A website and blog with podcasts on cool projects, tools, ideas and resources in Hawaii and sometimes elsewhere
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Last week Teena Rasmussen, Maui County Economic Development Coordinator provided a short debrief or overview of the County’s activity for the APEC conference including sharing beautifully produced booklet and video which you can download and see here
Maui County APEC booklet - here
Maui County APEC Video
This week we see the inaugural TEDxMaui, in what will hopefully be an annual event focusing on ideas from a diverse collection of thinkers and doers. It should be an inspiring day, and as with its parent TED Talks (Technology, Entertainment, Design) should produce a dozen or more short videos that will join the hundreds of internet delivered videos that provide bite sized inspiration to motivate and inspire.
Hopefully it will also stimulate interest in moving beyond ideas and taking actions: engaging in real projects to solve problems and making a better world. We need more tools to help do this and hopefully TEDxMaui as well as other efforts on Maui can come together on a more frequent basis, at least monthly to help this happen.
Once such tool that I am a big fan of and have organized and promoted several times over the years is the enterprise forum. Based on a design by MIT, these forums go in depth with a particular venture allowing a for-profit or non-profit time to provide an overview of their business plan or idea, followed up by a panel discussion by people who are selected in advance for their knowledge of the field who have an opportunity to review the presentation in advance and are charged with making thoughtful constructive comments. The discussion is then open to all attendees. It is a wonderful learning experience for all involved and presenting companies typically leave with supporters and perhaps even investors.
You can see videos of some of the venture forums that we have done on Maui featuring companies such as Pacific Biodiesel and Bamboo Technologies here at this blog at this link.
It takes a lot of work to put on a regular forum between setting up and promoting the event, to preparing the companies and panelists. But I think those who have participated have benefited greatly both from the formal presentations and from the networking and discussion that takes place.
At last week’s APEC debrief in the Maui Mayor’s Office I suggested that we need to collaborate as a community to have a monthly event where the focus is moving projects from idea to reality. My co-conspirator in designing a Hawaii Local Exchange, Virendra Nath is on board bringing his six years of experience running the Maui Angels group. Also on board or Maui newcomer James Frazier of Natural Investing. James is featured (as is the Hawaii Local Exchange) in TEDxMaui speaker Amy Cortese’s Locavesting book for his work with LION - (Local Investment Opportunity Network) in Port Townsend, WA. I also believe we have interest from former Maui Tech Ohana partners, the Maui Economic Development Board (MEDB). We hope that we can be joined by the Maui County Office for Economic Development, UH Maui College the Maui Chamber, the Maui Native Hawaiian Chamber and others. Last, but not least, I think there is interest from the TEDxMaui organizers and perhaps one of their sponsors, the new Lumeria Center which is hosting a Collaboratory on designing a sustainable village this Saturday 12/21 at 10 a.m. at their Baldwin Ave. campus.
The main design criteria for what I am promoting is that it be broadly inclusive with lots of networking and that we meet at least monthly at a regular time. After that I hope we can be flexible with formats and locations. It is very difficult to sustain the in-depth nature of an enterprise forum, so other formats including speed dating, design sessions, and even basic topic presentations should be fair game. Let me know if you are interested, and stay tuned.
Crowd funding is a sub category of "crowd sourcing", primarily known for helping individuals and organizations raise money through donations. Examples range from raising $2,000 to make an independent film to candidate Barack Obama raising over $200 million for his 2008 campaign.
In the last ten days there has been dramatic bi-partisan progress around reforming securities laws to make it possible for "job creators" to use the internet to raise investment from their personal networks.
The White House proposal would allow raises of up to $1 million but with a cap of $10k per investors.
Last week the chair of the House Subcommittee on TARP, Financial Services & Bailouts of Public and Private Entites, Rep. Patrick McHenry both introduced HR 2930 and held a hearing "Crowdfunding: Connecting Investors and Job Creators".
Crowd Funding in the form of donations have helped raise over $200 million for thousands of projects. The most famous sites are http://Kickstarter.com, and http://Indiegogo.com. There is a new Maui site http://Greenfunder.com that I am currently doing a campaign with for Friends of the Hawaii Local Exchange.
There are two sites that have gone beyond donations to investment: http://Profounder.com and http://Kiiva.com. One of Profounder’s first success stories is Uncle Clay’s House of Pure Aloha in Honolulu. They raised $70,000 from customers, friends and family to move a shave ice operation to better facilities.
If these reforms go through and are affordable to those raising money while protecting investors, it could be a major breakthrough in how small businesses test ideas and raise money.
