Business Development and Support Division

The 3rd Annual Conference on Community Development & Financing (Kanu Me Ka Laulima Kakou) was held on March 23 and 24 at Windward Community College. This conference is a forum for addressing the many needs of businesses and communities, non-profit organizations, and Hawaiian Homestead communities, particularly as regards project financing and capital fundraising. Mark Ritchie, DBEDT Business Support Branch Chief gave the keynote address the first day of the conference outlining DBEDT community-based economic development (CBED) programs (link to CBED page on website) and services and highlighting the new CBED Accelerator Pilot Program scheduled to launch in April. Wayne Thom, DEBDT CBED’s Program Manager held a workshop at the conference on the State’s Enterprise Zone Program (link to EZ section of website) designed to create jobs and business activity in the State’s economically disadvantaged areas. This year’s conference continued to build on previous conferences by bringing people, information and resources together that can assist in capacity building, fundraising and more.