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University of Hawai'i |
(808) 956-8856 Telephone |
For Immediate Release: |
September 27, 1999 |
Contact: Marilyn Dunlap, Tina Weatherby Carvalho, 956-6251
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| UH helps Convention Center land Microscopy and Microanalysis
meeting |
Honolulu has been selected to host the Microscopy and Microanalysis Convention in 2005. The meeting is expected to bring in 3,000 attendees who are projected to spend $8.3 million and generate $690,000 in tax revenue. The meeting will be held at the Hawai'i Convention Center.
The success in bringing the convention to Honolulu is due to a collaborative effort between Marilyn Dunlap and Tina Weatherby Carvalho of UH Manoa's Pacific Biomedical Research Center and the Hawai'i Visitors and Convention Bureau.
HVCB's Kuhina Program Coordinator Debbie Zimmerman was referred to Dunlap and Carvalho to help initiate a request to the Microscopy Society of America, the sponsor of the event. Dunlap knew that members of a local chapter normally host the meeting in their city, but Hawai'i has no established MSA chapter. Only eight people in the state are members of the national organization. Despite the odds, Dunlap and Carvalho got the society's meeting planning booklet, and Zimmerman presented an outline of what HVCB officials could do to assist with some tasks that are normally undertaken by the local microscopy society. The two toured the Convention Center facilities and were impressed with the technological components of the site. This was a determining factor as the host site needs to have the technical capabilities for housing 5060 electron microscopes.
The meeting was secured this past August through persistence and help from HVCB officials. With lots more work ahead, Dunlap says she will be recruiting members for a local Microscopy Society of America chapter.
"We want to support the state's economy and this is important to the university," say Dunlap and Carvalho. Having the convention in Hawai'i also presents an opportunity to draw participants and vendors from Asia and the Pacific, says Dunlap. "We're excited about hosting the meeting here."
