20 minutes of rain flooded Taipei. TV news showed people wading through thigh-high water, rescuing their things on make-shift floatation platforms. Undeterred, taxis packed the adjacent streets of the exhibit halls. It took 20 minutes to advance probably 100 meters that lead to the entrance. If it was not the pouring rain, I would have walked 20 minutes ago.
Rain kept on pouring during my week-long stay in Taipei. The alternative, 37°C of muggy sunny days few days prior to my arrival, is probably worse.
Remember that Las Vegas mega-conference CES? CompuTex is approaching its magnitude. Isles and isles of vendors touting their wares and services. scantily clad young girls danced, posed, smiled, and walked in formation with signs. It works. Crowd gathered wherever. They also made the already jammed isles ever harder to navigate. This is only the “buyers-only” part of the conference. I cannot imagine Saturday when it opens to the public.
To prove that no niche is too small, one company sells water-cooling system for game console. It reminisces the over-sized carburetor and exposed radiator in hot-rod cars in the deserts of Arizona. People will do this just to be cool. (“Look, I can kill more monsters with 2 extra megahertz of speed enabled by this super-cooling system.”) Another vendor showed the electricity sequencer for cars. This device distributes electricity, in sequence, to various components in a car: starter motor first, the on-board computer next, stereo system follows, GPS or OnStar next, etc.
Every isle has something for iPod or USB. This industry seems to be differentiating with fashion and style more than functionality and costs.
The exhibit halls scattered into 4 areas connected with sheltered walkway that protrude in and out glittering shopping malls. Foods, entertainments, and shopping gave the crowd a change of pace, needed distraction, and places to conduct business away from the show floors. Advertisers, ever sensitive to opportunities, tried hard to impress your casual eye-balls. Right next to McDonald's, Intel managed to have blue-backgrounded logos displayed for all passers-by. A green stand in the midst of this sea of Intel logos lonely displays AMD.
This is where to feel the pulse of the industry and when to meet vendors, customers, and even competitors. Just be patient with the traffic and wear comfortable shoes.