NOW
Ideas at the Speed of Business
How can I get my newborn on a regular sleeping schedule? Will my 2-year-old ever sit still in a restaurant? Will he ever eat a vegetable? Since 1982, the support group Baby Hui has been answering these and other burning questions about childhood development from anxious parents of newborns and toddlers.
Hui parents meet once a week for a two-hour session, where they discuss 10 different topics about young children and parenting. According to Larisa Majors, Baby Hui’s participant coordinator, the sessions are led by parents, with children in attendance, and are more about real-world family experiences than expert-driven science and theory.
In addition to Oahu, Baby Hui can be found on Maui, Kauai and the Big Island. Majors estimates that in 2007 the group helped more than 500 families statewide, up from 300 families in 2003.
Until recently, only stay-at-home parents could benefit from the Hui’s collective wisdom, since sessions were scheduled during the weekday working hours. But last fall, in response to parent demand, the Hui started a working parents group, which meets on Saturday mornings. The group quickly filled up and has a long waiting list. According to Majors, if demand continues to grow, Hui officials are contemplating starting more working-parent groups, which could meet in the evenings, after work.
However, while the day and time of the meetings may change, the discussions will pretty much stay the same. “The dynamic [between regular group meetings and working-parent meetings] is a little different. Dads are a little bit more involved, which is wonderful,” says Majors. “But the general concerns remain the same. Parents are parents, and they always want what is best for their kids.”
- David K. Choo
OUR GRAYING WORKFORCE
THE U.S. CENSUS bureau released stats recently that drew attention to the issue of our nation’s aging workforce. Hawaii, like the rest of the country, is going to face a crisis of sorts as baby boomers, who increasingly make up a larger part of our workforce, leave an employment void as they retire.
Here is the most recent Census snapshot of the nation’s and Hawaii’s challenge.
1 IN 5
Nationally, 1 in 8 workers today are 65 or older. By 2030, 1 in 5 workers are
projected to be 65 or older.
15.9 PERCENT
In 2004, statewide, 15.9 percent of workers were 55 and older. Hawaii County had the highest percentage with 16.4 percent; Honolulu 16 percent; Kauai 15.8 percent; and Maui 14.6 percent.
3.6 PERCENT
In 2004, statewide, 3.6 percent of the workers were 65 or older. Hawaii County again led this category, with 3.9 percent; Honolulu had 3.6 percent; Kauai, 3.6 percent; and Maui, 3.1 percent.
15.1 PERCENT
In 2004, statewide, 15.1 percent of workers 55 or older were employed in accommodation and food services, the highest proportion for that age group in any industry.
30.8 PERCENT
In 2004, statewide, the agriculture, forestry, fishing and hunting industry had the highest percentage of older workers with 30.8 percent.
Kauai
DOCTORING THE BOOKS
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| photo: banana patch press |
ABOUT FIVE YEARS AGO, Kauai pediatrician Dr. Terence Carolan was checking out the selection of children’s books in his own waiting room, when he realized something: The books were boring. Instead of rushing to the nearest store to find replacements, however, Carolan sat down, made up a story about hula-dancing cats and canoe-paddling frogs and asked his wife and Kauai artist, Joanna Carolan, to illustrate them. Joanna, owner of two art galleries on Kauai, was happy to oblige.
That was in 2002. Today, the doctor and artist have written four Hawaii-themed children’s books under their own publishing label, Banana Patch Press. Their most recent, Goodnight Hawaiian Moon, received a silver medal last November in Chicago at the Independent Publishers’ Moonbeam Children’s Book Awards, where more than 900 national and international children’s titles entered the competition. Goodnight Hawaiian Moon, published a year ago, is already in its third printing. More than 15,000 have been sold in the Islands. The book accompanies a read-along CD by Hawaiian music artist Amy Hanaialii Gilliom.
The couple’s success comes at a time when the number of new books and editions nationwide is decreasing. In 2005, the most recently available year, book publishing fell by more than 18,000 words to 172,000, according to Bowker, a literary agency that tracks annual output.
