ThinkTech and the Hawaii Venture Capital Association are collaborating on another luncheon panel program on April 25th at the Plaza Club. This one is called Hawaii's Growing Financial Connection with Asia - and what we can do to improve our prospects.

Asia has the fastest growing economies in the world, and Hawaii stands on the bridge along the way. But are we diligently pursuing our destiny on that bridge?

Hawaii has great opportunities to connect with Asia's financial markets - for reciprocal investments, for currency, equities and real estate markets; for banking, trading, import-export and professional exchanges; and for ventures, partnerships, jobs and careers, both public and private.

As with other Asia connections, we run the risk of being overflown. Are we seizing the day? What steps are we taking to grow our financial connection with Asia, and how well have we done? What else should we be doing to build a long-term financial relationship with Asia and solidify our position on the bridge?

And what do we, and our best and brightest, have to do to get in on it while the getting's still good.

Come down to our ThinkTech-HVCA luncheon panel program at the Plaza Club on April 25th and find out. Our program will feature an illustrious panel moderated by investment manager Veryan Allen of Merrill Lynch and comprised of:

• Betty Brow - Executive Vice President, International Banking Division, Bank of Hawaii.
• Steven Connell - Chief Investment Officer, Interlaced Investment Advisors.
• David Day - Office of David Day, attorney, specializing in international business practice.
• Roger Epstein - Cades Schutte, attorney specializing in international tax and investment.
• Brad Punu - Principal, Hawaii Office, Urban Capital of America.

For more details or to register, visit hvca.org.

The February 28th ThinkTech-Hawaii Venture Capital Association luncheon panel program will deal with transportation in Hawaii, a subject which is extremely complex and politically sensitive but which has a profound effect on our economy and our quality of life, whether we realize it or not. It’s time we understood it better.

The program is entitled “Transportation in Hawaii, how are we getting around these days,” and will cover what works and what doesn't, and the issues and opportunities in play.

Hawaii is a state of islands separated by great distances and diversities. Statewide, and island-by-island, our transportation has its challenges. How well are we meeting them?

As the 21st century unfolds it's more and more important that we get around quickly, easily and inexpensively. Not only to live, work, learn and play, but for everything. In short, getting around is essential for us to hold our economy together.

We'll have panelists on the evolution of cars and congestion, mass transit, complete streets and the biking alternative, air and sea travel among the islands and city and state plans to improve the systems that were developed before.

Cheryl Soon is our moderator for this important program. The panel will include Dave Rolph on cars, Tim Dick on interisland ferry transportation, Brian Gibson on OMPO, Cliff Slater on the status of rail, Panos Prevedouros on new transportation technologies, and Chad Taniguchi on bicycles and Complete Streets. We also hope to have some legislators who sit on the transportation committees.

The luncheon and panel discussion will be on Thursday, February 28, 2013, at the Plaza Club, 900 Fort Street Mall, 20th Floor. Registration is at 11:30 a.m. and the program will start at noon. Register at hvca.org or call Gail at 382-4638. Space is limited, so sign up early.

Our sponsors are Hawaii Business Magazine, Pacific New Media and the accounting firm of KMH, LLP.

See you there.

It’s nice to hear that the Legislature is testing a pilot project to allow people on the neighbor islands to testify on bills by way of video conferencing. Civil Beat says the project deserves “championing,” but actually it seems rather like a no-brainer that we should have done years ago.

After all, this technology has been mature, inexpensive and readily available for some time. What’s held us up all this time? More than other states, there is a burdensome air travel barrier between the islands, so video conferencing is natural, if not a requirement, for doing government business in Hawaii.

Why didn’t we think of it sooner? DBEDT tried it in the early Lingle-Liu days (actually it was installed by the Cayetano administration) as a way for DBEDT to communicate with other islands, but the Lingle administration didn’t put any energy or money into it and it quickly fell into disuse. Too bad, it could have been great, even then.

One thing was obvious. There are a number of boards and commissions that meet inter-island. That means their members and staff have to travel among the islands every month, or whatever the interval, at a huge airfare cost to the taxpayers. Do the math – half a dozen or more people traveling every month at nearly $300 a pop - an incredible waste. To say nothing of the time they all spend in the air.

Do we really need to spend that much when we have Skype, iChat, Google, or any number of other commercial systems to help us connect? Even after all this time, we do not avail ourselves of any of these fabulous technologies, and the barriers, costs and delays of travel and a misinterpreted sunshine law continue to undermine any possibility of efficiency.

So we are left with two thoughts: first, in the day of Neil Abercrombie’s new technology initiative, this is low hanging fruit, so why is it a “pilot,” and why do have to “evaluate” it – we should just sail into it right away, like immediately; second, why don’t we adopt it for boards and commissions to avoid the costs of flying people around when they could meet from their desks and smartphones.

In fact, why don’t we use this for all government interisland communications? Industry has been doing that for years, it’s time for our governments, both state and county, to catch up. Let’s just do it.

