Some stories aren’t meant to be told through a press release alone. Sometimes, you have to build an entire experience around them.
This September, BICOM partnered with the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA) to help bring the Taiwan Flagship Showcase to life at IMTS 2026 in Chicago. Held September 14–19 at McCormick Place, IMTS is the largest manufacturing technology trade show in the Western Hemisphere, bringing together manufacturers, buyers, engineers, technology leaders and innovators from around the world.
Taiwan arrived with an important story to tell. As the third-largest exhibiting country at IMTS 2026, Taiwan brought 56 manufacturers to Chicago, with 21 leading companies featured together in the Taiwan Flagship Showcase. Their technologies spanned advanced machine tools, smart automation and digital manufacturing, and precision components and solutions—all areas playing an increasingly important role in the future of global manufacturing.
We made sure that story didn’t get lost on a very crowded trade show floor.
Turning a Trade Show Presence Into an Experience
A successful event activation requires much more than getting people to show up.
Working alongside TAITRA and its partners, BICOM helped develop and execute an integrated experience designed to introduce U.S. and international audiences to Taiwan’s manufacturing capabilities while creating opportunities for genuine business connections.
Our work stretched across communications, media relations, messaging, buyer recruitment, event programming and onsite execution. We helped break down complex technologies into approachable brand stories and talking points for the participating companies. We developed media materials and outreach, supported buyer recruitment, created guided brand tours and helped prepare brand ambassadors to introduce visitors to the manufacturers and facilitate conversations.
And then there were the experiences themselves.
The week began with an opening ceremony and continued with smart manufacturing pitch sessions focused on aerospace machining, semiconductor manufacturing and smart components; daily guided brand tours; networking opportunities; and Taiwan Night, an evening event aboard a boat on the Chicago River designed to bring manufacturers, buyers and industry leaders together outside of the traditional trade show environment. [LINK: Event Schedule / Taiwan Night]
Each piece served a different purpose, but they worked toward the same goal: creating more ways for people to discover, understand and connect with Taiwanese manufacturers.
Making Complex Stories Easier to Discover
Manufacturing communications present a unique challenge. The technology can be incredibly sophisticated, but the value still needs to be immediately understandable.
The Taiwan Flagship Showcase included technologies ranging from CNC controllers, robotics and machine vision to advanced workholding systems, precision components, high-performance spindles and energy-saving factory solutions. These technologies support industries including aerospace, semiconductors and advanced manufacturing, but explaining what a machine does isn’t necessarily the same thing as explaining why someone should care.
That’s where communications strategy becomes especially important.
Our team worked to identify the larger stories connecting the individual manufacturers. Rather than presenting 21 unrelated companies, the showcase demonstrated the strength of Taiwan’s integrated manufacturing ecosystem: companies capable of working across precision machinery, components, automation, electronics and advanced technology to solve increasingly complex manufacturing challenges.
That narrative mattered. So did creating opportunities for visitors to actually experience it.
Brand ambassadors guided attendees through the pavilion. Company representatives had opportunities to explain their technologies directly. Smart Manufacturing Pitches gave audiences a deeper look at specific applications. Media outreach expanded the story beyond McCormick Place. And networking events created space for conversations that could ultimately turn awareness into business relationships.
By the end of the week, the Taiwan Flagship Showcase had welcomed thousands of visitors, while the opening ceremony and Taiwan Night alone brought together more than 250 attendees, including manufacturers, international buyers, distributors and technology partners.
PR Doesn’t Have to Stop at PR
For BICOM, this project also reinforced something we’ve increasingly seen in our work: the lines between public relations, marketing, experiential events, brand strategy and business development are disappearing.
A press release can generate awareness. Media coverage can establish credibility. But sometimes the assignment is bigger.
Sometimes the goal is to take 21 brands from another country, understand their technologies and audiences, develop the right messaging, recruit prospective buyers, attract media, prepare onsite representatives, create programming, collect audience insights and then make sure hundreds—or thousands—of people have a meaningful experience once they arrive.
That’s not simply event production. And it’s not simply PR.
It’s strategic communications brought to life.
For organizations entering new markets, introducing unfamiliar products or trying to reach highly specialized audiences, that integrated approach can be especially powerful. The experience around a brand can help people understand the story in ways that a single piece of content cannot.
And for international organizations, there is another layer: translating not just language, but context. What matters to an audience in one market may need to be positioned differently in another. Building awareness requires understanding how to make a brand relevant to the people you’re trying to reach without losing what makes that brand distinctive in the first place.
The Taiwan Flagship Showcase gave BICOM the opportunity to do exactly that.
Bringing More Big Ideas to Life
The most rewarding part of the week wasn’t simply seeing the pavilion busy. It was watching connections happen.
A visitor stopping to learn about a technology they’d never encountered. A buyer being introduced directly to a manufacturer. An industry professional joining a guided tour and discovering several potential solutions in one place. People who had traveled thousands of miles sitting together on the Chicago River talking about what they could build together next.
Those moments are why experiences like the Taiwan Flagship Showcase matter.
They’re also why BICOM continues to expand the way we think about communications.
We still tell stories. But increasingly, we’re also helping clients create the places, experiences and opportunities where those stories can be experienced firsthand.
Whether it’s an international trade activation, a product launch, an executive event, a buyer recruitment campaign or an experiential brand moment, sometimes the best way to tell your story is to invite people into it.
Have an idea that needs to come to life? Let’s talk.