Wooden it be Wooden It Be Unique owner and crafter Lisa Siaris and business partner/boyfriend Clem Caneso invested in a booth at a recent trade show. It paid off.
profitable?
Small Hawaii firms use
a networking show
to make the saleTheBuzz
By Erika Engle
eengle@starbulletin.com"The Made in Hawaii Festival was a great show for us," Caneso said, helping the company land sought-after hotel accounts.
He said some of the items the hotels bought are pineapple-themed, from ornaments to napkin and paper towel holders. Siaris also makes functional items with other local themes.
One of her creations received national acclaim from Better Homes & Gardens magazine nearly two years ago. Caneso said the magazine honored Siaris for a Hawaiian Santa ornament that is also a puzzle.
"They thought it was cute and original," he said.
Wooden It Be Unique is in Harbor Center on Hekaha Street, displaying functional and decorative stuff -- as well as the December 1999 issue of Better Homes & Gardens mounted on posterboard.
Made In Hawaii Festival Show Manager Amy Hammond said several exhibitors at last weekend's show were so thrilled with the response from buyers and the public that they have already turned in their registrations for next year's event.
One last-minute entry this year, due to a cancellation, was Ilei Beniamina of Niihau."She did gangbusters," Hammond said, describing her Niihau Treasures shell jewelry booth as "standing room only."
Hammond said some 33,000 people attended this year's festival, 3,000 more than last year. For the first three hours on Aug. 17, the event was open to buyers only.
She said one exhibitor that did particularly well with the buyers was the Original Hawaiian Chocolate Factory, based on the Big Island. President Bob Cooper said he went through between 1,000 and 1,500 business cards and started handing out the company's mission statement when the cards ran out.
"We also had the privilege of being on Manolo's show (Manolo Morales' segment on the Channel 2 Morning News) Friday morning," which generated considerable interest. Cooper said many people told him "the reason we came to this show was to seek you out and experience your chocolate." Many expressed a desire to order chocolate as Christmas gifts.
He was especially flattered by the compliments of an Italian woman who hails from a province famous for its chocolate. She told him his chocolate was some of the best she'd ever had.
"We make a very high-end premium grade chocolate," he said. "We do not blend our beans with any other beans from anywhere else in the world."
Hawaii is the only place in the United States where cocoa beans are grown, he said, and the company's mission is to keep their chocolate "uniquely Hawaiian."
Cooper, his wife Pamela and one employee do everything from cultivating the chocolate to processing it and shipping it out.
"My wife is the chief administrator and wrapping machine," Cooper said, "she wraps every piece of chocolate."
That hand-wrapped chocolate will be available for the Italian woman and other interested parties via http://www.originalhawaiianchocolatefactory.com. He said the site is up, and that the e-commerce infrastructure should be installed within the next couple of weeks.