HVCB selling Hawaii at California expo

The Hawaii Visitors and Convention Bureau will be selling the value of holding events in the state at a two-day Hospitality Sales and Marketing Association International trade show Wednesday and Thursday in Long Beach, Calif.

The event is expected to draw 1,000 top meetings industry professionals — mostly corporate, independent and association planners — from throughout the western U.S.

"A big factor working in Hawaii’s favor is that people really enjoy coming here for meetings and conventions, which typically leads to higher-than-projected attendance figures," said Michael Murray, vice president of sales and marketing for HVCB’s corporate meetings and incentives division.

First Hawaiian aids students on Guam

First Hawaiian Bank is donating $40,000 in scholarships to the University of Guam, in honor of its 40th year serving in the Micronesia area.

Forty $1,000 scholarships will be awarded to 2010 graduates of public and private schools in Guam and Saipan. Applications will be available beginning July 1 through the University of Guam’s admissions office.

The University of Guam, founded in 1952, is the only U.S.-accredited four-year university in the Western Pacific region.

Red Cross gets $10,000 grant

Hawaii’s American Red Cross chapter received a $10,000 grant from the First Hawaiian Bank Foundation, the bank’s charity arm.

The grant will be use to provide assistance to disaster victims and community members through their Preparedness and Response Program.

Asia, U.S. leaders to meet at isle event

About 800 Asia Pacific and U.S. scholars, officials, educators, business leaders and other professionals — most of them alumni of East-West Center programs — will gather in Honolulu July 2-5 for the center’s 50th-anniversary International Conference at the Hawai’i Convention Center.

Former EWC Fellow Rajendra Pachauri, chairman of the Nobel Peace Price-winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, will give a free public First Hawaiian lecture at 5:45 p.m. on July 2 on "Emerging Trends for a New Climate Agreement."

Registration for the full conference is $350 general, or $300 for EWC members and guests, University of Hawaii alumni and Fulbright grant recipients.