Hawaii Tech Week Executive Forum & Reception

Hawaii Tech Week’s Executive Forum is the week’s flagship curated room—Monday, August 31, 2026, at Halekulani Hotel, 2199 Kalia Road. Arrival and networking 12:30–1:00 PM; program from 1:00; evening reception with pupus and a premium bar until 7:00. HTW frames about 100 founders, CEOs, executives, investors, and policymakers. Registration is paid and invite-or-approval based on professional experience; unaccepted registrations are not charged. Confirm live Early Bird vs Regular on Luma rather than inventing a door price. Presenting sponsors listed: Aloha Equity and Hawaii Technology Development Corporation. Questions: aloha@hawaiitechweek.com.

The agenda is a cross-industry system update, not a single-track product keynote. AI and policy: Aqib Zakaria of ChinaTalk on U.S.–China models. Talent: Joey Aquino (ex-AWS, angel investor), Blesson Abraham (AviaryAI), and John Gleeson (Success Venture Partners). University and founder lanes: David Hijirida, entrepreneur-in-residence at the University of Hawaii and formerly Amazon, on invention under uncertainty; Jake Kozloski of Keeper on human connection. Local power: a fireside with Mayor Rick Blangiardi; a 1:1 with Trung Lam, CEO and executive director of HTDC; Michael Bennett, HTW founder, on Hawaii’s tech movement. Tickets include talks, reception, and—for on-record sessions—videography and transcripts.

Waikiki / Kalia is visitor geography, but this Halekulani afternoon is not a tourism mixer. Hawaii Tech Week runs August 31–September 6 across 50-plus independently hosted events, 30-plus venues, and a billed 5,000-plus people. Ocean science, defense-adjacent tech, and returnee capital show up here even when Quad Chambers are dark. Blue Startups Demo Day on Friday, September 4, at Entrepreneurs Sandbox is the investor-pitch floor; this Monday is the smaller policy-and-capital room. Chamber YP’s eight-seat healthcare lunch is a different graph.

Plan to arrive by about 12:45 so the 1:00 start holds. Parking is on you: rideshare, valet (HTW notes about $50), or nearby paid lots. Register on Luma and screenshot approval. After 7:00, HTW points people to the Kickoff Party at The Ambassador Hotel—a short Waikiki hop, optional, not this leaf. Business or aloha attire fits Halekulani better than beach casual.

This forum is right if you are a founder, operator, investor, or policy professional who can clear paid approval and sit a Monday afternoon. Coffee Talks is the $15 Downtown seminar if you needed an open chamber morning instead. Bring a one-sentence firm or thesis line; this is a hundred-person room, not the full HTW expo floor.