The staff dinner featured performances by (clockwise from top right) Power Station, Wakin Chau and Ricky Hsiao. - PHOTOS: RIWAY INTERNATIONAL/FACEBOOK via The Straits Times/ANN
KAOHSIUNG, Jan 14 (The Straits Times/ANN): This was not your average company dinner: There were fireworks, stage performances by pop singer Wakin Chau and a lavish 12-course meal served to 2,600 banquet tables (10 people per table).
Hosted by Singapore wellness product company Riway International, the mega outdoor banquet held in the southern Taiwanese city of Kaohsiung on Tuesday became a social media sensation, with local Facebook users commenting that it was “the most extraordinary corporate dinner” they had ever seen.
Besides Chau, music acts including big-name Taiwanese rockers Power Station and singer-songwriter Ricky Hsiao were also part of the performance line-up.
Riway did not immediately respond to The Straits Times’ request for comment, but a company spokesman told Taiwan’s Commercial Times that the event was estimated to have cost almost NT$100 million (S$4.35 million) to produce. The food and table set-up alone cost NT$30 million, she added.
As it is difficult to find a venue that could accommodate so many people, the company decided to set up the banquet on an empty plot of land, she said, noting that preparations for the event began in September 2022.
While most of the 26,000 attendees were the company’s employees and sales representatives – including those who flew in from branch offices in Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and Japan – other business partners and guests were also involved, local media reports said.
The dinner, themed “No Hold Back”, was held to celebrate the company’s 15th anniversary. It was also the company’s weiya, an annual dinner banquet typically held by companies in Taiwan ahead of Chinese New Year to thank workers for their hard work.
A weiya is often a company’s biggest staff event of the year, but even then, Riway’s banquet stood out for its massive scale.
“Riway leaders from all over the world gathered to celebrate this meaningful day... This spectacular scene is definitely the best motivation to start a new year,” the company wrote in a Facebook post.
According to its website, Riway’s flagship product is a capsule made using deer placenta, which is consumed as an anti-ageing supplement.
In 2021, the Ang Mo Kio-headquartered company was fined $3,000 by Singapore’s Health Sciences Authority (HSA) for making false and misleading claims that the product prevents, alleviates or cures diseases and medical conditions such as cancer and diabetes.
HSA advised members of the public to be wary of such claims and said that the product is not meant for treating or managing medical conditions.
This comes after the authority in 2019 directed the company to educate its sellers to ensure they do not make false claims about the product. -- The Straits Times/ANN