Yesterday, Molly Rasmussen and I were guests on the Maui Breakfast Club with Tom and Kelli. Listen to this entertaining 2-hr radio show for an explanation of crowd funding and the proposed changes. Fast forward to the beginning of the second hour.
There is an Op-Ed piece in the New York Times on last week’s developments by Amy Cortese, author of the book Locavesting, and guest at one of lunch time talk story events last July.
If you would like to receive more timely e-mail versions of CoolProjectsMaui postings and more sign up for David Fisher’s e-mail list at this link. This is a new list as of the end of September 2011, so if you were on an earlier list please sign up again. Sorry for the inconvenience.
More links:
Both those developing green businesses and those interested in investing will want to meet Michael Kramer and James Frazier with Natural Investing. Michael is based on the Big Island and James is a new resident on Maui. There will be two FREE sessions on Tuesday, September 20th. A lunchtime session from 11:30-1:30 (bring potluck) and a pau hana session from 5:30-7:30 bring pupus. Webex instructions will be posted here before the event. RSVP for Event
Whether you want to make capitalism more compassionate and ecologically wise or you want to help alleviate poverty and build local economies, many strategies are available today to align your values with your investments. And with hundreds of socially responsible funds and managers investing in virtually every asset class, today’s investment portfolios can achieve the diversification and competitive performance of conventional approaches. Come learn about opportunities to make a difference while saving for your future. You’ll be amazed at what’s possible as the green economy begins to flourish.
Natural Investments LLC is an investment adviser registered with the SEC, and it has been the only firm in Hawaii exclusively dedicated to sustainable and responsible investments since 2000. Natural Investments has offices in 8 states and serves individual and institutional clients nationwide. http://www.
James Frazier is a financial advisor specializing in socially and environmentally responsible investing with Natural Investments LLC, based in Maui and Port Townsend, WA. He is a charter member of the Local Investing Opportunities Network (LION) of East Jefferson County, WA, and a finance graduate of the Wharton School of Business of the University of Pennsylvania. Outside the financial world, his passion for sustainable living has spurred him to explore permaculture, eco-building, natural medicine, yoga, renewable power systems, and more.
Michael Kramer is an Accredited Investment Fiduciary and Managing Partner and Director of Social Research at Natural Investments LLC. Michael is actively involved in shareholder advocacy and regulatory reform efforts while maintaining the NI Social Rating of domestic socially responsible mutual funds. Michael has lived on Hawai`i Island since 1999, where he founded the Kuleana Green Business Program of the Kona-Kohala Chamber of Commerce in 2005 and the Kona Earth Festival. He currently serves on the board of the Sustainability Association of Hawai`i and the Hawai`i Alliance for a Local Economy.
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Friends of the Hawaii Local Exchange, a new non-profit organization is doing a survey to explore interest in bringing back a Hawaii Local Exchange.
Please help us by letting us know if you think this is a good thing to research, by completing one or more of the surveys below. You may also want to check out the http://HILocalExchange.org website and watch the TedX talk by Michael Shuman. There is also some background information below.
We would like to gather your thoughts on the matter. Please take 5 minutes to complete as many of the following three surveys as appropriate to you:
Survey for Retail Investors - Anyone who has/had money invested in the national stock market, either via their employer’s retirement program, a mutual fund, a traditional stock broker (e.g. Morgan Stanley Smith Barney) or through a discount broker (e.g. Charles Schwab).
Survey for Accredited Investors - Those able to invest in privately offered investments who in order to be eligible to do so must have more than $1 million in assets or have annual revenues exceeding an average greater than $500k over the last three years - as defined by the SEC.
Survey for Business Owners/Managers/Advisers - If you see your self needing to raise capital over the next ten years and would consider doing so through a direct public offering of stock or debt. If a company lists on the public area of a Hawaii exchange, it would become a public company and would be required to meet the requirements of the SEC, although there are filing exemptions for small businesses that can make it much less costly than doing an IPO through one of the New York exchanges. Seehttp://www.sec.gov/info/smallbus/qasbsec.htm
Background - One method of building a diversified economy and enhancing economic growth in Hawaii is to have Hawaii money invested in Hawaii companies.
Studies have shown that every dollar spent at a locally owned business generates two to four times more economic benefit—measured in income, wealth, jobs, and tax revenue—than a dollar spent at a globally owned business. That is because locally owned businesses spend much more of their money locally and thereby increase the economic multiplier.
We also know that there are many successful entrepreneurs with ideas for company growth, but the lack of investor capital limits the growth of their companies.
If more investors invest in Hawaii companies, the cost of capital to Hawaii entrepreneurs goes down and these companies can grow faster and become more successful.
