Foundational Technical Assistance Workshop: Maui County
Description
This Foundational Technical Assistance (FTA) Workshop is designed for Maui County businesses, entrepreneurs, cultural practitioners, nonprofits, stewardship organizations, and community initiatives interested in better understanding and engaging with Hawaiʻi’s visitor industry.
Content of the workshop's two days complement one another, but participants may register for either day individually or attend both.
Day 1: Finding Your Place in Hawaiʻi’s Visitor Industry
Understanding Hawaiʻi’s Visitor Industry, Visitors & Opportunities
Learn how Hawaiʻi’s visitor industry works, where opportunities exist, who Hawaiʻi’s visitors are, and what influences their choices. Through practical activities and insights from industry professionals, you’ll identify the visitors who are the right fit for what you offer and strengthen how you reach and communicate with them.
Day 2: Creating Visitor Products, Experiences & Opportunities
Designing Things Visitors Want While Staying Rooted in Place, Community & Culture
Explore how to develop or strengthen visitor-facing products and experiences that advance your goals while remaining rooted in Hawaiʻi as a place, community, and culture. Work through practical considerations including product and experience design, pricing and viability, and visitor engagement.
FTA is part of HTA’s Technical Assistance & Capacity Building (TACB) programs, supporting the development of a more regenerative visitor industry by strengthening local businesses and nonprofits, fostering meaningful visitor experiences, and helping ensure tourism creates greater value for Hawaiʻi’s people, places, and culture.
Agenda
- 8:30 am - 9:00 am
Registration, Coffee & Talk Story
- 9:00 am - 9:30 am
Welcome & Setting the Day's Foundation
The workshop begins by grounding you in you own goals rather than tourism itself. O ke kahua ma mua, ma hope ke kūkulu. “First the foundation, then the building.”
- 9:30 am - 10:30 am
Understanding Hawaiʻi’s Visitor Industry
We'll build a practical understanding of Hawaiʻi’s visitor industry, the resources tourism brings into Hawaiʻi, and the many ways businesses and organizations participate in the industry.
- 10:50 am - 12:00 pm
Visitor Industry Panel and Q&A
Industry professionals share how their sectors work, how they connect with visitors, and how your business or organization can work with them.
- 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm
Lunch & Networking
- 1:00 pm - 2:20 pm
Understanding Our Visitors
We'll explore who visits Hawaiʻi, what they are looking for, where they encounter opportunities, and what influences what they choose to do and buy.
- 2:40 pm - 4:40 pm
Storytelling, Marketing & Communications
We'll explore how to communicate what they offer in ways that capture the interest of the visitors you want to reach and give them a reason to choose you.
- 4:40 pm - 5:00 pm
Reflections & Next Steps
Speaker Lineup
Brandon Fairchild, PhD., Ward Research & Solutions Pacific
Hānau to Ohio and home in Hawaiʻi, Brandon serves as Program Manager for the Foundational Technical Assistance (FTA) program. This role aligns with much of Brandon's work in tourism, which focuses on directing greater resources from Hawaiʻi's largest economic driver into the regeneration of ʻāina and kaiāulu by bridging the gap between industry and community. In addition to FTA, Brandon was the lead researcher and author of HTA's 2026-2028 Destination Management Action Plans, manages HTA's Community Tourism Collaborative (CTC) programs, and has conducted research in regenerative tourism for Kamehameha Schools. He lives in Salt Lake, Oʻahu with his husband and holds a PhD in Sociology from Temple University in Philadelphia. His dissertation research focused on community, healing, and resilience with Puʻuhonua ʻo Waiʻanae houseless village led by the late Aunty Twinkle Borge. He aliʻi ka ʻāina; he kauwā ke kanaka.
Carmela Resuma, Kilohana x Hawaiian Council
A daughter of immigrants from the Philippines and a malihini to Hawaiʻi, Carmela has been privileged to serve as a volunteer and board member for various ʻāina-based and NHOs in Hawaiʻi and throughout the globe. In her current role with Kilohana x Hawaiian Council, she leads programs that engage tourism a force for good in the community. She oversees initiatives like ʻUmeke, which reinvests millions of dollars into cultural preservation, ʻāina stewardship, and community programs, as well as Qurator, Hawaiʻi's official mark of responsible tourism. She also serves on the Governor’s Green Fee Advisory Council. Outside of her formal roles, Carmela can often be found removing invasive grass or fawning over native plants, especially her current favorite: ʻākulikuli. Witnessing the transformation of the Kaloko Inlet on the Kaʻiwi coast of Oʻahu back to a native ecosystem has taught her about the immense power that comes when community and ʻāina lead the path forward.