“What makes publishing in Hawaii unique are the sounds, the local music and the recording artists we work with,” Joanna says. “They’ve done such a great job of bringing in the sounds of the beach, the nene calling.” Other titles by the couple include B is for Beach, an alphabet book featuring an audio CD by Leilani Rivera Bond, and Where Are My Slippers, a coloring book that accompanies a CD by Keli’i Kaneali’i.
The couple’s next project, tentatively titled Old Makana Had a Taro Farm, will feature tunes by Hawaiian music artists Willie K and Eric Gilliom. “Taro farming has an important place in Hawaiian culture, and it’s an industry that the younger generation is not continuing,” Joanna says. “The book will be a way for us to educate kids.”
- Cathy S. Cruz-George
 Hawaii Business defines often-spoken words, new and old, to help you make sense of what's being said. | CRACKBERRY : Have you ever seen someone completely addicted to their Blackberry or a similar handheld gadget, sending and receiving e-mails at all hours of the day with no acknowledgement to the people or things around them? That’s Crackberry. The term is used to describe the mes-merized user and his or her overworked digital device. --JASON UBAY |
Big Island
Kona Blaze
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| photo: macario |
GUITAR PLAYER AND DESIGNER Buddy Blaze is perhaps best known for his “Night Swan,” an electric guitar he designed while with Kramer Guitars in the late ’80s. Perhaps you caught it in a White Snake video, being played by Vivian Campbell, now with Def Leppard, though you might not have known the name of that fuzzy-haired guitarist. Another notable Blaze guitar, called “Dean from Hell,” was made for a friend named Dimebag Darrell, who played with Pantera, among others.
Both guitars, among diehard hard rock fans, are icons, as is Blaze. What perhaps you didn’t know, nor do most diehard fans, is that Blaze and his wife have taken up residency in Kona, where he has broken out on his own to design electric guitars and electric ukuleles.
Yes, Blaze is now a Big Island small-business owner.
Blaze says his first visit to Hawaii was touring with Chris Isaak in the late ’90s and he fell in love with Kona. In 2005, after several more trips to Hawaii and finishing a tour with Nine Inch Nails, he settled down there with his wife. In late 2006, he officially launched his business and began selling a new line of hand-crafted, professional-grade electric guitars and ukuleles. In fact, you can expect to see his new guitar model, “the Evanator,” in the hands of Def Leppard’s Campbell real soon.
Blaze is slowly building a global distribution system. His instruments go for anywhere from $2,000 to $5,000. Locally, his instruments are sold at Dan’s Guitars in Honolulu and the Music Exchange in Waimea. He says he expects to sell less than 100 instruments this year, but several hundreds next year.
“We are still waiting for light at the end of the tunnel, where we are profitable, but we are very optimistic about our future,” Blaze says.
- Scott Radway
Oahu
ROUND AND ROUND
Although they’re only as big as an oil barrel, vertical axis wind turbines (VAWT) spin almost silently and can pump out loads of clean energy. In fact, there is a VAWT at University of Hawaii’s Saunders Hall that could potentially produce 500 watts, or power up to three floors, by tapping the trade winds passing through Manoa Valley.
The problem is, no one has plugged it in.
Energy Management Group donated the $3,500 PacWind Seahawk VAWT to the Sustainable Saunders project at the UH Manoa campus on Earth Day last year. As of late November, it had yet to produce energy for the building. David Nixon, faculty advisor for the Sustainable Saunders student group, says they are waiting for clearance from UH’s risk management department.
“We’re thinking about it very methodically,” says Shanah Trevanna, a graduate student and coordinator of the project’s student group. The project aims to create a precedent for renewable energy projects on campus, so the university wants to be sure it’s installed correctly and safely, and the results are positive.
Richard Figliuzzi, president of Energy Management, says he understands the holdup because it’s a demonstration project, but adds the VAWT are in high demand and hard to get. Saunders Hall has one of two in Hawaii. “I have to compete against the rest of the world (to get this product into Hawaii),” Figliuzzi says. Energy Management is the exclusive authorized dealer of PacWind products in Hawaii, and has four studies at undisclosed commercial installations lined up for early 2008.
