The APEC summit was touted as a once in a lifetime opportunity for Hawaii businesses to showcase their products to a worldwide audience.
Five businesses were chosen out of two-thousand applicants to represent the counties and the state as winners of The Hawaii Business Innovation Showcase.
Marisa Yamane spoke with those businesses to find out what they gained from APEC.
Only one of the businesses actually signed an agreement with a company it met at APEC.
But the others say even if they didn’t make any deals, they still made some great connections.
Oahu-based solar power technology company Sopogy, which has customers all over the world, could soon be expanding to China.
"Oh and it’s a huge market, China is. If you think about energy, China is where it’s all happening right now," said Darren Kimura, Sopogy President and CEO.
Sopogy signed a memorandum of understanding with Sichuan Dongjia Investment Company Sunday night.
"It came together over dinner and we stitched up the last few details," said Kimura.
Sopogy was selected by the APEC Hawaii Host Committee to represent the City and County of Honolulu.
"We were on a lot of things, we were in the hotels, we were in the tents, pavilions, at Ala Aoana, at the airport, Convention Center, we were in brochures. It was awesome for us, to be frank," said Kimura.
Oahu-based SKAI Ventures, which invented DeaconGel, was the statewide winner.
The company’s founder said: "SKAI Ventures has received tremendous interest from individuals and organizations at APEC regarding commercial partnerships. We are in deep discussions with a number of distribution partners from the Asia Pacific region."
The winner from Hawaii County, Big Island Carbon, is a two-year old company which makes carbon using macadamia nut shells.
"It met my expectations. I was just glad to know we have some connections in Southeast Asia and we’ll just push them along," said Rick Vidgen, Big Island Carbon CEO.
TREX Enterprises, which manufactures optical and structural components for the aerospace and semiconductor industries, represented Kauai County.
"Overall I think it exceeded our expectations as far as being able to meet with some really high level people," said Nathan Wood, TREX Enterprises Director of Operations.
And the winner from Maui County was HNU Energy, which offers renewable energy generation and high-efficiency lighting products.
"Now some big doors have been opened to us and we intend to continue to nurture those relationships that were established during this," said Dan O’Connell, HNU Energy CEO.
Overall, it seems the businesses found it to be an invaluable experience.
See the original article at: KHON2 Local News
