Entrance to Songshan venue
As a teambuilding activity, all of our company’s Taiwan-based tech writers took the day off on Friday to go on a field trip – and what a day it was! Taipei was selected to host the 2011 Design Expo divided among three venues: Songshan Cultural and Creative Park (great name!) and two Nangang Exhibition Halls. We met at Songshan @ 10am under gorgeous skies along with hundreds (thousands perhaps) of like-minded design aficionados. After waiting in line to get a program we entered the Expo. Much like a county fair, there were exhibits in various buildings; we opted to start in the “back” and work our way to the front, since it was obvious that the exhibits closer to the entrance were mobbed! Every type of object (for work or play) you could imagine was represented. My favorite was the floor housing the “Golden Pin” award winners for innovative design of products sold in Taiwan!
The eponymous golden pin!
Room after room of colorful, useful, imaginative products! I love this stuff! I could have spent all day there but our plan included catching all three venues in one day, so, off we went. After a wonderful lunch at a nearby pizzeria, we road the MRT (blue line) to the end-of-the-line: Nangang. The giant exhibition halls housed more industrial displays with vendors from all over the world. My personal favorites were the BMW booth with it’s upbeat music and crazy lighting and a local handbag designer:
- Designer handbags
Asia's best kept secret... 
Oct 31, 2011 @ 01:03:24
Hi Monica,
My acupuncturist, Sunny Yang, will be going back to Taiwan on November 16th and visiting with her family for a month. I told her I had a friend who is working in Taipei, and now she would like to meet you.
Here is her info in case you’d like to contact her in advance:
sunnyyangccm@gmail.com
Take care,
Melisa