Honolulu Festival's Watanabe guest speaker at HTA's 2009 Festivals and Events Seminar on May 15

Festivals are very important to Hawaii year round. Not only do they attract the local residents, creating activities and opportunities to have fun and learn new things, but they add to the visitor experience. The Honolulu Festival Foundation is proud to be part of the annual calendar of events in Hawaii. The Hawaii Tourism Authority, better known as HTA, puts on a seminar once a year for those who are interested in learning the latest about putting on festivals and events. This year's seminar was held at the Hawaii Convention Center on May 17. The topic was "Re-Invention for Changing Market Needs." The main speaker was John "Mitch" Dorger, CEO of the Tournament of Roses, held in Pasadena each New Year's Day. He talked about the challenges of managing change and staying ahead of the market. There was also a very informative and positive presentation regarding sponsorship by Sylvia Allen.

One of the keynote speeches during lunch was presented by Tatsuo Watanabe, Secretary of the Honolulu Festival Foundation and General Manager of Customer Service for JTB Hawaii, Inc. He talked about "Market Demand for Cultural Tourism: East-West Perspectives on Festivals." I am sure that the topic was of interest to many in the audience. The Honolulu Festival has been successful in bringing participants and spectators to Hawaii from Japan, other Pacific Rim countries and the mainland U.S. for fifteen years.
It is important that all of those involved in organizing festivals in Hawaii continue to improve and change based on the needs of the current market. Every effort counts particularly during today's economy. Aloha.


Honolulu Festival

Kuwayama Family from Japan at the Honolulu Festival

It was Saturday of the Honolulu Festival. Very busy all day long so I stopped to take a break. I had been planning all morning long to buy the okonomiyaki for lunch. All the tables in the dining area were taken so I joined the table of a Japanese family,a young couple and baby boy. They looked like they lived in Hawaii. Got around talking to them and found out they were visiting for two weeks from Shinagawa, Japan. Two weeks...pretty nice. Interesting to find out that the young man's mom grew up in Hawaii but moved to Japan, got married and still lives there. They were visiting the mom's mom, his grandmother, who is 95 years old and lives by herself in Moiliili. They wanted her to meet her great grandson Koichi. I thought that was so nice. So I took their picture and promised to post it on my blog. In the meantime I emailed them the picture and got such a nice note. Thought I'd share that with all of you:

Thank you for sending us the photo!
We couldn't find it on the Website
so we're very happy to receive it via email.

We had fun at the Honolulu Festival.
Our 95 year-old grandmother loved the parade,
and kept standing in the crowd watching it for 2 hours!

Mahalo!

From the Kuwayamas in our Shinagawa home

I guess it is these sort of experiences that make me feel good about the Honolulu Festival. I hope that the Kuwayamas come back next year! Aloha.

Honolulu Festival gets ackowledgement from Honolulu City Council

The City Council of Honolulu presented two honorary certificates on Wednesday March 18 — one to the Honolulu Festival Foundation and one to Keiichi Tsujino for their work on the 15th Annual Honolulu Festival. Mr. Tsujino, president of the Honolulu Festival Foundation, was not able to attend. However David Asanuma and Tatsuo Watanabe of the Honolulu Festival Foundation were there to receive the certificates. The people in the photo are(l to r): (back row) Charles Djou, Donovan Dela Cruz, Todd Apo, Nestor Garcia, Duke Bainum; (front row) Tatsuo Watanabe, David Asanuma, Rod Tam and Gary Okino.

92.3 KSSK Perry and Price Show from John Dominis

Honolulu Festival and Manoa DNA were invited to the Perry and Price Show at John Dominis on February 28. We were able to talk a bit of the upcoming Honolulu Festival on the weekend of March 14-15, 2009. And Manoa DNA, who will be performing at our Festival, was kind enough to perform two numbers for the audience.
We all got to enjoy the wonderful entertainment of Perry and Price. Karen Keawehawaii sat in for Larry. She's hilarious. Sweetie Pacarro kept the show moving along. And Michael Perry, such a smooth voice.
Thank you for always supporting the Honolulu Festival every year!




Honolulu Festival

94.7 The WAVE-Honolulu Festival Interview

Hi folks! Yes, we’re all getting ready for the Honolulu Festival. It’s next week! We were given the opportunity to promote our event on radio, 94.7 The WAVE. This Los Angeles radio station happened to be broadcasting from the JW Marriott Ihilani Resort & Spa at Ko Olina. The show airs live in L.A. from 6:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. with Ms. Pat Prescott.

We hope that the Los Angeles people listening to the station will pack their bags and head to beautiful Honolulu, Hawaii! The weather is great and there’s so much to do. Sun, swim and…come enjoy the Honolulu Festival!

Aloha.


Honolulu Festival
94.7 The WAVE