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Coming out of a two-year pause in in-person meetings, I had begun to wonder whether the best days of face-to-face gatherings were behind us. Videoconferences were not just safer for your health, but could accommodate everyone and be organized easily.
The social nature of our species appears to have persevered, however, and people are getting together again with a vengeance. September’s Hawaii Geek Meet was the biggest ever, suggesting pent-up demand for simple human interaction.
Stepping up to meet this demand are several new local tech and startup groups, all with a shared interest in fostering networking, collaboration and interconnection among our diverse communities.
First, I’m delighted to see more activity on the neighbor islands, with fledgling tech groups on Meetup.com for Maui and Kauai for starters.
On Hawaii island a new initiative called Startup Hawaii is committed to building a network of high-growth, scalable tech startups to ensure a diverse, equitable and sustainable future for Moku o Keawe.
Founded by Maria Leonardi, Startup Hawaii already has several local partners, including the nonprofit Vibrant Hawaii. The first meet-up in Kona was a great success, with the next headed to Hilo. For more information, visit startup- hawaii.com.
Meanwhile, Honolulu still enjoys an embarrassment of riches when it comes to local tech groups.
Last week brought the relaunch of Startup Oahu, formerly Honolulu Startup Drinks, founded by Ben Weinberg. Weinberg is building a platform dedicated to celebrating lost loved ones called Momento, and as a tech founder and entrepreneur, he created the group to bring together people in a similar circumstance.
While Startup Oahu continues to host casual potlucks in Waikiki on the last Tuesday of every month, Weinberg plans to expand programming to include additional events. For more information, visit meetup.com/startup-oahu.
After a six-year hiatus, Startup Weekend is returning to Honolulu in November, bringing back the popular, immersive, three-day program designed to help entrepreneurs innovate, disrupt and start a company. Now affiliated with the Colorado- based Techstars accelerator, the local program is being hosted Nov. 4-6 by the Purple Mai‘a Foundation.
Organizers hope to draw people — and especially women — with an idea for a startup to spend the weekend building a team and a prototype to pitch for prizes on Sunday. For more information, visit purplemaia.org.
Finally, I’m excited to see the successful debut of ThriveHI, a new organization well positioned to hone Hawaii’s tech workforce for a remote-first future.
“Growing up, hearing that someone’s dad is an engineer used to mean that they turn wrenches at Pearl Harbor,” recalled co-founder Rich Matsui. “Our intent is to show our keiki the new world of high-paying tech jobs out there, as many of these jobs can now be done from Hawaii.”
Last week ThriveHI hosted its first event for University of Hawaii students, in partnership with the Pacific Asian Center for Entrepreneurship and the student Association for Computing Machinery. More than 100 students were able to speak with 35 tech workers who volunteered to share their experiences and advice.
The speakers came from tech companies like Amazon and Google, with roles ranging from CEO to data scientist, user researcher to junior developer. More notably, over 80% of them recently had moved to Hawaii from the mainland.
While there are programs like Movers and Shakas and its Hawaii Talent Onboarding Program, which are designed to help newcomers to Hawaii assimilate into local communities, ThriveHI wants the main beneficiaries of the “work from Hawaii” movement to be people from Hawaii. Co-founder Trung Lam, who recently left a 16-year corporate career to find his calling in the local innovation ecosystem, put it plainly.
“The increase in the cost of housing in Hawaii is outpacing the growth in wages,” he said. “If we cannot widen the path to high-paying jobs, locals will be priced out of Hawaii.
“ThriveHI is our attempt at bringing the kind of jobs to Hawaii that will allow our children and their grandchildren to afford to stay in Hawaii after college,” Lam added. “It won’t happen overnight, but I believe we are laying the foundation for meaningful change.”
For more details, and to receive the biweekly ThriveHI newsletter, visit thrivehi.org.
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Ryan Kawailani Ozawa hosts a free tech job board to connect Hawaii companies and local tech workers. Submit your listings and find your next career at jobs.hawaiitech.com..
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