DENNIS ODA / STAR-BULLETIN
From left, Hawaiian activist Charles Maxwell, Norman Reeder
of Hawaiian Airlines, Bob Fishman of the Hawaii Tourism
Authority, Gov. Cayetano and Seiji Naya of the Department
of Business, Economic Development & Tourism were among
the attendees at the Hawaii Business Forum Reception last night.

Hawaii firms get
taste of global pie

They take advantage of the ADB
summit to meet bank officials

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By Lyn Danninger
Star-Bulletin

For the local business people attending the Hawaii Business Forum at the Hawaii Convention Center, last night's two receptions were more than just social hours. They were chances to compare notes and talk story.

And so far, the Asian Development Bank convention, into which the forum folded, seems to have yielded some local successes.

Bill Hartzell of Safe Water Systems LLC, whose company has been manning a booth in the center's Global Pavilion, said he believes the ADB events could well move his company to the next level.

Most of Safe Water's business thus far has been with nongovernment organizations and service organizations such as Rotary International, Hartzell said.

But after two days of networking and meeting various ADB officials, Hartzell said, he's more hopeful than ever that the contacts could result in some future contracts for the company.

Despite the size of the ADB organization, Hartzell said he's impressed with what he's seen so far. "They've come to our booth to tell us who to talk to and have arranged meetings for us," he said.

The two ADB receptions last night at the Global Pavilion in the main exhibition hall attracted large crowds of local businesspeople, as well as ADB dignitaries and participants.

Upstairs on the convention center's third-floor roof deck, the ADB president's reception was a more formal event as hundreds of ADB staff and attendees got down to global networking and posed for pictures with the ADB chief.

Despite some glimmers of early success, however, last night's event and the ADB meetings are just the initial foray for most Hawaii attendees into the business contacts they'll need if they want to one day secure an ADB contract.

For Brewer Environmental Industries' marketing representatives Robert Cabuco and Ranae Doeser, just exhibiting at the ADB has been a worthwhile experience even though nothing may result immediately.

"We've made some good contacts and are now in the ADB database as a contractor," Doeser said. "That's the first step. Our goal is to one day get some ADB business."

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Asian Development Bank