SEM: All Asia Pick-Up Summit 2014

[Mister.Right]

What an amazing week in Taipei!

 

RedpoleQ and Kane Vast really put together a great seminar for the attendees, I was quite impressed.

 

Friday

 

We started in the evening on Friday with everyone introducing themselves and RedpoleQ informing us of the rough schedule for the weekend. We then went out to the clubs in several groups, sticking to the ATT entertainment area.

 

We started by checking out Barcode but it was almost all mixed sets and the girls weren't that great to begin with. My group stayed at Myst for the remainder of the evening. It was fairly difficult and I had trouble hooking girls. Not sure if this was due to the venue, the girls, or the fact that I'm out of practice. Maybe a combination of all of them. Still really great club and loads of fun having a group of guys to go out.

 

Saturday

 

The first full day started with RedpoleQ briefing us on the five elements of interactions: opening, attraction, qualification, comfort, and sexcalation. Stuff I'm sure we've all learned before but really good to have a refresher, especially after so long. Next up was Sage who I wish I knew better. He's really funny and really seems to have his cards in order. He talked about basic concepts like being flexible in your game, the importance of your state. I'd say that upon reflection, of all the talks that we heard the advice that Sage gave was most practical and actionable.

 

The last two speakers were Sasha daygame and Kane Vast. I'd seen Sasha's videos and looked forward to hearing him speak. He's a pretty interesting guy and fairly in your face. He said a lot of good and valuable stuff (although for those with experience in the East it's clear he's not fully calibrated for here) but the best points I took from his talk was the importance of being indifferent. When you're indifferent, your confidence can only go up with every success and is unaffected by every failure. This is a big sticking point in my life. Coming from an Asian background, drawing attention to myself, or inconveniencing others really rails against my being. It's really something I need to work on and improve, but just thinking about it terrifies me. I'm way too worried about the reactions I may get from others and training myself to be indifferent would not only be valuable for me in pickup, but life in general.

 

Last up was Kane, who complimented Sasha's talk with his advice that we should try to think of making our interactions outrageous so we'd have a great story to tell our friends later. Thinking back on my own experiences, the worst ones definitely make the best stories. We don't often think about that but in retrospect our bad experiences are usually a good thing.

 

We finished the evening by getting a table at (New) Sparks, which was OK. It literally didn't pick up at all until about 2 am and the sets were marginal to be honest. For me at least, it was also about as hard as Myst was, for a significant drop in quality. The table didn't really do much for us as a majority of the guys didn't appear to be having fun so no one was really drawn to our table. We really need to plan and prepare more in the future if we ever get a table. I managed to bounce a two set with Vision to another club Luxy. His girl was super down but my girl had a boyfriend and was having nothing of it, although at least I was able to occupy her so Vision could do his thing. (brief rundown can be found here: http://www.asiandatingmonthly.com/reloaded/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=5254&view=unread#unread)

 

I think Vision could have taken his girl to close because my girl was willing to go home alone, but he chose bros over hoes. Thanks bro, best bros forever. We went into Luxy briefly but it wasn't so great. Not many sets and the the girls were pretty trash. Plus they turned the second dance hall into VIP! WTF?! We went back to Spark to meet up with the guys and did a few street sets but otherwise pretty uneventful on my end. Taipei is much more difficult than I remember, although I am very out of practice.

 

Sunday

 

The last day saw Marcelo, Sasha, BlueMystery, Sage, RedpoleQ, and Kane Vast speak. Marcelo's talk on social circle game was really enlightening. A lot of it I already did, but his attention to detail was really eye-opening. Even in large parties (or especially?) you need to take care in who is added to the guest list as this can greatly affect the atmosphere and the party's success. I really liked his breakdown of people into Value, Connectors, and Social Dead-ends. I'd always looked for those that brought me value but haven't given much thought to the connectors who can link me to people that will bring me value. This is especially important in networking.

 

BlueMystery's talk about body language was also really interesting. I'd seen Lie to Me so already knew a lot of the stuff he talked about, but had never thought much about how this could be used in my interactions. Her body language can easily open numerous threads of conversation, especially if she gives a false positive, an emotional reaction that doesn't match her verbal one. Sage gave another talk about staying on track and making objectives. Like the day before, this was SUPER valuable. I often find myself setting lofty goals that I give up on and neglecting more short-term things I could be thinking about. I think he was going to share his templates for goal-setting and I really hope he does. I'll set up a topic about that later that maybe we can all benefit from.

 

Sasha spoke again after this. His talk was again valuable but seemed better suited for less-experienced guys. It was mostly about how you shouldn't make your life about just Game and should focus on other parts of your physical, mental, and spiritual well-being. I didn't really agree with his views on spirituality, or health. But health is definitely important and I'm focusing much more on that this year.

 

The seminar closed with RedpoleQ and Kane Vast giving a short lecture about the Robert Greene book "The Art of Seduction". I had heard RedpoleQ preach its merits before, but I had no idea it was so deep and valuable. He went over the types of women it categorized and how that applies to Asia as well as the Seduction Process and how we could use it to affect our interactions. Like all advice RPQ gives, it was specifically geared towards Asia, so was all stuff we can immediately apply and use. I talk to RedpoleQ a lot but hearing him speak with all his thoughts organized into a lecture is definitely a different experience. I always get a lot of value listening to his ideas and he never fails to make me think about new things in unique and different ways that I hadn't considered before.

 

The last night was made up of a group of last standers who made it into Babe18. DEFINITELY the best club of the weekend as the groups were friendly and not-at-all-cockblocky. It was still hard and I didn't have much success, but I at least hooked a few sets and had a riproaring goodtime!

 

Thanks to everyone who went and to the organizers for putting together such an awesome event! I can't wait for next year's. This is definitely a hidden gem of Asia and I'm glad I have the chance to be a part of it before it really takes off!

[RedpoleQ]

Awesome rundown. It was indeed a rip-roaring good time!

 

Catch you next when I hit Osaka and thanks for setting up this board for everyone!