NUKOLI’I — Tim Bynum always looks for win-win situations. Whether he’s wearing the hat of volunteer point man for the Kamalani Playground or Kamalani Kai Bridge citizen-build projects and Lydgate Park master plan, working as a marriage and family therapist,
NUKOLI’I — Tim Bynum always looks for win-win situations.
Whether he’s wearing the hat of volunteer point man for the Kamalani Playground or Kamalani Kai Bridge citizen-build projects and Lydgate Park master plan, working as a marriage and family therapist, or at his second job, as head of Hawai’i Conference Associates, he works to make sure what he does enriches far more people than just his family.
So it is with his Hawai’i Conference Associates, which in six years has scheduled 10 to 12 continuing-education events on Kaua’i that bring people to the island during traditionally slow periods in terms of visitor arrivals.
“We bring people here right when the island needs it the most,” said Bynum, who has accepted a position from Mayor Bryan J. Baptiste to work in the Offices of Community Assistance on community-outreach matters.
Last Friday, his company wrapped up another successful conference, this one for clinical social workers, marriage and family therapists and clinical psychologists, at the Radisson Kaua’i Beach Resort here.
Around 140 people came from Hawai’i and the western United States to attend, booking around 100 rooms at the Radisson during a time between peak seasons of winter and summer that hotel General Manager Jay Furfaro calls a “shoulder” period.
Enticing to the island people whose professions require continuing education to maintain licenses is one of those win-win situations Bynum talks about.
If the professionals need to have continuing-education training opportunities, why not offer them in paradise, encourage them to bring their families, and further entice them to come for a few days of vacation either before or after the conferences, Bynum reasons.
Participants agree, as many this year brought their families. A similar conference last year drew 165 attendees, with those bringing family members with them swelling the arrivals to over 300 and resulting in the booking of over 100 Radisson rooms during a normally slow time, said Bynum.
By scheduling the conferences during the off-peak times, Bynum gets preferential rates on rooms, cars and airfare for participants, he noted. For the conference just completed, rooms were $99 to $129 a night here.
The just-completed conference had sessions deliberately scheduled to end at noon during certain weekdays, allowing participants ample time to explore the island. Many are repeat visitors to Kaua’i, and many stay only on this island while in the state, he explained.
So, when discussions of post-traumatic stress syndrome, treatment ethics, therapeutic use of self and multiculturalism in one of the most cosmopolitan places on earth were done, there was time to relieve even more stress with a drive to Koke’e or the North Shore, or simply lounging by one of the hotel’s pools.
And while his business has expansion potential to other islands, he wants to help out his home island. Bynum came to Kaua’i 12 years ago specifically to raise his family in a “nurturing, safe community,” and the family recently built and moved into their dream home in Wailua Homesteads, after living for many years in Wailua Houselots.
Bynum, 48, holds a master’s degree in psychology from California State University in Los Angeles, and a bachelor’s degree in psychology from the University of California at Riverside.
The Kaua’i convention and meetings business has room to grow, tourism officials agree. While the Hawai’i Convention Center in Honolulu gets the largest conventions, the Neighbor Islands attract a fair amount of pre- and post-convention business.
The Princeville Resort hosted several hundred professionals who came to Hawai’i for an orthodontists’ convention at the convention center, and also stayed on the North Shore, mixing business with pleasure through pre- and post-convention meetings in one of the world’s most beautiful settings.
The long lead time where conference bookings are concerned allows ample time for visitor-industry professionals to court to Kaua’i pre- and post-convention business, Furfaro said.
Conferences and conventions in Honolulu book anywhere from two to five years in advance of events. “That allows us an opportunity to really identify the periods that we can offer real value,” Furfaro said.
“The idea, obviously, is to identify working conferences, educational conferences, like Tim’s, and be able to really fill in the valleys, be able to give a good value for those types of groups,” Furfaro said. “His conference continues to grow.
“When it comes to group business for Kaua’i, we have some room to grow there, and we are growing. Again, it’s about filling those valleys,” said Furfaro, who is also a member of the Kaua’i County Council.
“These types of conferences really add to the length of stay, because people buy into the four- or five-day conference, training, educational material, but they either arrive early or they stay after the conference to actually enjoy some leisure time,” he said.
“It’s important to identify activities on the shoulders of seasons.” Traditionally slow periods include April, May, September and November.
The island’s tourism professionals have been successful at gaining only a sliver of the total convention business available, but not from lack of effort. Without any huge facilities to host large conferences, the island must rely on the Honolulu center to bring meetings and convention business to the state en masse, then aggressively lure pre- and post-convention business to the island.
Last year, only 4.4 percent of the one-million-plus Kaua’i visitors came for conventions, conferences, corporate meetings or incentive trips.
On the Net: http://www.hawaiiconference.com
Business Editor Paul C. Curtis can be reached at mailto:pcurtis@pulitzer.net or 245-3681 (ext. 224).
