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Community Event: East Meets West 2019

East Meets West is THE event for startups and businesses in Hawaii!

East Meets West, created in partnership with Blue Startups and other great local organizations like Hawaii Strategic Development Development Corporation, Hawaii Technology Development Corporation, and Ulupono, is focused on innovation, investment, and entrepreneurship, and brings together experts from Asia, Hawaii, and North America.

This event will showcase global startup trends including cutting edge innovation, influencer marketing, travel, tech, and sustainability.

This is the fifth EMW event, and will be held January 31 and Feb 1. This year features another great list of expert speakers, and features two days of activity. January 31 is a day for ‘Urban Interactive’ activities with sessions in and around downtown Honolulu; the second day offers more formal sessions at the Sheraton Waikiki. See the current schedule and speaker list here.

Tickets are discounted currently – but prices are rising soon. Grab your tickets today at EastMeetsWest.co

Meet the Hawaii Freelancer’s Group!

Each month Impact Hub HNL hosts a meeting of the Hawaii Freelancer Network, a group of entrepreneurs and freelancers gathering to share best practices for working as a freelancer – however you define it.

hawaii freelance network

The group was started by two Impact Hub HNL members that had been working in freelance careers for many years, one as a graphic designer and one as a technical writer. It started as a casual lunchtime meetup, and quickly grew into a larger meeting of the minds.

But what is it all about? The Hawaii Freelancer Network is meant to be a free space for connection and collaboration between those working full or part-time freelance, or working as some type of solo working, like ‘digital nomads,’ remote workers, or entrepreneurs just getting started.

At the December event we hosted Member and spreadsheet expert Dean of Dean’s Solutions to discuss spreadsheet tricks and hacks. At the coming January Hawaii Freelancer’s event we will feature Milton Drageset, a tax expert who will discuss how the 2019 tax laws affect entrepreneurs and freelancers.

Some of the meetings feature a speaker or expert in their respective field, but other groups are more or an open discussion between the members. In the various meetings, we’ve brainstormed multiple topics for future group discussions, including the following:

  • Getting Started as a small business or sole proprietor
  • Self branding
  • Collective bargaining
  • How to break up with Bad Clients and Communication with tough clients.
  • How to Charge for ‘Creative- Thinking’ Time
  • When contract relationships feel like employee relationships
  • Freelance vs Full Time: which work works best.
  • Breaking into new markets: B2B marketing vs. B2C marketing.
  • How to build a business plan
  • How to connect business + creatively: creative entrepreneurs & how to monetize creativity
  • Creative brainstorming session: ideation.
  • Productivity hacks.
  • Managing time zones
  • Documentation: invoices, proposals, contracts, etc.
  • How to decrease admin costs?
  • Hiring and firing
  • Learning to say no/tough love
  • How to have hard conversations.
  • Managing workstream with customer: what DONE looks like.

If you work remotely or are just looking to connect with other members, please join our Facebook group or check out our Events calendar to stay tuned to all upcoming events.

Waikiki Brewing Company on Tap at Impact Hub HNL

Cheers to the newest addition to our kitchen: two taps from our friends at Waikiki Brewing Company! We are so excited to offer this beer. Not only is it DELICIOUS, but Waikiki Brewing is our neighbor on Queen Street in our awesome Kakaako neighborhood.

This local brewing company started with a seven barrel facility in Waikiki in 2015. They quickly outgrew that space and just recently opened their second location in Kakaako to expand production. Their newest location is home to 20 barrels and has allowed them to quadruple their production.

WBC takes pride in being a ‘hub’ in their community: not only does their business host dozens of local jobs, and they host community and business events at their locations. The company is also really cognizant about source reduction. They purchase their beer cans from a local facility, donate spent grains to a local farmer, and even upcycle the grain bags after use.

Brewmaster and Partner Joe Lorenzen says, “Our brewery not only has helped to drive our local economy, but has provided a wonderful community gathering place at our pub.” If you wish to learn more about WBC, you can always drop in and chat with the brewers and bartenders to learn more about the beer processes (they don’t currently offer scheduled tours).

They currently have nine beers available on tap at their breweries, and we are lucky to have two available to us. Currently we’re pouring the Ala Moana Amber Ale and the Skinny Jeans IPA. These will rotate so you’ll hopefully get to try their many regulars and specials. Members are welcome to help themselves to beer (at whatever time you consider to be happy hour) and, of course, we ask that you drink responsibly.

Cheers to you and your business!

Impact Hub Global Passport

You have access to a global network of like-minded professionals with the Impact Hub network!

If you’re currently a member of Impact Hub HNL you have access to the global Impact Hub network, which includes about 100 Impact Hubs around the world, from London to Jakarta to Hong Kong to Mexico City.

