Pacific Rim Organized (PRO) Fighting at LUXY – June 13th, 2009

With the Taipei After Hours agenda – having as much fun as possible after sundown – I’ve seen all manner of activity around Taipei. The types of events, however, tend to all be quite similar. A DJ comes from away. Cheap drinks. Maybe a dance-off or some other contest. And, while fun, a veteran of the scene does eventually start to crave a little novelty.

LUXY provided just such a diversion.

A perfect blend of luxury and sexy, LUXY has had a special place in my heart since my arrival in Taiwan. It is one of Asia’s premier nightclubs, and a personal favorite. While it doesn’t fill me with the same sense of awe it once did, LUXY has never disappointed me. In their efforts with Liquid Lifestyle Promotions, however, they managed to impress me as in days of old.

Never would I have imagined that a pumping, bustling nightclub could be turned into a Vegas fight-night in 24 hours. But they managed. It was barely recognizable with the octagonal cage in the middle of the dancefloor. A seething crowd of sweaty dancers was replaced with two brawny guys slugging it out or wrestling each other into submission. But they were still sweaty.

The fights ran the gamut of long, evenly matched contests (like the full three rounds gone by two contestants) to the much anticipated but ultimately brief ruckus between Jason Bukich and Lee Zhi Fong. Bukich, a professional Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) fighter from America, defeated his opponent in under a minute with a choke hold.

There was blood, there was brawn and there was booze, but that wasn’t all. Una, the sexy ring girl, strutted her stuff to perfection. Stepehn Chou – the MC for the evening – fired up the crowd before each fight. The musical stylings of DJ Mr. Gin and Young Souljaz contributed greatly to the entertainment value. And let us not forget the fabulous LUXY Girls who got all of our hearts pounding for completely different reasons. In such an extravaganza, I’m sure I’ve left people out, but it was just too much fun in one evening.

So mad respect goes out to all the MMA crowd, whether you threw down in the ring or gave your support ringside. Also nice work to all the Liquid Lifestyle Promotions crew for a job well done. And I expect that future events will be even better! For something different to do in Taipei, keep an eye on PRO Fighting and their upcoming events. I know I will.

For more photos, check them out here.

Sincerely,
Daniel Howard
Senior Consultant

Review – Taipei After Hours Networking Party (May 2nd, 2009)

We’ve now had our first event, and it was a HUGE success. We are very pleased with the turnout and the quality of guests we had come to our first event. It was great meeting everyone!

People actually started arriving EARLY, which surprised us, and the event quickly filled up. By starting time we had several groups of people already there and getting to know each other. Along with people’s own efforts, our mingling and social activities seemed to spur people on. Truly, I felt a twinge of sadness at letting peole know to sit down for dinner. I didn’t want to end the experience!

Dinner was prompt and well-timed. Kudos to the staff at TGI Fridays – World Trade Centre! Getting orders out with the speed and accuracy that they managed was no easy task. Our quiz game was also a huge success, and it filled that inevitable time between ordering and serving. Thank goodness for all the prizes we had available! We had a tie for first place!

Dinner was also fantastic. Again, credit TGI Fridays with an excellent menu and terrific service. After a few social games and activities, people were very comfortable with each other and I had to speak up to be heard above the conversation. Made my quick magic shows that much harder to do, but everything worked out in the end.

Finally, once everything wrapped up at the official event, a number of guests came with us hosts for our unofficial afterparty at Barcode. Barcode was it’s usual self, full of all the movers and shakers of Taipei, and a perfect end to an already wonderful evening.

So to all those friends new and old, thanks for coming out and we look forward to more events with everyone!

Sincerely,
Daniel

Review – VU Live House (Drum and Bass Party)

This relatively new venue is a real treat. It’s size is small enough to be intimate, but large enough to accomadate a crowd. It’s tastefully decorated and has a great vibe. I was especially impressed with the FREE tables. It was a pleasant change from the elitism of paying a fortune for the privelege of sitting down. But this is just an overview of the venue… I expect it was the event that made it special.

In a town ruled largely by Top-40’s hiphop, the show was a fantastic change of pace. Very talented DJs were spinning great DnB beats all night. Mixed with an all you can drink bar, it made dancing an absolute necessity. The laser show was fantastic, especially when the smoke machines went into overdrive, and playing Ninja Scroll on all the club TVs is near and dear to my heart.

