The day started with something you don’t usually get at a tech conference
The Women’s Breakfast, hosted by Ashley Lukens, set the tone before the keynotes even started. Instead of a traditional networking session, Ashley asked everyone at the table to share three things: something you love about yourself, something extraordinary you’ve recently become aware of, and something that’s brought you joy. What followed was funny, honest, and genuinely connecting. It’s the kind of warm-up that reminds you why showing up in person still matters.
Trung and Helena Trung Lam and Helena Janulis discuss Hawai'i's blue economy strategy at East Meets West 2026, hosted by Blue Startups in Honolulu.
Hawai‘i has a genuine edge in ocean tech
The panel “Launching Prosperity: Hawai‘i’s Space and Blue Economy Strategy” featured HTDC Executive Director Trung Lam and Helena Janulis, Director of Strategy and Operations at Investable Oceans. Trung laid out Hawai‘i’s emerging tech framework across four sectors (health, ocean, space, and energy), built around a simple premise: invest in what lasts. Hawai‘i’s location, culture, and natural assets aren’t going anywhere. Neither is the opportunity. Helena outlined the blue economy’s global scale ($24 trillion in total asset value, approaching $3 trillion in annual economic output by 2030), and made the case that capital markets are catching up. In 2017, there were two or three blue economy funds. Today, there are more than 50. The sector is maturing, and Hawai‘i — with its deep-water access, Pacific location, and existing University of Hawai‘i ocean research infrastructure — is well-positioned to lead, not just participate. One local company worth watching: Hohonu, a UH spinout building water-level monitoring sensors that text or email alerts when flood conditions develop. With Maui and Oahu still navigating the aftermath of recent flooding, the timing couldn’t be more relevant.
Alex Fielding, Henk Rogers, and Chenoa Farnsworth on stage for "From Hawai'i to Orbit: Building the Future of Space" at East Meets West 2026.
From canoes to satellites
The fireside chat “From Hawai‘i to Orbit: Building the Future of Space” featured Henk Rogers of Blue Planet Alliance and Alex Fielding of Privateer, a space situational-awareness company headquartered on Maui. The fact that a world-class space data company is being built on a neighbor island wasn’t lost on anyone in the room. Privateer tracks more than 40,000 objects in orbit and is making the case — in practice, not just theory — that you don’t have to leave Hawai‘i to build something that matters globally. Henk drew a throughline from ancient Polynesian wayfinding to space exploration that was more than poetic. It was a genuine case for Hawai‘i’s culture of navigating into the unknown. Alex grounded the conversation in the practical: the infrastructure, the talent, and (increasingly) the policy environment are already in place.Tim Draper, waterfall pitches, and the sectors he’s watching
Venture legend Tim Draper joined for a fireside chat that covered everything from Bitcoin to bio cures to his conviction that AI will eventually replace most government bureaucracy. His investment thesis, in short: Find industries providing bad service at high cost, and back the entrepreneurs using new technology to disrupt them. Healthcare, finance, education, and government all made the list. Tim was characteristically direct and genuinely engaged with Hawai‘i. He also heard an entrepreneur’s pitch under a waterfall the day before. (You had to be there.)The session I heard echoed in the halls all afternoon
Tey Bannerman’s keynote, “The Navigator’s Playbook: Being Human in the Age of AI,” was the standout of the day. Tey, who has spent nearly a decade helping large organizations implement AI, framed where we are right now with unusual clarity. We’ve moved through two eras of technology: compliance, where you adapted to the machine, and convenience, where you had an abundance of apps and low stakes. We’re now entering a third: confidence, defined by tools that make decisions on your behalf, execute tasks, and speak as you. That shift requires trust as a design principle, not an afterthought. He used the example of Klarna, which replaced 700 human customer service agents with AI, saw impressive metrics, then reversed course a year later when customers started leaving. The problem wasn’t multilingual capability. It was multicultural understanding. An AI agent that resolves a complaint in a fast and direct way works in Germany. In Japan, where the ritual of being heard matters as much as the resolution, it falls flat. The Polynesian wayfinding metaphor threaded through the whole talk. Navigators didn’t have compasses or GPS. They read birds, stars, and wave patterns, passing that knowledge across generations and adapting it to each new island. That, Tey argued, is the model for building AI that people actually trust. Start with human values. Build in local knowledge. Measure what matters to people, not just what’s easy to count. Sterling helps technology companies explain what they do and why it matters. So, that message landed.Hawai‘i’s own took the pitch stage — and won
The Startup World Cup Hawaii Regional Pitch Competition, sponsored by Pegasus Tech Ventures and moderated by Bill Reichert, brought together startups from Hawai‘i, South Korea, Japan, and beyond. The field was strong. Hawai‘i’s Olelo Intelligence took the regional title — a win worth celebrating. It was also great to see Maui-based Abra Hospitality represent the Valley Isle on the pitch stage.
HWIT Board Hawai'i Women in Tech board members Jenna Ganitano, Sadie Flick, Jaclyn Loo, Tiffany Schaar, and Jen De Rose at East Meets West 2026.