Your membership at the Honolulu Impact Hub allows you to work at other Impact Hubs for up to three days per year (sometimes more, depending on the local Hub). This means that wherever your work or travels take you, you can connect with a vibrant entrepreneurial community and work done while on the go – wherever you go!

To take advantage of your global passport, check out the Impact Hub Passport site for a list of all the different Hubs around the world.

Please fill out the short form to connect with the local hosts to inquire about a reservation or just walk into the Impact Hub of your choice and let them know you are an Impact Hub Honolulu member. Safe travels!

impact hub global passport

The 2018 PMI Professional Development Day

Impact Hub HNL was happy to sponsor PMI Honolulu’s 2018 Professional Development Day. The event, which took place October 19, 2018 brought together hundreds of professionals from across Hawaii The Project Management Institute® Honolulu Chapter.

This Professional Development Day was the 20th Anniversary of the event, and based on attendee feedback, the overall theme was decided to be A’ohe Hana Nui Ke Alu’ia : No Task Is Too Big When Done Together.

Professional Development day

At the event, attendees followed three tracks to help them in their own professional development process:

1) Career Pathways: Whether you are new to project management or an experienced PMO manager, this track will consider the career paths and options for advancement that are available to project managers, both inside and outside of the project management field. Come to be a part of the discussion about career planning and mentoring, and hear from local leaders that can share experiences about their own career paths and outcomes.

2) Practitioner Stories: This will be great case studies where people can tie back the lessons to their work. Stories from all industries – construction, tourism, military, IT, healthcare, etc. The tie back to the overall theme is don’t recreate the wheel, let’s learn together.

3) Creative Approaches: Creative approaches to solve problems of today – This is all about tried and true techniques, new emerging techniques, transformation of techniques and a mash-up of techniques and how to do them in the Real World! It’s not about silver bullets. It’s contextual, it’s real. As professionals we need more ways to solve problems and uncover opportunities in our dynamic, demanding and ever-changing environments. How do you work WITH your stakeholders to move projects to successful completion? How do you co-create? How do you build relationships and ohanas with your teams – while accomplishing amazing goals?

Impact Hub HNL member Dean Ramos was a presenter and attendee at the event. Dean, a business consultant, says that, “PMI offers an excellent toolbox for anyone doing project management, and that the event is a full day learning about the tools in the project manager’s toolbox and how to utilize them better.” He says he especially appreciated the Keynote with Kumu Ramsay Taum, who encouraged us to think about working together, better, in any sort of business, which is important here in the islands and even with the mainland visitors that attended the event.

Dean added that while the event is usually targeted to project managers, this year the scope was such that everyone can really benefit from these lessons.

You can download the brochure here to learn more about this event and contact them here to be involved for next year.

What is PMI?

PMI (Professional Management Institute) is the world’s leading not-for-profit membership association for the project management profession, with more than half a million members and credential holders in 185 countries. Their mission is to promote the project management practice and profession through networking, sharing of project experiences, training, education, and certification in the State of Hawaii.

Member Spotlight: Curt Wilken and Karl Smith of CityWide Home Loans

This month’s Member Spotlight is the two owners of CityWide Homeloans, Karl Smith and Curtis Wilken. CityWide is a residential mortgage bank.  In their Hawaii office Karl and Curt focus heavily on construction loans and VA (veteran’s loans) – both of which there is a large need for here in the islands.

Their successful business relationship was actually forged many years ago – the two met with they were kids growing up in Ogden, Utah. They have been friends since 7th grade and remained friends through their college years at Weber State, also in Utah.  It wasn’t until Curt retired from the AirForce, last year, that he was finally able to convince his friend Karl to come visit, and their company grew from there.

CityWide is already one of the largest lenders in the Western states. Regarding their loan services in Hawaii, Karl notes that Hawaii banks tend to be a little more conservative with their lending criteria, and CityWide was able to step in and offer loans for a wide range of projects.  They offer homeowners the opportunity to rebuild old homes, expand their home’s footprint, or do refurbishments and improvements.

The CityWide team was one of our very first members here at Impact Hub, and their time here has proven successful  – they’ve expanded their business and added three new members to their team. When Impact Hub HNL was featured on Hawaii Public Radio recently, Karl was quoted as saying, “We can grow within the space and it’s just a really neat atmosphere.”

If you want to learn more about lending and construction loans, you can listen to Karl and Curt on the Fix it Friday show from 8am-9am weekly with Mike Buck on AM 690. They are also hosting an upcoming Lunch & Learn at Impact Hub HNL, 7 Nov at noon, with Amber Lethem about improving your sales growth. You can register for this FREE event by emailing Curt directly.