Sabry Shehata, a professor of agribusiness at the University of Hawai‘i at Hilo, has come up with what looks like a good site about Hawai‘i’s agricultural products. Above is the banner for one of the companies listed at the site.
June 15, 2008
October 12, 2007
No, no, Noa Noa
The following was written in September for the Home page; I decided to include it as a separate post. Reading it now, I see that mindfulness would have been a great help to me when I visited Noa Noa.
On Sunday, my sister and I went to Ward Center, shopping at My Little Secret, where I bought a few birthday gifts for her boyfriend, and The Executive Chef. After that, we looked in at the Excel store and stopped at Satura’s for delicious pastries and a pizza variation called a pizzarella.
I then decided to stop at Noa Noa, which sells “Fashions for men and women in fine batik fabrics, painted by hand with comfort and ease in mind” and does business on the internet as Hawaiian Shirt Shoppe. Anyone who loves exquisitely printed fabrics will appreciate the clothing at Noa Noa. Unfortunately, I must have offended the saleswoman when I picked up a wraparound skirt and, yes, wrapped it around my sister to show her that it could also be worn as a top. After that, the woman followed me around the store zealously, watching my every move.
Several minutes later, she announced that she was going to the ladies’ room and would be closing the store. Bewildered by this treatment, I left with my sister.
Nearby Noa Noa is a boutique called MisFortune. Still perplexed by what had happened at Noa Noa, I looked at the clothes at MS and found a cute skirt, which I tried on. It was too small for my fiftyish figure, and I left soon after, waving goodbye to the saleswoman.
It wasn’t until yesterday that I made sense of my Noa Noa experience. I decided to write to the e-mail address given at Hawaiian Shirt Shoppe’s website and explain that I admired the store’s clothing and probably would have bought something. Making this explicit gave me some comfort, and I hope that whoever reads my message—if indeed it gets read—will see that a lack of communication and an assumption about motives led to the loss of a sale.
October 8, 2007
Love, marriage, and business
Over the last two or so months, I’ve gotten to know two couples: Gabe and Stephanie, of Papa Lucks, and Bruno and Kim, of Mix. These husband-wife teams are running eateries, the former on the University of Hawai‘i at Manoa campus and the latter in the heart of downtown Honolulu.
I’m pretty sure they would like each other if they had the chance to meet and would find they have a lot in common:
- trying to keep the costs of business low while keeping the quality of their food high;
- balancing the demands of doing business with those of their personal lives;
- coming up with offerings that will satisfy the customers they’re targeting;
- trying to find the right people to help them;
- thinking about their jobs constantly, to the exclusion of focusing on the present moment;
- lack of sleep.
After watching them and talking with them over the last several weeks, I’ve concluded that running an eatery has to be in the category of very difficult jobs. I can saunter over, order what I want, and then eat and leave, but they must always be there—to serve my wants and needs and those of their many customers.
Papa Lucks is located in between the art building and Miller Hall, which houses fashion-design students, among others. Students go to PL for snacks in between classes, for breakfast in the morning, and for their big meal of the day: lunch. This is quite different from what Govinda’s—which is in the Sustainability Courtyard and close to where I work—does: it opens at 10 and closes at 2, and its main customers are those who want a vegetarian lunch.
To those who frequent PL, Gabe has become a friend: someone who can trade pidgin jokes with the best of them, who can discuss anything from the surf to the latest political developments, and who listens to Miles Davis and other jazz notables but can talk about other kinds of music as well. A recent customer asked him what he does in his spare time, and he replied with a slight smile, “Experimental dentistry…punk-rock counseling.”
Gabe also cooks; he makes a mushroom quiche and bakes ginger-and-pecan scones—delicious.
On the other side of town is Mix, which was just reviewed in Honolulu magazine. Turn to page 143 of the October issue, and you can read what John Heckathorn had to say about it. I won’t spoil the surprise by summarizing the review here. Suffice it to say that you will want to try Mix immediately if you haven’t already 
August 27, 2007
Green technologies and businesses
The following is from a message sent to me by Ode magazine.
Dear Ode friend,
Ode is pleased to support GoingGreen Executive Summit on September 10-12, hosted by AlwaysOn and U.C. Davis Graduate School of Management, and we wanted to make sure you were invited.
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2007 AlwaysOn GoingGreen Summit
Greener Pastures for Global Business
What to Expect
GoingGreen is where cutting-edge greentech CEOs meet the movers and shakers from the biggest industries on earth. Green technology innovators are transforming the global energy, water, agriculture, transportation, construction, manufacturing, and resource-recovery establishments. This two-and-a-half-day executive event features CEO presentations and high-level debates on the most promising emerging green technologies and new entrepreneurial opportunities.
At GoingGreen, our editors will also honor the GoingGreen 100 Top Companies. Fifty of the top CEOs from the GoingGreen 100 will pitch their market strategies to a panel of industry experts in our CEO Showcase.
Who Attends
Seven hundred greentech CEOs, business development officers, eminent researchers, venture capital and private-equity investors, and leading members of the press and blogging community will attend GoingGreen. Over 20,000 webcast viewers from over 100 countries will also tune in and interact with the program. Executives attend GoingGreen to identify and debate emerging trends, build high-level relationships, and create new business opportunities.
Trends and Topics
- The Green Energy of Tomorrow
- Batteries
- Water Supply, Storage & Treatment
- Photovoltaics
- The Green City
- Growing Biofuel
- Alternative Fuels – Landfill Waste, Animal Fat, Plant Fiber
- Organic & Biofuel Impacts on Global Agriculture
- Global Warming Challenges
- Water Entrepreneurs
- Wastewater Treatment Opportunities
- Distributed Energy Infrastructure
- The Virtual Utility
- Wind Power
- Fuel Cells vs. Batteries
- Green Consumer Products
- The Next Generation Automobile
- Biofuel Refining
- The Green Home
- Waste and Pollution Treatment
- The 500,000 Year Timeline
- Green Energy Companies
- Mega-Projects – Watering & Cooling the World
- Big vs. Small – Synergies for Green Civilization
- Fuel Cells
- Public & Private, Who is Greenest?
- What are the Most Lucrative, Transformative Green Technologies?