PacWind touts its VAWTs as completely silent and stable, with no maintenance required due to one movable part. They can produce energy in as little as 5 mph winds and can withstand up to 100 mph winds. It’s also bird friendly because it is seen as a solid object when spinning.
Recently, PacWind VAWTs have been installed on top of Jay Leno’s Green Garage and at the Tonopah Tourist Information Center in Nevada.
But for now, UH’s PacWind turbine spins and waits.
- Jason Ubay
Maui
MAUI AMORE
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| photo courtesy maui visitors bureau, king kamehameha golf course |
IF PEOPLE DIDN’T ALREADY KNOW that Maui was the place to get married, they will soon enough. The Maui Visitor’s Bureau has launched “Romance Me Maui,” a marketing campaign showcasing Maui, Lanai and Molokai as places for weddings, anniversaries, honeymoons and romantic getaways.
“This campaign will let the West Coast through to the East know that Maui is this wonderful place that is special and well-equipped to handle any wedding or celebration of this caliber.” says Maggie Coulombe, owner of a boutique clothing store in Lahaina, in an e-mail.
Why focus on romance? Romance travelers are high-yield tourists, considering the amount spent on planning and putting on a wedding and the number of people who come to partake in the event.
Maui, always at the leading edge in Hawaii tourism, has already established itself as the No. 1 wedding destination in the state. According to statistics provided by the state Department of Health’s Office of Health Status Monitoring, in 2006, 44 percent of all nonresident marriages (where both bride and groom were nonresidents) were performed in Maui County. In fact, when Coulombe started making wedding gowns seven years ago, she served a mostly local clientele. Today, Coulombe estimates 90 percent of her business comes from the Mainland.
But the number of nonresident marriages has been slowly decreasing, from 9,013 in 2004 to 8,562 to 2006. So MVB spent $10,000 to launch the campaign. The bureau has a $400,000 annual public relations budget, and the romance travel aspect has been added to its other campaigns. Past campaigns include “Maui Loves Kids,” targeting the family market and “Maui for Life,” focusing on wellness and cultural practices.
-Jason Ubay
Global
‘THE ASIAN DECADE’
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| Illustration: iStock |
LOCAL REAL ESTATE FIRM Chaney Brooks has affiliated with NAI Global, a $40 billion commercial real-estate network with 375 offices in 55 nations. The new partnership reaffirms Hawaii’s potential to do business internationally, particularly in Asia, say executives from both parties.
“Asian investments are picking up,” says Steve Sombrero, president of NAI Chaney Brooks. “The next 10 to 20 years are clearly going to be the Asian decade in Hawaii. We aren’t seeing the great plunges we’re seeing in some of the markets on the West Coast because Hawaii plays both sides of the fence with investors from both the U.S. mainland and Asia.”
NAI Chaney Brooks has more than $2 billion in its Asia-Pacific portfolio. In Tokyo’s trendy Harajuku district, the company is developing a nine-level, American-style shopping mall called the Paradox. On Guam, its office oversees $1.6 billion in property. Recently, the company represented Japanese clients in deals including: the $30 million sale of Waikiki Trade Center to 3D Investment; the $45 million purchase of Don Quijote from Alexander & Baldwin; and sales of major parcels in Waikiki and Waianae valley.
With the NAI partnership, commercial realtors in Hawaii are able to tap into REALTrac Online, an award-winning transaction-management software used by more than 6,000 clients around the world. The potential to grow Hawaii’s wealth using REALTrac is enormous, says David C. Blanchard, executive vice president of NAI Global who visited Honolulu last month from Oregon. “We’ve created a connection between NAI Global and Chaney, and we are going to share that with the business community,” he says.
As Hawaii continues to do more business with other countries, its diverse workforce will prove to be an asset, say NAI executives. “More and more today, business is about having good cross-cultural skills,” says Stephen E. Atherton, NAI Global’s Asia Pacific managing director, who visited from Hong Kong last month. “It’s about communicating and being respectful toward each other’s cultures. That’s a valuable skill set going forward.”
-Cathy S. Cruz-George
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