Jody Kono doesn’t take “no” for an answer. Actually, she doesn’t take “no” to mean “no.” Even if a prospective client turns her down when she tries selling them the Hawai’i Convention Center as the perfect place for a meeting
Jody Kono doesn’t take “no” for an answer.
Actually, she doesn’t take “no” to mean “no.”
Even if a prospective client turns her down when she tries selling them the Hawai’i Convention Center as the perfect place for a meeting large or small, she looks at the experience more as a relationship-building opportunity than a sale lost.
“Relationships are everything,” said Kono, a Lihu’e native and national sales manager for the Hawai’i Convention Center.
If a prospective client tells her the center is too large for his or her needs, but still books a convention at a hotel or other venue anywhere in the state, Hawai’i still wins, said Kono.
“Even if the Hawai’i Convention Center doesn’t win, the state does. You have to look at the big picture,” explains Kono, 33 and single.
And, there’s always next year for that rare sale that gets away.
The world of convention and meeting marketing is fast-paced, and with competition coming from international venues like Hong Kong, London, Paris and Sydney, as well as the Mainland West Coast, one could easily think that it is a dog-eat-dog industry.
Kono doesn’t see it that way.
While the other convention centers are competitors, Kono knows there is no place else in the world like Hawai’i, and once people get a look at the Hawai’i Convention Center, the place pretty much sells itself.
“It’s a gorgeous center, with a fabulous staff and service, and great food and beverage,” said Kono, not yet making her sales pitch but speaking from the heart and her experience of one year in her present position, and nearly five years with the center.
Actually, her title as national sales manager is a bit of a misnomer, since a lot of her time and attention are devoted to bringing Japanese groups to Hawai’i and the center.
It is that great food and beverage department that has made the center and Kono so successful in the Japanese convention market, which typically brings groups to the state for a concert and a meal and not much more.
The groups she has booked recently aren’t exactly household names in Hawai’i or America, but Erina, Charle and Daito Kentaku are huge in Japan, and are Kono’s clients.
Daito Kentaku is the largest construction and management firm in Japan. And the Japan convention market is hot right now, with indications that that economy is making at least a mild comeback after well-chronicled doldrums, she said.
Just as the convention business from Japan mirrors a typical Japanese tourist’s short stay in the islands, that business also tends to book within six months of an intended visit, she explained.
Most of Kono’s business is “client-driven,” which in sales speak means the customers come to her, instead of her going to the customers. Corporate accounts that book within 13 months of arrival are her primary customers, since the Hawai’i Visitors & Convention Bureau handles Hawai’i Convention Center bookings made 14 or more months in advance.
Usually, her sales are to customers bringing 500 or more attendees to the center. She is tasked to bring 15 offshore events and 150 local events to the center each year, yet finds little time to do her own sales, since much of her day is devoted to assisting HVCB with center sales as well, Kono said.
“The people I work with,” meaning the 80 permanent employees of the center, is what she enjoys most about her job. That some people don’t see Hawai’i as a business destination as well as a great vacation spot is something she is working to change.
The events on and after Sept. 11 have helped a bit, since many of the conventions originally booked for London, Sydney and other international destinations switched to domestic locations like Hawai’i after the terrorist attacks, she noted.
Cost and distance remain major concerns for those considering booking conventions in Hawai’i, she said, getting around now to her sales pitch.
First, Hawai’i makes attendees happy, and the variety of restaurants, night life, entertainment and cultural attractions can’t really be matched by Hawai’i’s major domestic competitors, San Francisco and San Diego, she said.
And while not really allowed to promote one Neighbor Island over another, she can tell prospective convention decision-makers all about her favorite and home island, if they ask, she said with a smile while making a rare trip home recently.
Formerly marketing manager at Kukui Grove Center and a member of the marketing committee of the Kaua’i Visitors Bureau, Kono was lured to Honolulu because she saw greater opportunities there for her personal and professional growth and development than exist on her home island.
Also, Randall “Randy” Tanaka, former KVB executive director and current director of sales at the Hawai’i Convention Center, recognized a talented salesperson when he looked Kono in the eyes.
Sales, it appears, is in Kono’s blood.
Her father Stan Kono owns and operates Waipouli Variety, a retail store, and her mother is the Kaua’i sales manager for Aloha Airlines.
She travels to the Mainland four to five times a year, to conventions, but ironically this October will be her first trip to Japan.
Born and raised on Kaua’i, she is a graduate of Kauai High School, and holds a bachelor’s degree in marketing from Arizona State University.
At the center, she is responsible for booking meetings, events and conventions for the west and Midwest markets of the United States, and the Japan market.
She also cultivates potential corporate clients, and maintains ongoing relationships with current clients. Hired with the center in August of 1997, she is a board member of the Japanese American Citizens League, a nonprofit, civil rights organization.
Joe Davis is the new general manager of the Hawai’i Convention Center, opened in 1998 and managed by SMG, the world’s largest private facility management company in the world.
To get away from it all on an island with nearly one million residents and several thousand visitors on any given day, Kono takes to the water, either paddling for the Waikiki Beach Boys Canoe Club, or heading out alone in her racing kayak.
Business Editor Paul C. Curtis can be reached at mailto:pcurtis@pulitzer.net or 245-3681 (ext. 224).
