Business Development and Support Division

Nearly 300 business owners and individuals with start-up ideas and businesses benefitted from a day spent at the no cost Hawaii Small Business Fair, held on Saturday, August 8th at Honolulu Community College (HCC). Co-hosted by DBEDT, attendees enjoyed a wide range of thirty (30) business workshop topics that included: Copyrights, Patents & Trademarks, Financing Your Business, Professional Networking, and Tax Tips for Small Business, and much more. SCORE professionals were on hand to provide small business owners and entrepreneurs free, invaluable one-on-one business counseling while a wide-range of more than thirty support agencies, financial institutions and other were also on hand to provide business resources and information.

Recently added to the bi-annual Fair’s workshop schedule were the “Industry Insights” workshops which presented a deeper review of Fashion, Retail, and Food industries, covered in a two-hour session. Leading the “Industry Insights” workshops were Melissa May White, co-founder of the Hawaii Fashion Incubator (HIFI), Poni Askew (Street Grindz), Chef Lee Shinsato (KCC Culinary Program Instructor), and Peter Oshiro (State Department of Health). These industry experts guided attendees through best practices and what it takes to be successful in these industries.

Comments provided by attendees were almost all positive:

“I was impressed with the turnout and the quality of the guest speakers. I really learned a lot from all three workshops I attended.”
“Great service for the community.”
“Excellent workshops, excellent vendors. Thank you!!”
“Very valuable information.”
“It was great! I look forward to the next fair.”