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The words “meetings’, “incentive”, “conferences’ and “exhibitions” will certainly all have a slightly new meaning, for some considerable time to come.
The good news is that all mankind has the survival needs of eating, drinking and sleeping and the social needs of “coming together”.
The winds of change and the waves of “old habits” will create a MICE tsunami in the years to come, “all” Taipei’s MICE suppliers are working hard to ensure that all health guidelines are met and exceeded, so participants will know that they are as safe, maybe even safer, on a planned and tightly managed MICE trip than they would be at home. Taipei City Government has also made a series of preparations for pandemic prevention, such as relief programs, business revitalization plans, quarantine hotels, a disease prevention taxi fleet, employment subsidies and grant programs for people under quarantine, and more To circumvent large-scale class suspensions, students can learn from online teaching systems like Taipei Kuke Cloud.  Learning is not restricted to classrooms, and student education will not be disrupted during the pandemic prevention period.  
Secondly they are collectively exploring, and now implementing, the technologies related to on-line conferencing, enabling hybrid meetings and thus enlarging audiences. The Department of Information and Tourism of Taipei City Government Commissioner Yi-Ting Liu commented, "Entering the post-pandemic period, hybrid exhibitions and meetings that combine the digitalization and transformation from physical to virtual will be the trend. In the future, we will create new opportunities for the MICE industry by connecting with experts from different industries and fields."
The need for teamwork is also fully supported by Congress Ambassador of Taipei City  and President of the Asian Federation of Exhibition & Convention Association Walter Yeh Yeh states: “Taiwan has already established a well-organized deployment and pandemic prevention product ecosystem that will definitely broaden the horizon and scope of the supply chain for Taiwan’s MICE industry”.
Taipei’s future MICE clients will need to join forces more than ever when the border restrictions are lifted in the near future and their cooperative contributions will be an integral element in the recovery of Taipei’s MICE business, innovative client interaction and teamwork to reshape the Business and Leisure Event Travel Industry.
After months of the world being at a stand-still and in order to emerge stronger, Taiwan’s MICE leadership is, while enhancing creative thinking, considering some important matters and all realize that:

• Creativity does not simply emerge, it needs a commitment from management, from leaders, and team members.
• In order to raise levels of creativity within the team, it’s important to practice service management exercises.
• It’s important to make space for creative thinking in daily routines and in approaches to delivering events.
• Augmenting the key features of creativity, which are fluency, flexibility, originality and collaboration.

When asked to comment, the Director of MICE Marketing Marriott Taipei Hotel’s Ms. Jessica Lin on her hotel’s role in Taipei’s MICE Industry’s re-emergence, she remarked: “In terms of post pandemic positioning, the MICE hotels in Taipei are ready to serve the international customers with the full preparation on prevention of COVID-19. We call on the government to open border based on the premise that the pandemic prevention is guaranteed.”
Last but not least, in the past six month of 2020 the Taiwan Government has been unambiguously committed, demonstrating their crisis handling expertise in an indisputably clear way, resulting in worldwide recognition.
In New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern recently said, in a Q+A interview, that officials were looking at tailored criteria for events and that "We're going to follow, pretty closely, the Taiwanese model. They worked up a framework for mass gatherings that's been quite successful."
The latest lead article in The Economist, “Preparedness is one of things that governments are for” noted “when sars-cov-2 began to spread very few countries had the winning combination of practical plans, the kit those plans required in place and the bureaucratic capacity to enact them. Those that did benefited greatly, Taiwan’s economy, to date, has suffered correspondingly less”.
Discussing the same need for destination team work Mrs. Kitty Wong (黃潔儀), Congress Ambassador of Taipei City, she mentioned : “……as the COVID-19 pandemic has raged across the world, Taiwan has utilized advanced deployment and technology application and its stellar prevention performance has been recognized by the international community”.
In other words, all Taipei’s MICE stakeholders are ready to soon serve Asian MICE participants to it is fullest extend and capitalize on their country’s enhanced image on making sure their citizens, and thus their visitors are as safe as humanly possible.
One of the first international events in the country is the ICCA Congress 2020. Its President, Mr. James Rees, has announced that planning for this year’s annual congress will proceed as planned, and will be adapted to become the first hybrid ICCA Congress in its history. He noted that “authorities in Taiwan have contained Covid-19 with a great deal of success. As a result, they hope to welcome numerous visitors to congresses and business events by November 1 - 4 “. ICCA also acknowledges that “physical attendance will be reliant on the conditions and travel restrictions. “
To allow maximum possible participation under the current circumstances ICCA, as global business event trendsetter, will link this main event, virtually, to other member gatherings across the globe over the same dateline to allow for sharing of experiences and learning across our regions and sectors and use the assembled knowledge to help plan the future pathway of international conferencing.
Taiwan’s stakeholders are proud to be part of this effort and the lesson learned will benefit all MICE organizers to the fullest and give the country a competitive advantage over other destinations in the region. For more information please visit www.expopark.taipei or  www.anticovid19tw.org
Taipei MICE reopens! First large-scale medical conference sees one thousand participants (Source: Taiwan Society of Cardiology)


2020 Pre-press conference for Smart City virtual showcase (Source: Department of Information Technology, Taipei City Government)


Department of Education, Taipei City Government holds digital learning demonstration (Source: Department of Education, Taipei City Government)


Hotel staff sanitizes room in accordance with the guidelines for epidemic prevention (Source: Hanns House)