OR THE FIRST TIME IN 18 YEARS,A U.S. destination — Honolulu — hosted the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Leaders Meeting. All of APEC’s ministe- rial meetings were held at the Hawaii Convention Center (HCC) on Nov. 7–13, while the Leaders Meeting took place at the JW Marriott Ihilani, and the CEO Forum met at the Sheraton Waikiki.
APEC describes itself as the premier economic forum in the Asia-Pacific region, and its mission is to support sustainable growth and prosperity there. On site for the week of events were approximately 20,000 attendees, from heads of state — including President Barack
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Aloha State Hosts Asia-Pacific Economies
Obama — to finance ministers, diplomats, policy-makers, and prominent CEOs from each of APEC’s 21 member economies, from Australia to Vietnam. HCC Assistant General Manager Randy
Tanaka served as COO for the APEC Hawaii Host Committee. Although initially involved primarily with managing accommodations at 10 hotels for the U.S. State Department and the various embassies and assorted groups that would be attending APEC, the committee eventually took on much of the meeting’s logistics. “We were responsible for a number of social functions that the destination is committed to when they continued on page 25