By Selva Rajan

For those who find the ever early Consumer Electronics Show (CES) a tad too far and cumbersome to fly out for, than we would suggest going to the second largest ICT in the world instead. Come June 2014, hundreds and thousands from all over the world will be in Taiwan to attend Asia’s largest technology event – COMPUTEX TAIPEI. Known as the region’s most visited ICT event, it is held every year around this time and can be mostly credited for spurring the growth of technology companies in Asia.

Organised by the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA), the show is now in its 34th edition as it is, once again, held at the illustrious Nangang Exhibition Hall, Taipei World Trade Centre Exhibition Halls 1 and 2, and the Taipei International Convention Centre. This year, the organisers categorised its main event around the following pillars – Concepts, Products and Trends. These three fully complement this year’s theme – The Future of Smart Tech, Touch Applications, Wearable Tech, Mobile Computing and Cloud Tech & Services.

Going Big

Over 1,700-plus top ICT exhibitors and 5,000 booths will be present this years at all four locations. For this year, two new additions have been included in the new feature areas – ‘Touch Applications & Display Products’ and ‘Smart Tech & Applications’. Visitors will be able to discover a new Smart Living world where tech is presented in transportation, health, construction, 3D printing, and energy management.

Among the exhibitors this year include first time Taiwan exhibitors like MediaTek as they join major players – Acer, ASUS, Delta and Transcend, AMD, Ford, Intel, Microsoft, NVIDIA, and Gigabyte among others. You can get more information at http://www.taiwantradeshows.com.tw.

The organisers are drumming up the event through their 64 oversea trade offices and have moved to invite key buyers to COMPUTEX TAIPEI, which explains why COMPUTEX expects to host more than 136,000 visitors from 173 countries and about 36,000 international buyers. Many of them are expected to initiate around 1,000 one-on-one procurement exercises. Some of the buyers expected to be seen at the fair are from Siemens, Toshiba, Best Buy, Staples, Vestel, and Arcelik.

Key Takeaways

Adding dynamism to the event are the number of visitors showing up as they are expected to take part in keynote address sessions that top industry leaders will be hosting at the Summit Forum. Among them are Simon Segars, CEO of ARM; M.K. Tsai, CEO of MediaTek; and Stan Shih, Founder and President of Acer. All of them will be sharing their views on current trends like convergence of social interaction, mobility, Cloud, and of the things that are to come.

The forums also offers break-outs where participants can fully engage top executives from Amazon Web Service, Cisco, Broadcom, IDC, NXP, STMicroelectronics, and Salesforce on hot topics like Big Data and the Internet of Things.

During the show TAITRA will also be handing out its famous Design and Innovation Awards to deserving products that will be showcased at the event. The awards have the backing of the world renowned iF (International Forum Design) group. This is to encourage and inspire companies to strive for due recognition of their products and services. This year, a new category, called Applications for Handheld E-Devices, has been introduced and is set to broaden the awards list to eight full award categories. For 2014, 289 products, an increase of 24% from last year, from 125 companies had registered for the awards.

The Exhibitors

Highlighted exhibitors, beyond the usual ICT brands, include XYZ Printing – a 3D printing company that recently showcased their innovation at CES. Called the Da Vinci Printer, it is made to be affordably priced for regular consumers and have no compromises on its features as well. The major vendors are expected to show off their best goods at COMPUTEX TAIPEI 2014 and reinforce the belief of how innovation never sleeps in Taiwan.

As the event is set to blaze new trails for numerous companies once more, it is expected to be choke full of anticipation and big shout-outs from not just the vendors but the buyers and general attendees as well. The trade show is set to go beyond world class and will definitely make a huge mark for 2014.