$170M in convention business generated by College of Engineering (UH News)
Since the Hawaiʻi Convention Center opened in 1998, the College of Engineering at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa has helped secure meetings and conventions business worth more than $170 million in visitor spending. In March, in recognition of these accomplishments, the Hawaiʻi Tourism Authority and Meet Hawaiʻi (a collaboration of the Hawaiʻi Visitors and Convention Bureau and the Hawaiʻi Convention Center) named the college the ʻElele Organization of the Year.
College of Engineering Interim Dean Ron Riggs said, “The College of Engineering is grateful to be recognized for the contributions we make to Hawaiʻi’s economy via the visitor industry. Engineering is, of course, critical to our technology-based economy, and it has been recognized by the governor as a driver of innovation, but this award shows the importance of a side benefit of the work we do to bring international researchers to Hawaiʻi for technical meetings.”