Lindsay Sanborn, Hawaiʻi Tourism Authority
Born and raised in Kāneʻohe, Oʻahu, Lindsay is a passionate and compassionate advocate for regenerative tourism and destination stewardship in Hawaiʻi. Through her work with the Hawaiʻi Tourism Authority, she oversees both the Technical Assistance & Capacity Building (TACB) and Workforce Development programs, helping strengthen the people, organizations, and partnerships that contribute to more resilient visitor economies across the pae ʻāina. Lindsay is also heavily involved with HTA's Community Partnership Programs, supporting grant and event support initiatives for community, industry, and government partners that reflect Hawaiʻi's unique places, cultures, and values. Known for her collaborative spirit and unwavering encouragement of others, Lindsay is deeply committed to helping individuals and organizations grow in ways that create lasting benefits for ʻāina, kamaʻāina, and visitors.
Rebecca J. ʻI. Soon, Ward Research & Solutions Pacific
With ancestral roots connecting back to Waiheʻe, Maui, Massachusetts, the Azores, East Asia, and throughout Europe, Becky was born and raised on Oʻahu. Across her prolific career in housing, homelessness, civil rights, immigration, health access, environmental protection, small business advocacy, and community-based planning, she focuses on systems change rooted firmly in improving community well-being. An attorney, entrepreneur, and aspiring mahiʻai now living in Hilo, she brings a deep ability to translate information, data, and ʻike across sectors, build bridges, and move complex ideas toward practical action in service of Native Hawaiian communities and more just, place-rooted futures for Hawaiʻi nei.
Meagan DeGaia, Hawaiʻi Tourism Authority (Day 1 Speaker)
Having called Maui home for nearly two decades, Meagan’s formal destination stewardship work began in 2021 as the HTA moved to bridge the gap between the visitor industry and the community. In the position of Destination Manager, she oversaw implementation of the 2021–2023 Maui Nui Destination Management Action Plan (DMAP) and now oversees the 2026–2028 DMAPs for Maui and Lānaʻi, moving community priorities into action through planning, strategic partnerships, and stewardship initiatives. To this work she brings an extensive background in conservation, community engagement, and regenerative tourism, including through founding Makoa Quest, a culturally centered regenerative tourism nonprofit that uplifts ʻŌiwi practitioners and Maui youth. A thoughtful listener and relationship builder, Meagan is committed to seeking out and elevating community voices, fostering pilina and trust, and supporting tourism work that is deeply accountable to place, ʻāina, lineal descendants, and community.
John Pele, Maui Hotel & Lodging Association (Day 1 Panelist)
John Pele is a proud graduate of Molokai High School and attended the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa. He began his career in the visitor industry as a server assistant, eventually working as a Purchasing Director, Rooms Director, and ultimately General Manager of the Lodge and Beach Village at Molokai Ranch. Today, Pele serves as Executive Director of the Maui Hotel and Lodging Association. His dedication to public service includes five years on the Molokai Planning Commission (2017–2023). In 2025, he was appointed to both the Maui County Fire and Public Safety Commission and the Board of Directors of the Maui Chamber of Commerce. He also serves on the Hospitality and Tourism Advisory Committee for UH Maui.
Caprice Mallett, Haleakalā Farm (Day 2 Panelist)
Caprice Mallett is the owner of Haleakalā Farm, a boutique working farm and regenerative agriculture learning center in Upcountry Maui. Guided by the philosophy “Rooted in Place: Reconnect with the Land, Return to What Matters,” Caprice is developing meaningful, hands-on experiences that invite visitors to slow down, put their hands in the soil, and reconnect with nature, food, community, and themselves. Through Haleakalā Farm’s Be a Farmer for a Day experiences and Haleakalā Upcycle community education programs, she brings together regenerative agriculture, environmental stewardship, and place-based learning. The farm also produces signature Lilikoʻi Shortbread cookies, a value-added agricultural product featuring island flavors and farm-grown edible flowers. Her vision is to move beyond traditional tourism by creating opportunities for visitors to learn, participate, and contribute positively to the ʻāina and the communities they visit, while demonstrating how small farms can connect agriculture, education, and entrepreneurship.
Additional speaker announcements coming soon.
NOTE: Molokaʻi & Lānaʻi Attendees
Travel scholarships may be available for attendees from Moloka’i and Lānaʻi.
Email aloha@regenerativetourismhawaii.info for more details.
FAQs
- I don’t live on Maui. Are workshops available on my island?
FTA workshops will also be offered on:
Hawaiʻi Island: November 6–7
Oʻahu: November 13-14
Kauaʻi: November 20–21
Check out the other events by clicking our host name.
- Can I attend virtually?
No. These are in-person workshops, and virtual participation is not available.
- Do I have to attend both days?
No. Each day is designed as a standalone workshop, so you may register for either day individually. However, we strongly encourage attending both if you can.
The workshops are designed to build on one another, with Day 1 helping you understand Hawaiʻi’s visitor industry, visitors, and opportunities, and Day 2 helping you apply that understanding to strengthen what you offer.
A discounted two-day registration is available.
- Are meals included with registration?
Yes. Registration includes a light continental breakfast and coffee (such as pastries) and lunch each day.
- What time should I arrive?
Please plan to arrive between 8:30 and 9:00 AM for check-in, coffee, and networking. The workshop will begin promptly at 9:00 AM.
Tickets for good, not greed Humanitix dedicates 100% of profits from booking fees to charity
