- Lynn Gordon Butterfield, Chief Operations Officer of the Wayne Brown Institute.

• Maui Economic Development Board: The Maui Economic Development Board (MEDB), a Hawaii not-for-profit corporation, has for the past dozen years been working to help diversify the economy of Maui by emphasizing technology-based industry. These efforst have included development of the Maui Research and Technology Park and management of the Maui Research and Technology Center within the park.
  
  
• Maui Research and Technology Park: The Maui Research and Technology Park is a 330-arce research and technology park development on the slopes of Mt. Haleakala. The park offers technology-oriented companies an ideal business location allowing them to maximize opportunities in both the Mainland U.S. and Asia-Pacific markets.
  
  
• Maui Research and Technology Center: Maui Research and Technology Center, which currently incubates nine high tech start-up companies, a communications and computation center and a video teleconferencing facility, is an important component in fostering the technology industry on Maui.
  
  
• Maui High Performance Computing Center: Maui High Performance Computing Center (MHPCC) is a national supercomputing center established in 1993 by the University of New Mexico under a cooperative agreement with the Air Force Research Laboratory. The computational resources are a 603 IMB SP nodes with 256 gigaflops of processing power, 167 gigabytes of total memory, 2.1 terabytes of internal disk, SGI Onyx Reality Engine system and a variety of high-end IBM, SGI and SUN workstations.
  
  
• High Technology Development Corporation: High Technology Development Corporation's (HTDC) mission is to facilitate the development and growth of commercial high technology industry in Hawaii. HTDC actively markets and promotes Hawaii as a site for high technology applications and gives advice on policy and planning.
  
  
• Hawaii venture capital sites: Information on financing for high technology ventures may be found at the following sites
  Hawaii Strategic Development Corporation
  Hawaii Venture Group
  Hawaii Venture Capital Association
  Tigrnet
  
  
• International Venture Capital Conference: The first WBI Investors Choice International Capital Conference held on Maui on May 19-20, 1999. The conference provided a unique opportunity for fifteen early-stage, high-technology companies, including four from Hawaii (Inegrated Coffee Technologies, Inc.; Monster Software, Inc.; ProBio Inc.; and Rescue Technologies Corporation) to procure "seed" investment from some of the world's leading professional and venture capital firms.

High Tech a Maui Priority

Development of a robust high tech industry in Maui County remains an important priority for the Apana Administration. We assisted high tech Maui marketing efforts, hosted focus groups and fam tours for media and meeting planners for such groups as the President's Circle of the National Academy of Sciences, responded to inquiries, provided a clearinghouse of information and other resources, assisted in the preparation of collateral materials and collaborated on other initiatives designed to promote the development of Maui's high tech industry.

Business development/attraction Mission to the Mainland (Winter 1999)

In partnership with the Maui Economic Development Board (MEDB) and Development Counsellors International, the Mayor, his economic development coordinator and MEDB President Jeanne Skog completed a very successful business development/attraction mission to the mainland (Silicon Valley and east coast media markets) to further this goal. The December mission was designed for face-to-face meetings with three types of people:

• high tech corporate leaders with an expressed interest in learning more about doing business in Maui;
• site selection consultants retained by companies to advise them on expansion and relocation matters; and
• top business and high tech media whose reporting reaches the corporate decision makers and influencers we want to reach.

The trip was highly educational for us as well. It helped to further refine the vision of what kinds of companies are best suited for Maui and Maui for them; what kinds of data they need and how it should be presented and what advantages some of Maui's assets such as the super computer offer. More importantly, the mission put Maui on the "radar screens" of highly influential people, in many cases for the first time. Maui was prospecting in ways the State had yet to contemplate. It was obvious from this mission that neither the State nor Maui had not been in front of most of these corporate, advisory and media VIPs with any kind of business-related message. We made an important first step, but keeping Maui on the radar screen will involved continued work.

Business development/attraction Mission to the Mainland (Spring 2000)

In February, the economic development team accompanied by Council Member Riki Hokama returned to Silicon Valley. The main purpose of the trip was to present Maui's high tech story to the Silicon Valley chapter of the American Marketing Association, an influential group of corporate meeting planners and executives, and to build on the contacts from the December trip to spur interest in Maui as a meeting site or business expansion venue.

Armed with knowledge gleaned from the December mission, we refined our materials and presentation. MEDB and OED assisted by the Business Research Library developed a community profile for Maui which detailed the kind of information site selectors seek without a lot of hype. The information was made available on CD rom as well as on the High Tech Maui website. In addition, Maui's presentation was featured prominently on the chapter's website

Prior to the SV-AMA chapter presentation, the team met with key executives of Sun Microsystems at their Palo Alto campus. The Tech Ready initiative to prepare Maui County's students for the new economy grew out of those initial meetings. Sun Microsystems offered to partner 50-50 with Maui County to bring their smart card, desk top information appliance (SunRay) technology to every classroom, library and youth center in the County. The Mayor accepted the challenge to raise the other 50% or $1M from the Community. The team also met with individuals interested in brining their computer skills training and certification programs to Maui.

