2006 Pacific Building Trade Expo Tops Attendance

Honolulu - The Seventh Annual Pacific Building Trade Expo co-sponsored by AIA and CSI held October 24 topped attendance records with over 1700 attendees with over 1200 of them attending the free educational seminars. Each of the 20 one-hour seminars was registered with the AIA continuing education program for 1 Learning Unit.

This year due to continued growth of this annual event the show was moved to the exhibit hall of the Hawai‘i Convention Center. The new larger hall provided room for 285 booth spaces composed of 196 unique exhibitors.

For the first time a 'Distinguished Speakers' seminar series featuring nationally acclaimed building industry speakers was organized for the show. Through a joint sponsorship of Nordic Construction and the Hawai‘i Architectural Foundation both James Cramer, Hon AIA, The Greenway Group and Malcolm Holzman, FAIA Holzman Moss Architecture, were brought in from the mainland to share their insights with the Hawaii building industry.

The best attended seminar of the day, 'The International Building Code is Here' co-presented by Kraig Stevenson, Regional Manager of the International Building Code Council and Tim Hiu, Acting Division Chief of the Honolulu Building Department reached the capacity of the room with 110 people in attendance. Due to the success of this seminar a follow-up multi-day workshop is now being developed for the first quarter of 2007.

HONBLUE returned as the title sponsor of the 2006 Pacific Building Trade with their relaxing rainforest spa theme while the Honolulu Chapter of the American Institute of Architects (AIA) and the Honolulu Chapter of the Construction Specifications Institute (CSI) returned to co-produce the event. This makes it the seventh year in a row these three organizations have teamed up on this event.

The Expo is the largest trade venue serving Hawai‘i's building design professionals and contractors. The Expo features the latest building products and services from hundreds of suppliers and offers a full schedule of accredited continuing education seminars addressing current issues, innovations and techniques in the building design industry. Admission to the Pacific Building Trade Expo for attendees is FREE and exclusive to the building industry design professionals and contractors.

The date for next year's Expo at the Hawaii Convention Center is set for Tuesday, October 23, 2007. Additional information on reserving a booth space, association sponsorship, or corporate sponsorship for 2007 may be obtained by contacting Barbie Rosario of BK Corporate Coordinators by calling 808-845-4994 (Oahu) or e-mail bkcorp2@hawaiiantel.net.