One idea to make investing easier is creating a local stock exchange. Hawaii had a stock exchange for 75 years until it closed in 1976 because of economies of scale and national centralization. Since then, both regulation and deregulation has resulted in a system that does not serve local companies. There is a new movement to bring back local exchanges.
The Hawaii Legislature has asked the Department of Commerce and Consumer Affaires to create a study group to investigate what would be needed to bring back a Hawaii local exchange and to provide guidance on what this would look like.
There is more back ground information on local exchanges and this project at http://HILocalExchange.org.
Featuring Jay April who is the CEO of Akaku, Maui’s public access media organization. Jay was involved in the first public access television program in the 1970’s in Connecticut and also produced some of the first environmental programing for CNN. He came to Maui in the early 90’s to run Synchromics Studios at the Maui Tech Park and has been involved with Akaku for over the last 10 years. He has also stayed connected with the network of individuals and organizations involved with advocating for the public’s access to media.
Why is broadband important? Why is it that Hawaii has some of the worst and most expensive Internet connectivity in the US, and the U.S way behind many other nations? How can we change this? Join in the discussion and learn both about national trends and what is going on in Hawaii.
Learn about Akaku’s grant with the Broadband Technology Opportunities Program, one of President Obama’s Recovery Act Investments. Find out how you can get involved.
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Here is the streaming video recording of the Conversation with Jay April
Supporting links:
http://Akaku.org - Maui’s public access media center
http://MauiTube.org - the website for Akaku’s Broadband Technology Opportunities Program project
http://www2.ntia.doc.gov/- the website for the U.S. Broadband Technology Opportunities Program.
http://www.hibroadbandmap.org/ - Hawaii’s Broadband Map
http://www.muninetworks.org/ - Community Broadband Networks resource website
http://rootstrikers.org/ - a project of Fix Congress First, a nonprofit founded in 2008 by Lawrence Lessig and Joe Trippi to fight the corrupting influence of money in politics.
We also continued a discussion of incubator type working spaces, a subject we will focus on in more detail in a future session. Three sites that we discussed are:
http://www.techhui.com/group/coworking
Meet author Amy Cortese and learn about her book "Locavesting" Tuesday, June 28th from 11:30-1:30. You can participate either from your computer or iPhone, or join us at the Maui Research & Tech Center in Kihei. For online go to http://coolprojects.webex.com.
See reviews of her book at Amazon.com
Topic: Virtual "Meet the Author" with Amy Cortese
Date: Tuesday, June 28, 2011
Time: 11:30 am, Hawaii Time (Honolulu, GMT-10:00)
Meeting Number: 571 402 878
Meeting Password: aloha
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To join the online meeting (Now from mobile devices!)
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1. Go to https://coolprojects.webex.com/coolprojects/j.php?ED=175683507&UID=0&PW=NMTRlZTI4MDE2&RT=MiMy
2. If requested, enter your name and email address.
3. If a password is required, enter the meeting password: aloha
4. Click "Join".
To view in other time zones or languages, please click the link:
https://coolprojects.webex.com/coolprojects/j.php?ED=175683507&UID=0&PW=NMTRlZTI4MDE2&ORT=MiMy
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To join the audio conference only
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Call-in toll number (US/Canada): 1-408-792-6300
Access code:571 402 878
This is the third in our Cool Projects University lunch time talk story series. Spence is the first to launch of a series of locally focused investor match making programs ultimately working towards bringing back local stock exchanges. Others in the works include the Lancaster Exchange in Pennsylvania, and the Hawaii Local Exchange in Hawaii. These three are in the process of creating the Focus Local Finance Association to support similar efforts in local communities.
Face-to-face participation is at the Maui Research and Technology Center in Kihei, 590 Lipoa Parkway (bring a brown bag lunch).
Online participation is via the instructions below. Remember to use a headset, ear-phones, or mute when not talking. If you have a bad connection you can call in via the phone info below.
Topic: Talk Story with Adam Spence of the Toronto Social Venture Exchange
Last week’s session was a short tutorial on "Evaluating Your Idea". This week we are going to hear about participants projects.
This will be combined face-to-face at the Maui Research & Technology Center and via Webex from your computer. We start at 11:30 a.m. Hawaii Time. Go to http://coolprojects.webex.com for the online version. This week focus is on sharing and getting feedback on participants projects.
For example, David Fisher will provide a report on the Hawaii Local Exchange which was mentioned in the Wall Street Journal last week in an article on the return of local exchanges. It is also featured in a new book Locavesting by Amy Cortese. See http://HILocalExchange.org for links.
We are working on developing our projects and our skills at working long distance. Future sessions will include presenters and participants from all Hawaii and beyond.