The crowd at this particular event was foreign, friendly and there for a good time. There were few locals at this particular event, which was a real shame, because they missed out on a great time. The company available was good, though. It was obvious the crowd had a passion for the music, and everyone had a great time.

For a taste of something different, I will definitely keep my eye on this place. If this is representative of VU Livehouse’s level of quality, I will keep it in my regular roster of venues whenever I’m looking for something fresh, new and exciting. I think you should, too.

Sincerely,
Daniel

A Birthday Party to Remember

Saturday, April 11th was the evening chosen to celebrate my birthday. Thanks to everybody who came out to celebrate the passing of another year here in Taipei, making it my 4th birthday here. Birthday’s here get better and better and this one was a brilliant one. It was great to party with all my friends, old and new, and it was clear everyone was having a blast. I wish I could mention everyone by name in this report, but there were just way to many people and it would take too long to write about it so I’ll just mention a few.

We kicked off the night’s festivities in true Western style with a brilliant dinner, organized by Daniel. Thanks a lot for the great array of Italian and French dishes and ensuring that there was more food than could be finished, although everyone gave it their best shot. It was great of “Bryan the Lion” to pull through even though he was feeling under the weather.

Then it was time to get down to the serious business of celebrating, where the wine flowed like water and reddened everyone’s cheeks, while Mr. Putt kept everyone in hysterics with his awesome stories of his misspent youth (a youth which he is still enjoying by the way). A shot of Gao Liang rice whiskey warmed our bellies, livened our spirits, and ignited our engines as we headed out into the unsuspecting night.

A short taxi ride took us to our destination; arguably the best big club in Taiwan, and perhaps even Asia, heck, the world: LUXY! We walked up into the club acting rowdy, escorted to our VIP tables, unmistakably marked with Taipei After Hours insignia, with a posse of LUXY bouncers and hostesses. The laser lights and techno music was a great mixer for the seemingly innumerable bottles or vodka, whiskey, rum and champagne, which sprawled across the table. While Graeme burnt it up on the dance floor with his killer dance moves, Emily and Jennifer seemed to be having a full-on photo shoot at a table nearby.

By the time Chris and Ariel arrived, the party had reached a level near frenzy. After a birthday toast and downing a bottle of champagne it was time for me to hit the dance floor where I bumped into my childhood friend from South Africa, Dean.

We all partied till late and it was great to see everyone together and having a fantastic time. LUXY closing was no excuse to end the party for some, and the true die hards partied until noon on Sunday. Or so I hear.

Thanks again to everyone who came and made it a special birthday. I hope we can all get together soon and have another really good time. Also to all the friends I’m going to meet this year; don’t worry, we don’t have to wait 12 months until the next party. I’m sure if we think hard we can come up with an excuse to get together to celebrate LIFE.

Review: ORIENTED Taipei Happy Hour

I first heard about these events about a year ago, but something came up each and every time. It was well worth the wait. Truly, this event was a breath of fresh air on the Taipei scene.

ORIENTED is a group spread amongst many world cities, and they focus on developing business opportunities with Asia. Their Happy Hour events are social and professional networking scenes… And they’re a pretty damned good time!

That’s the formal introduction out of the way. The ORIENTED Happy Hour has a veneer of being a professional meeting place, but it’s equally social. Several of my new friends from the event go just for the social scene, and do very little professional networking. I went with the purpose of promoting Taipei After Hours, and I’m happy to say we got a very warm reception. Not only that, but I met some truly amazing people! You know who you are!

Everyone at the event was warm, friendly and sociable. English was the lingua franca, and it was easy to communicate. I spoke little Mandarin, and though I like practicing, it was nice to relax into an English environment. Most of the Taiwanese I spoke to spoke flawless English,. So we were able to chat, swap stories and generally make a party of it.

On top of the very comfortable social vibe, drinks were cheap thanks to the ORIENTED crew. The venue was also quite nice: the Agora Garden Hotel. We had the lounge booked out, and it had ample space. There was even a live band playing classic rock tunes at one end of the room. In the spirit of the evening, however, we all crowded around the bar like sharks at a feeding frenzy.

So with great people at beautiful venues and an affordable good time, I only have one criticism of the event. It’s only once a month!

If you want to know more about ORIENTED Taipei, click on the link below.

http://www.oriented.com/index.aspx?City=Global

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Sincerely,
Daniel Howard
Senior Consultant