HONOLULU CHAPTER

Our Objectives

ALOHA, E Komo Mai! While the Hawaiian islands are traditionally considered so very far away from London, the world is getting smaller due to technology and Honolulu has more connections with the UK than one might think. Hawaiian Airlines recently started a direct service from JFK, so travellers from the UK can now fly directly from the East Coast of America onward to Honolulu in addition to the usual option to transfer from Los Angeles. While part of Honolulu’s charm is its simple and playful beach lifestyle, the City and County of Honolulu also has particular strengths within the tech sector. We have 3 main objectives:

To equally promote Honolulu-based and British businesses with a special emphasis on tech related to the environment.
To promote and support events and activities that may be of mutual interest to both people and businesses in Honolulu and Britain.
To grow the Tech London Advocates community to include the outer islands, other parts of the Asia-Pacific region and collaboration with neighboring countries like Japan, The Philippines, China, Korea, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

Planned Activity for 2022

Due to travel restrictions related to Covid, activities for TLA Honolulu are on hiatus until further notice – if you have any questions about tech in Honolulu, please contact Pauline.

NUMBER OF ADVOCATES IN GROUP

TBC

Fun Facts about Tech in Honolulu and neighbor islands:

Honolulu is the only US city to have had an official Royal Residence – Iolani Palace. Buckingham Palace installs electric lights during 1883-1887. Iolani Palace had the first electric lights in Hawaii after switching from gas lighting to electric in 1887, becoming one of the world’s first royal residences to be electrically lighted. In 1891, The White House in Washington D.C. installs electric lights.
The immediate association with Honolulu, which contains the world-famous Waikiki Beach is relaxation amidst beautiful waters, but there is a wealth of cutting edge technology due to ubiquitous military presence. For example, the famous crater popular for its hiking trail, Diamond Head is also the headquarters of the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency.
The Big Island of Hawaii has a special land use zone known as the “Astronomy Precinct” that contains the Mauna Kea Observatories, a number of independent astronomical research facilities and large telescope observatories funded by government agencies of various nations, including the United Kingdom. The location is near ideal due to factors such as lack of light pollution, low humidity, high altitude, a low latitude location, clean air and good weather.
The Honorary Consul for the Netherlands, Henk Rogers is also one of Honolulu’s tech giants. Henk is a video game designer and known for owning the rights to TETRIS.
The University of Hawaii’s Cancer Center is one of only 70 NCI designated Cancer Centers of more than 1,000 cancer centers across America.
Oceanit, a breakthrough science and technology company not only covers markets like oil and gas as well as space and defense but also fashion technology!
Hawaii has plans for space tourism with Kona International Airport on the Big Island selected as the best of 26 options for a potential spaceport in Hawaii.