A big hug of welcome for MEET TAIWAN Festival

The MEET TAIWAN Festival Global Launch event was launched on 7 September 2023. Some 100 prominent figures from Taiwan's business events industry attended the launch which will showcase Taiwan's business event industry resilience and ingenuity, and the return of international buyers and financial inflow during major business events.

In 2023, MEET TAIWAN reshaped its brand image with the MEET TAIWAN Open Arms campaign. Chun Hsiao, economic counsellor of the Bureau of Foreign Trade, said during the event, "We would like to extend our friendliness to global MICE partners and look forward to all of you coming to Taiwan to experience our excellent environment, cosy services and diverse culture." Taiwan not only welcomes everyone with open arms, it also invites foreign business people to keep an open mind, have an open imagination, and stay open to possibilities, creating infinite possibilities, together.

Simon Wang, president & CEO of TAITRA, said, "The MEET TAIWAN Festival celebrates business events according to business event DNA. The DNA concept contains four components: international, interaction, knowledge and future - each respectively represents inviting international business events to Taiwan, facilitating interaction between domestic and global industry players, knowledge sharing at the Asian MICE Forum, and collaborating with industry stakeholders to promote Taiwan business event industry abroad and to strive for future business opportunities."

Debuting its theme song "MEET TAIWAN Open Arms" at the launch, was an upbeat music video that promotes some of Taiwan's business event industry attributes to the world.

Also unveiled was MEET TAIWAN’s mascot, PaQ, whose name is derived from the Taiwanese pronunciation of "open”. The mascot will make periodic appearances at future business events. It also carries a sustainability mission: for every embrace it receives, one unit of the Sustainable Fund is accumulated. During the Global Launch Event, Wang made a clarion call to implement sustainability with PaQ's first embrace, turning sustainability into tangible actions within business events.

Event attendees heard about how the Bureau of Foreign Trade leads MEET TAIWAN to solidify a presence within the global business events market. Taiwan boasts robust business event industry infrastructure, including an exclusive 5G network-enabled intelligent venue (Kaohsiung Exhibition Center), the culturally enriched and sustainably green International Convention Center Tainan, and the upcoming “Taiwan business events Corridor” with the Taoyuan Convention and Exhibition Center scheduled for completion next year.

Taiwan is making inroads into extending its software enhancement. The Expo-Tech Program, announced by the Bureau of Foreign Trade, won an Industry Partners Award from the Global Association of the Exhibition Industry (UFI) in 2023, highlighting the coordination between business events and technology. With software and hardware expansion support, Taiwan's business events will be present during the MEET TAIWAN Festival, and will continue to thrive and drive new business opportunities.