Susan Hu, Deputy Director General of Taiwan’s International Trade Administration, Ministry of Economic Affairs, and Joe Chow, Executive Vice President of the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA) at the 2026 Asian MICE Forum in Taipei.Today, artificial intelligence can help us find almost any information online. Presentations can be streamed, meetings can be held virtually and business connections can begin before participants even leave home. So why do people still travel thousands of kilometres to sit in the same room?
At the 2026 Asian MICE Forum in Taipei, Joe Chow, Executive Vice President of the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA), offered a simple answer.
“We come for people, we come to exchange ideas, we come to build trust and we come to feel the energy of being together,” he said.
AI can foster those connections, Chow said, but “cannot replace the human touch.”
Why people still gather when technology can increasingly bring information to them is becoming a central question for the future of the Meetings, Incentives, Conferences and Exhibitions (MICE) industry.
For Taiwan, it is also becoming a defining question as the island expands its convention infrastructure and seeks to position business events as more than gatherings inside exhibition halls.
The 2026 Asian MICE Forum, held at The One @ Taipei 101 on October 1 under the theme “Tomorrow is Here, Future is Now,” brought together industry leaders, designers and event professionals to explore how business events can create deeper engagement. Organised by Taiwan’s International Trade Administration and implemented by TAITRA, the forum has been connecting Taiwan with the international MICE community for more than two decades.
The human reason to gather
Taiwan’s MICE industry has spent the past two decades building the infrastructure needed to host international events. Its proposition now extends from Taipei in the north to Kaohsiung in the south, creating what officials describe as a stronger MICE corridor.
Ms Hu gave a keynote at the 2026 Asian MICE Forum in Taipei.
Susan Hu, Deputy Director General of Taiwan’s International Trade Administration under the Ministry of Economic Affairs at the forum, highlighted Taiwan’s combination of culture, scenery, infrastructure, an open economy and competitive industries.
She also pointed to the close relationship between MICE and Taiwan’s industrial clusters, from ICT in the north to precision machinery in Central Taiwan and shipbuilding and green energy in the south.
That connection gives business events a purpose beyond the event itself. An international exhibition can bring global buyers directly into contact with Taiwanese manufacturers, while a conference can connect international professionals with local expertise. Delegates can also experience the destination around the business programme.
The ambition, she said, is for visitors to leave Taiwan with more than business cards. The aim is for them to leave with “new partners, new ideas and plans to return.”
Architecture as a stage for life
The question of why people gather was also explored at AMF through a very different lens: architecture. German architect Ole Scheeren argued that the physical spaces in which people meet can shape how they interact with one another.
Architect Ole Scheeren says that the physical spaces in which people meet can shape how they interact with one another.
As more of everyday life moves into what he described as the “digital world” and “abstract virtual world”, the relationship between digital and physical environments becomes increasingly important. For Scheeren, the answer begins with three fundamental ideas: nature, community and space.
Nature is about reconnecting with the environment and thinking about sustainability. Community is about gathering — “how we feel and what we do together.” And space is the architectural tool that creates connectivity and gives people places in which to develop their lives, interact and create memories.
Scheeren illustrated the idea through a residential project he designed in Singapore, where a proposal for 12 vertical towers containing 1,040 apartments was transformed into an interconnected horizontal complex. By creating courtyards, gardens and different layers of communal and private space, the project was designed not simply as a collection of buildings, but as a “matrix of experiences” where people could gather, interact or find solitude.
Designing for people, not just programmes
Convention centres have traditionally been evaluated through practical measures: capacity, exhibition space, meeting rooms, technology, accessibility and transport connections. Those factors remain fundamental.
But the next generation of MICE venues may need to ask additional questions. How do people move through the building? Are there spaces that encourage delegates to stay? And can participants easily move from a formal conference setting into a cultural, social or outdoor experience?
Taiwan’s expanding MICE infrastructure provides an opportunity to explore these questions.
The Taichung International Convention and Exhibition Center (TICEC), for example, officially opened on March 23, 2026, in the Shuinan Economic and Trade Park. The venue combines exhibition and conference facilities, with capacity for about 12,600 people. It can accommodate up to 2,360 exhibition booths, while the conference centre can host nearly 5,000 participants for large-scale conferences and banquets.
Aerial view of Taichung International Convention and Exhibition Center (TICEC) featuring a rooftop solar system with 4,945 photovoltaic panels.
TICEC is positioned alongside Central Park and the Taichung Green Museumbrary, a new cultural landmark that brings the Taichung Art Museum and Taichung Public Library together in a complex designed by Pritzker Prize-winning architecture studio SANAA. The result is a developing MICE district where business, nature, culture, architecture and public space intersect. TICEC also sits close to Central Taiwan’s major industrial clusters, including machinery, metalworking, optoelectronics, automotive components and green energy.
From convention centre to business-events corridor
Taiwan’s MICE strategy is increasingly being built around this wider ecosystem. Taipei, Taoyuan, Taichung, Tainan and Kaohsiung form a north-south business-events corridor along Taiwan’s western side, with each city bringing different industries, cultural assets and experiences.
Another example is Messe Taoyuan, which officially opened in October 2024. The venue is described as Taiwan’s largest international conference facility, covering approximately 76,000 square metres and accommodating events for between 100 and 2,000 people. The complex combines conference and exhibition facilities with retail and dining, creating a different model for an international business-events venue. It includes a Grand Hall, while its banquet facilities can accommodate up to 180 tables at once. In its opening month, Messe Taoyuan hosted the World Congress of Junior Chamber International.
Located about 18 minutes from Taoyuan International Airport, Messe Taoyuan offers convenient access for international delegates. Its proximity to Taiwan’s high-speed rail network also connects the venue with destinations across the island.
The proposition is not that every city needs to offer the same MICE experience. Instead, their differences can allow organisers to create different experiences around different types of events.
That was evident during the MEET TAIWAN itinerary, which connected Taipei, Taichung and Taoyuan by high-speed rail.
The journey included Dadaocheng’s historic streets and local crafts in Taipei, a Taiwanese tea experience at Chi Cha San Chen, the Green Museumbrary in Taichung, the Hengshan Calligraphy Art Center in Taipei, Taipei Music Center, Huashan 1914 Creative Park and a nighttime riverside cycling experience. These activities may appear separate from the conference itself. But that separation is precisely what is changing.
An Oolong tea tasting experience can introduce an international delegate to a local tradition. At Chi Cha San Chen, I learned about the different roasts of Lishan Oolong tea and how they influence its character. A creative district can create a different environment for informal interaction. The Hengshan Calligraphy Art Center, for instance, offers an insight into the art of Chinese calligraphy, a traditional form of expression facing new challenges in an increasingly digital world.
The destination becomes part of the event.
Why people still gather
The future of MICE is not simply about building bigger venues or adopting more technology. It is about creating meaningful reasons for people to come together, exchange ideas, build trust, experience a destination and create connections that continue beyond the event.
For Taiwan, this means bringing together its expanding MICE infrastructure, industrial strengths, cultural experiences and increasingly human-centred spaces, while using technology to enhance rather than replace the experience of being there.
In an age when information can be accessed from almost anywhere, the value of gathering increasingly lies in what cannot be replicated online: the people we meet, the conversations we have, the places we experience and the memories we take home.
Ms Hu and Mr Chow at the 2026 Asian MICE Forum in Taipei. AI can foster those connections, Mr Chow said, but “cannot replace the human touch.”
