special moments together, whether that’s fan-led events, interactive games, or storytelling elements shaped by the community. Our goal is to make concerts more than just a performance: we want them to be shared experiences that fans feel truly a part of.

I’d love to touch on your work with KONNE Ticket, which is set to give fans more access to livestreams and VODs.

What was the process around putting KONNE Ticket into development and what are your biggest challenges in the market, especially with so many livestreaming platforms out there?

Konne Ticket came out of necessity. We couldn’t find a ticketing platform that understood K-pop fans — their loyalty, their speed, their need for fair access. So we built one. It now also supports livestreaming and merchandising, but the challenge is standing out in a saturated market. We always want to stay fan-first, nimble, and by integrating presale benefits and exclusive content fans actually want. We are working on Konne 3.0 powered by AI so we connect fans to the stage event easily and enjoy the journey.

A lot of fans in Europe feel like the region is a relatively untapped market, left at the wayside somewhat.

How are you hoping to see this change for Europe, and what are the biggest struggles or difficulties around expanding in this region?

Exactly: and that’s why we’re here. The fanbase is massive, but local promoters often lack the cultural know-how or tech to support these events properly.

Rather than just bringing shows, we want to build infrastructure and community: we want to work with local fanbases and media to build a true ecosystem for K-pop in Europe. It takes time, but it’s happening. From Seoul to London is a 14-hour flight, we want to bring more opportunities until artists forget about the long journey.

You’re set to bring over eighty K-Pop concerts to Europe within the next five years: that’s a gargantuan undertaking!

How do you manage to put all that into motion and plan that far ahead?

It starts with strong systems and local partners. We’ve built a long-term roadmap with our Korean agency collaborators. We’ve mapped demand, venue availability, and fan demographics city-by-city. And we’re not doing this alone: we have a growing, experienced team and the tech foundation to scale smartly. We found there is high demand, but not enough providers who are very sustainable, long-term visioned with K-pop industry expertise.

You’ve spoken before about how K-Pop can genuinely be a shared experience across generations of all ages, from kids to their parents and grandparents. How are you hoping to cultivate this over the coming years?

It already is. You’ll see parents bringing their kids, or entire families going to concerts together. We design shows and spaces to be inclusive and comfortable for all ages. And we try to preserve the storytelling and emotion that makes K-pop meaningful across generations.

Something that many fans love about K-Pop is that it is a gateway to not just Korean culture, but to the cultures of the many different international members of these groups as well.

In a world where the need to express the beauty and strength of diversity is more important than ever, how do you feel K-Pop can continue to play an important role in this?

K-Pop’s strength is its global heart: you have multilingual members, diverse inspirations, and fans from every walk of life. It shows how differences can be beautiful, creative, and celebrated. We see fans connecting in Korea, France, Brazil, and Nigeria: all through the same songs. It’s a language of unity, and we want to amplify that.

In an ideal world, where you hope FrontRow and K-Pop are in ten years?

I hope K-pop is as normalized in Europe as any other genre – headlining major festivals, on mainstream radio, taught in schools as part of global culture. And I hope FrontRow is still leading that charge – producing bold, inclusive shows and helping the next generation of artists and fans connect globally.

You’ve already done so much in the concert space! What would you wish to tell your younger self, looking back now?

Trust your instincts, and stay close to the fans. Every career win I’ve had has come from staying authentic, taking risks, and listening – not just to executives, but to the community that supports the art.

Lastly: you’re in a zombie apocalypse. Do you survive and how do you do it?

Yes! I’ve done 40+ shows under pressure: surviving a zombie apocalypse sounds oddly familiar. I’d probably rally a fanbase, turn a stadium into a fortress, and stream it all on Konne Ticket. K-Pop saves lives, right?

SMTOWN LIVE IN LONDON is on the 28th of June. Tickets can be found here.