Magazines about meetings invite trip planners to Maui

Seeds of future group travel to Hawaii will be sown on the Valley Isle later this month as the Sheraton Maui hosts "Destination Maui," staged by sister publications Successful Meetings and Meetings and Conventions magazines.

"Meet. Learn. Network," the event announcement beckons. Conventions, meetings and incentive travel planners are invited to "experience the Hawaiian culture and see why Hawaii is the destination for your next meeting," it says.

Twenty-nine tourism-related entities including the event’s destination management company, Aloha Holidays, will be exhibitors at the Sept. 20-23 event. Attendees will be hosted by the Sheraton Maui Resort & Spa, which will throw a welcome reception the first evening at 6 p.m.

The other exhibitors are mostly upscale: this-hotel-and-resort or that hotel-and-spa, with properties on all islands represented, though the islands themselves also will be represented by the Hawaii Visitors and Convention Bureau, the Big Island Visitors Bureau, Kauai Visitors Bureau, and the Maui Visitors and Convention Bureau — which of course will show off Maui, Molokai and Lanai.

Norwegian Cruise Line and Maui Jim, the sunglasses company, are also planning exhibitor booths.

The more than two dozen exhibitors will have one-on-one meetings with conference attendees, who also will visit the Westin Maui Resort & Spa, the Makena Beach Golf Resort, the Fairmont Kea Lani Maui and the Ritz-Carlton Kapalua. They’ll catch the show "‘Ulalena: A Story of Hawai‘i’s People" in Lahaina after dinner at the Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. restaurant, which everyone knows serves uber-authentic Hawaiian cuisine.

Qualified meeting planners will receive complimentary round-trip airfare, hotel accommodations, ground transportation and meals.

The familiarization tour for meeting planners is "very important" to us, said Terryl Vencl, executive director of the Maui Visitors and Convention Bureau. "When you get group business, you foster a link for more group business," she said.

Groups traveling for convention, meeting or incentive travel are generally traveling on the company dime, so they have money to spend with a destination’s small businesses, on activities and at restaurants, "and that continues to help the economy overall," Vencl said, "not just the resort area, but everybody gets some help."

On the Net:

» www.successfulmeetings.com

» www.meetings-conven­tions.com

» www.businessaloha.com

Need-to-know news for nonprofits

Nonprofit organizations too busy trying to do more with less may not have had the ability to stay abreast of legislative and regulatory changes that may affect operations and, perhaps more importantly, compliance.

A host of speakers at the eighth annual "Nonprofit Organizations" one-day seminar at Chaminade University will update attendees on new rules and forms relating to charitable trusts and nonprofits of all types.

The 7:45 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Sept. 30 event is at the Pagoda Hotel ballroom. More information can be obtained and $160 per person registration can be completed via phone at 946-2966 ext. 130 or 107.

Reach Erika Engle at erika@staradvertiser.com.