Like the December mission, this trip to Silicon Valley successfully accomplished its objective of increasing awareness about High Tech Maui, uncovering new opportunities for the County and increasing our knowledge to build great success in the future.

Micro Gaia Inc.

Following up on an initial lead from the Department of Business Economic Development and Tourism, the Mayor's Economic Development team worked with the Micro Gaia executives from Japan who were in Hawaii to evaluate potential sites for business expansion. Their aquaculture business grows micro algae in a unique closed dome system. They were looking for climate (sun and temperature), water, ease of doing business, supportive officials and quality of life. The competition was Kona, Phoenix and California. The Mayor's team showed them the possibilities at MRTP which was appropriately zoned for their business, obtained water quality tests and other information, and explained the advantages of doing business on Maui. After the initial two visits and receiving more information from OED and others, the company evaluated Maui's assets and decided to bring their multi-million dollar business here. Then the Mayor's team facilitated negotiations with the land owner, guided them through the discharge/sewer permitting process (County) and import permitting process (Dept. of Agriculture), and generally worked with the company to assist their transition to the Valley Isle. They set up their laboratory and got their permits in record time. Micro Gaia's story is an excellent example of how government can assist business to enter the Maui community in a very positive way.

Officially dedicating their facility in October 2000, Micro Gaia, Inc. expects to be in full production and harvesting their first crop of Maui grown micro algae by then. The product will be dried on Maui then shipped back to Japan for processing. The company which purchased approximately 20 acres at MRTP is already considering an expansion. Micro Gaia is creating jobs for Maui residents and adding value to our economy. www.microgaia.com

High Tech Maui Newsletter

OED is a member of the editorial board for the "High Tech Maui" newsletter. The board members which also include representatives from MEDB, Maui High Performance Computing Center (MHPCC - the supercomputer) and other organizations at the MRTP develop, write and edit articles for each issue. The quarterly newsletter highlights ongoing and projected "tech" activity on Maui and is used as a marketing tool in our business attraction initiatives. The newsletter targets the scientific and technical companies on the mainland as well as the defense establishment, other government agencies and the high performance computing communities. www.HighTechMaui.com

Project EAST (Environmental and Spatial Technology)

In January 2000, the Principal of King Kamehameha III School in Lahaina brought the key partners of the Arkansas-based Project EAST initiative to Maui to explore the possibility of starting a lab and program at Lahainaluna High School. Project EAST helps students learn critical thinking, problem solving and other skills by using cutting edge technology such as Computer Assisted Drafting (CAD), Geographic Information Systems (GIS), Global Positioning Systems (GPS) and computer graphics applications such as soft image. The goal is to prepare students for the information technology age.

The EAST Project was started by a frustrated Arkansas school teacher whose students couldn't find jobs while local companies with jobs turned to an out of state venue for their tech ready workforce and a successful software systems executive of Wellsco Graphic Solutions who wanted to give back to his community. EAST private partners contribute 80% of the cost of establishing the lab and then provide technical support to the teachers and students to help insure that the program is successful. The community must commit remaining the 20%. The value of the lab's equipment and software is almost $500,000.

The purpose of the initial visit by the Arkansas Project EAST team was to explain the program and gauge community support. They made numerous presentations including one to a cross section of the community at Maui Research and Technology Center. The support for the concept was overwhelming from business people, Maui's tech community, educators, students and community leaders. Following a second visit in which some of the Arkansas students involved in Project EAST also made presentations, the Lahaina school community, Lahaina businesses, MEDB, the County, the Chamber of Commerce, DOE and others began making plans to bring this valuable program and learning opportunity to Maui. The Project EAST team felt a two school pilot program would be a good way to begin. Maui High School would be Lahainaluna's partner since MHS had video conferencing capabilities and a good computer lab as a starting point. The Mayor also committed to help raise the initial $100,000 required as the community match to establish the EAST program and lab at Lahainaluna and Maui High Schools. The long range goal is to establish the Project EAST program at all the high schools in the County. Project EAST was the initial catalyst behind the Tech Ready Campaign.

Tech Ready

Following the Mayor's lead, OED, MEDB and the Chamber of Commerce formed a steering committee to launch a campaign to raise the required community match for the Sun Microsystems and Project EAST initiatives. The project planned in FY 00 and launched in FY 01 is called Tech Ready. Its goal is to raise $1.5 over three years to fund an important public-private sector initiative to improve technological skills and computer access of our future workforce, our students, and their teachers.

Tech Ready effort involves two significant community partnerships:

• SunMicro Systems - to place a Sun Ray desk top information appliance with the appropriate number of servers in every classroom, youth center and library in Maui County and
• Project EAST consortium - to establish an environmental and spatial technology lab and program initially at Lahainaluna and Maui High schools. EAST plans to expand county-wide following the pilot phase.