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.