DSLRs have been in competition with the smaller digital cameras, and in many ways they have lost that competition. This is especially obvious at Christmas time, when so many new cameras get rolled out. The smaller digital cameras, as well as the iPhone and Android smartphones, are cheaper, lighter and have great pictures and functionality, including video, and are easy to put in your pocket and carry around. They take lots of pictures and the batteries last longer than before.

The DSLRs have been larger, heavier and more expensive and not nearly as handy on a trip or in a situation where you can’t lug around a full-size camera. Although they have lost ground to these smaller cameras, they are gaining ground against the larger camcorders. These days the DSLRs are finding a new niche for quality video and for lots of shooters they are replacing dedicated camcorders. Why? It’s because they now have incredible capability in video. Whatever great pictures you can get on a DSLR, you can get video on that DSLR which is just as great, really beautiful. This leaves the smaller cameras and smartphones in the dust.

Where before if you wanted a good camcorder, you’d have to spend thousands on the camera and a backpack of accessories, now you can get a better picture with a cheaper DSLR without so many accessories. For around $1,000, or possibly less, you can get a video DSLR that can take better video than your $2,000+ camcorder. No kidding.

The DSLR will have a bigger sensor and better lenses, and the video pictures will be far better, dollar for dollar. The DSLR will also be lighter to carry than a camcorder with its accessories. And it will take both video and stills with far greater control over the functions and the picture. I predict you will see more and more DSLRs built to take video, and more people switching to them from camcorders, including both hobbyists and professionals. Soon enough, they'll converge and the result will look and operate much more like a DSLR than a camcorder.

That’s not to say that the DSLR technology is fully mature. It’s still improving, and trying to beat challenges on recording time (typically enabled for less than 30 minutes), auto focusing, image stabilization and audio. But these things are better than they were a year ago and they’ll be better again a year from now. It’s a moving target, but at this point any shortfalls are far outweighed by the benefits, so it’s time to make your move.

The good DSLRs come with a built-in microphone and an input port for an external or wireless microphone. The shortfall is that the input is 3.5 mm and doesn’t include adjustable levels, but that’s easily fixed by using a separate audio recorder like a Zoom or Tascam, then synchronizing the audio in post-production. That way you get both great sound and video.

I suppose now after Christmas the prices will come down, so this is a great time to scope out the new video DSLRs. There are lots of new and improved models. Check out the Canon, Sony and Panasonic lines especially. My favorites are the Canon EOS 7D and the new hot Panasonic Lumix GH3, both selling for something over $1,000. Make sure you check them out. You’ll be glad you did, even though it's a little late to call it a Christmas gift.

A friend of mine is moving to Oregon. He has many good reasons. When he got there, he wrote a note saying how great things were, trying to make us eat our hearts out. And he said this:

“People (here) are unbelievably nice and polite. Can you believe, they actually stop and let you change lanes when you put on your signal?“

I guess I knew that, I guess we all did. Over time, driving aloha has given way to something else. People do cut in front of you on a regular basis without signaling and, worse, when you signal they don't let you change lanes, making it unnecessarily hard for you.

In the old days everyone let you in as soon as they saw your signal. We’ve lost that. Aloha no longer prevails, and the loss may be unrecapturable. The police won’t fix this - they leave it to us to be courteous to each other. That's not unreasonable.

How does lane changing change the culture? Well if everyone cuts in and out, and they do, just watch the road, any road, and you will see compulsive lane changing all over town.

It has a lot to do with more cars and congestion. People are frustrated that they’re moving so slowly, so they repeatedly change lanes to see if they can go faster. Lots of those lane changes are unproductive. But that’s their call.

These drivers are impatient to get somewhere, even to the other side of the road, often without signaling. The rest of us get annoyed, and that’s one of the reasons why other drivers get fed up and won’t let the lane changers change. And that unforgiving lack of courtesy is the real rub. It's downright mean.

So you signal you want to change lanes, and they ignore you. You look at them to give stink eye or to see the kind of person who does this. They know you signaled, and they know you’re looking at them, but they look straight ahead, fixed on some distant horizon, ignoring your glare and adding insult to injury.

What makes people ignore your signal and then ignore you? It’s takes a smoldering anger they may not even realize. They hide behind expensive tinted windows, making believe they can't see you, isolating themselves from decency for snarled hours every day.

Lane changing culture is the measure of a community, or city. If people are proud and happy about their community, they are happy to let you change lanes. If they are frustrated with their community, they ignore your signal and then your glare.

How to change this culture? For me, I let them in even if they are compulsive lane changers. I turn the other cheek, I never get angry and I never say no. And, above all, I never ignore them. I do this because I want to have a nice day and no accident.

On the other hand, when I signal and another driver lets me in, I wave at him with a big shaka, because I know his courtesy is slowly going extinct and because I want to encourage its revival.

If we all did this, life on Hawaii’s congested roads would be easier on everyone.