Maui is a spot the place you all the time know the place you’re. The West Maui Mountains anchor one aspect, Haleakala rises up dramatically on the opposite, and from the decrease ranges of every rise, you may see the ocean on each shores. It’s laborious to get misplaced when the horizon is so dramatic.
Pamela Tumpap has this Maui perspective on the pandemic. She sees the mountain of financial injury from the coronavirus on one aspect, however a wide ranging rise of alternative on the opposite.
“We by no means dreamed of doing advertising and marketing on this stage,” she mentioned.
Tumpap, president of the Maui Chamber of Commerce, has positively needed to pivot, but as a substitute of cutting down, she’s decided to ramp up exponentially.
The November occasion often known as the Annual Hawaiian Airlines Made in Maui County Festival is a consumer’s delight of handcrafted, domestically made presents, artwork and connoisseur meals gadgets. This yr, the occasion’s seventh, the favored competition couldn’t responsibly be held in individual. However Tumpap noticed that taking the occasion on-line could be a possibility for progress.
“Our entire focus shifted. We realized we are able to attain a significantly expanded group of patrons and wholesalers from out of state. We’re now hitting a worldwide viewers. That is our probability to leverage our social media contacts, our family and friends, our enterprise companions and develop our financial system,” she mentioned.
Within the six years because the competition’s starting in 2014, there have been near 60,000 attendees, virtually 10,000 a yr. Of that complete, 29.7% have been guests to Maui. The occasion introduced greater than $3 million in retail gross sales, and, additionally crucial to native distributors, led to 1,443 new wholesale accounts.
That is what the most important product present in Maui seemed like in years previous. On-line, it will likely be totally different, however it should even be greater.
Courtesy Maui Chamber of Commerce
This yr, every part needed to be re-thought and re-packaged. As an alternative of renting tent area on the garden or shopping for vinyl banners, distributors selected what interactive options their on-line sales space may have and whether or not they need a brief video manufactured from their product and their course of.
“This additionally solves an ongoing downside for us,” Tumpap mentioned. The competition was rising too massive for the Maui Arts and Cultural Middle, the place it had been held the final six years. Organizers didn’t wish to depart the venue, however the wait-list for distributors to get area on the garden was rising yearly. Taking the occasion on-line makes area for extra distributors and extra merchandise.
A dwell on-line occasion additionally opens up a complete new mind-set about clients.
Pamela Tumpap is President of the Maui Chamber of Commerce.
Maui COC
“There may be this large neighborhood of people that love Hawaii however who can’t come go to proper now,” Tumpap mentioned.
The Maui Chamber of Commerce is working with motels, the state Division of Enterprise, Financial Growth and Tourism and the title sponsor, Hawaiian Airways, to advertise the competition on social media and within the main cities Hawaiian serves. That is so totally different from making an attempt to determine if there’s sufficient parking exterior the rows of vendor tents.
“We’re now hitting a worldwide viewers. That is our probability to leverage our family and friends to develop our financial system,” she mentioned.
Tumpap set a aim of reaching a million followers on social media and thru e mail promotions. “We’re engaged on it,” she mentioned, half joking in regards to the audacity of that aim but additionally very targeted on making it occur.
The Made in Maui County Festival is scheduled for Nov. 7 and 8 each as a livestream with dwell music and emcees broadcasting from a closed set, and as a digital market. The occasion is juried, that means {that a} panel of individuals look over every product supplied on the market to resolve whether or not it meets the necessities of getting at the least 51% “worth added” on Maui (that means it was principally made on the island) and is of top quality.
The distributors are required to be current of their digital cubicles to work together with patrons, exhibit the product, and reply questions dwell or in a chat.
“The factor that individuals actually care about once they’re in search of handmade gadgets is the eagerness that the maker has for the merchandise, listening to about what makes it distinctive, studying about the way it’s made. It means the world to them to have that interplay,” Tumpap mentioned.
Kala`e Tangonan of Kupu A`e Moloka`i is considered one of tons of of distributors who’ve related with clients and wholesalers in the course of the annual Made in Maui County Pageant.
Courtesy Maui Chamber of Commerce
The distributors might be streaming from dwelling or from their workspace, which works aesthetically, as many of the merchandise are crafted at dwelling or in small studios.
Even after the pandemic, the competition will proceed a dwell on-line part. It’s a strategy to not solely keep on in the course of the pandemic, however to reshape Maui’s financial system by connecting native makers with new clients from far-away locations.
“Afterward, we’ll be keen to share what we’ve discovered with different organizations making an attempt to do comparable issues,” Tumpap mentioned. “We will set new fashions for the way issues are achieved, suppose past the field, however we now have to work collectively and assist one another.”
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