 Think Tech Away. Civil engagement lives here. Hello, ha. Welcome to Condo Insider. We're on every Thursday from 3 to 3.30 talking about matters related to association living. Tomorrow's an important day, March 2nd. It is the first decking at our legislature that means that on any particular side of the legislature, the House of the Senate, bills that are going to remain alive have to be all through all of the committees that have been assigned to them. And as I told you last year in 2017, we had 157 bills introduced affecting condominiums. Because it's an election year and a money year, we only had 30 bills introduced this year. But I can tell you as a first decking tomorrow, there are only three left. So we'll see where they go and we'll do some shows about those in the future. But for me, who's a lobbyist, I can tell you that it's a much easier year than typical. But we do have some very interesting matters before the legislature in association living. Speaking of the legislature, one of the issues has always been education, education, education. What can we do with an industry to let our board members and our owners know about solutions and things that are available to them that they can go through to help run their associations better? So I ask a very good friend of mine, Ken Cantor, who's the executive director for the Douglas Trade Shows, who does the Property Management Expo every year in the Blaisdell. And the show happens to be next week. They come down and talk about opportunities for all of you volunteers and all of you homeowners to find out great creative education and solutions that are before you. So Ken, welcome to the show. Thank you, Richard. Great to be here. I always ask our guests to take a minute and just tell us about your background. I know you have some background in the theater, so I don't know how that relates to our expos, but... Well, there is a connection. I mean, trade shows are show business. And I got started in the theater business in New York, and the management side ended up here. I ran the Manoa Valley Theater for four years. And one thing led to the next, and I've been doing trade shows for 24 years now. Wow. So how long has Douglas Trade Shows been around? I've heard the name a long time. Douglas Trade Shows started in the early 80s. I think we pegged 1981 as the actual beginning, and it does six shows. I do two shows for them, one for the condo and buildings management industry, another one for hotels and restaurants. And then they do four others for gift jewelry and apparel industries. Is there a Douglas? Doug Williams, Doug was my partner for 24 years and was my mentor. He passed away two years ago, but he started the company. He created the shows, and he was my backer when I started out in the industry. And when you have one of these shows, you hold this, it's called... The first name is the Property Management Expo. The full name, and it's a long name, but it works. It's Hawaii Buildings Facilities and Property Management Expo, and this is the 11th year. And what is the objective of that show? Who is your audience? Well, the audience, hopefully, and it's worked out pretty well, are individuals who have the responsibility for maintaining and operating existing buildings and structures. From the university and the airport to high-rise condos to shopping centers, we're not trying to reach the developers or those that are planning to build. We're talking about the existing infrastructure. So if you have a major building and you're concerned about maintaining it and issues maybe regarding governance like the condominium, then this would be kind of your audience. Absolutely. For example, we have five companies exhibiting out of 245 that focus on all of the mechanical issues related to elevators. And the interesting thing is you have a legislature that passes various kinds of statutes and legislation that change the requirements and the rules and policies regarding how elevators run. So it's a constant changeover, and that's where the education comes in. And so I know, wild guess, but about how many people go through this show? Over the two days, it's a two-day show, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., and it'll be this coming Wednesday, March 7th, and Thursday, March 8th. And it's free. We get about 3,400 people from all facets of the existing buildings' management and maintenance industry. And I know the answer, but where is it located at? Blaisdale Center Exhibition Hall. And parking? Parking is $6 per day. Goes to the Blaisdale. Plenty of parking. And we start our seminars. We do 26 seminars. They begin at 8 a.m. in the morning, and then the exhibit's open at 9 a.m. each day. And what type of boost do you have? What kind of participants do you have on the show? I know you mentioned elevators. If you can imagine a need of any kind of building, we probably have someone exhibiting to address it. But everything from contractors who do painting, concrete repair, renovations, remodeling of buildings, the elevator contractors, pest control, fire alarms, the technology that goes into energy management, sub-renewing, billing, every aspect of security, of maintenance, of new technology coming on the market. We have an exhibitor this year that's just joined us called SubletAlert.com. They have a website, and they track the potential of rental units being subleased by renters to other renters as vacation rentals. Some of that does violate condo laws and violate marketing laws and state statutes. And then we have exhibitors that provide information on how to use the Educational Services Community Association Institute, BOMA, Building Owners and Managers Association, IROM Institute of Real Estate Management, CCIM. They are all what we refer to as our association co-sponsors, and they represent all the aspects of the property management industry. Well, most expo's have sponsors, so, I mean, let's give them credit for what they're doing because it is a great educational tool. Who are the sponsors? We have, I'm going to read them off because I don't want to miss anybody. I can understand that. We have 10 sponsors each year. We have GP Roadway Solutions, which has safety products. They have a subdivision Peterson sign that does all kinds of sign work. Embassy carpets, upscaled carpets for hotels and for commercial buildings, for condominium buildings, the common areas of a building. Hawaii and Telcom is one of our sponsors. They're focusing on the issues of switching over to fiber optics in the buildings, which are more efficient, at least from their point of view, more efficient for condominium buildings to distribute cable services. Hawaii Unified, which is maintenance and all types of services in maintaining and contractor services for buildings from electrical contracting to painting. We have a company, a new sponsor this year, called CookStop, and they have a product that allows kitchen fires or kitchen stoves not to catch fire by monitoring when they're not being maintained by someone in the room. So if a stove is left unattended, it will shut down. And that's one of the biggest problems in fires in high-rise buildings is unattended kitchen cooking. We have American Electric, major electrical contractor here in Hawaii. We have Ohana control systems that specializes in parking lots and parking control equipment, as well as security systems and surveillance equipment. We have Alana Buick and Burrs, which is an engineering company. It's just buildings in every aspect of remodeling and renovation. Premium Incorporated, which is cleaning and chemical products and cleaning equipment. And not the least of which is Associate Hawaii, a company that you're very familiar with. Associate has been supporting us now for about seven years. And as some people know, they're a managing agent that you help manage homeowner and condo associations. And I'm affiliated with them. And I know we're very proud to be a sponsor. But even though you listed your 10 sponsors or so, about how many exhibitors are there in this space? There are 300 booth spaces, each roughly 10 feet by 10 feet, that are occupied by 245 companies, some of them by multiple space. But many of the companies also represent other companies. They're distributors or manufacturers or they're parts of conglomerates. So probably on the trade fore show this year, you can actually connect with about 500 companies doing all kinds of services. I think it's interesting. I think I was mentioning to you before the show, I was working with a client on a reserve study. And I was at a big 500 unit condominium association. And I started going through the reserve, which is obviously generators, elevator rooms, electrical rooms. You go on and on, and the number of components, when you start looking at one of these larger buildings, it's a huge business. It's a huge task and responsibility. And what I've experienced from your show is I walk around something that may not be foremost in my mind. It triggers some thought while I'm there that I should take a look at this and get some more information. Well, a trade show itself provides that. Because exhibitors are there not to just tell you what they do and try to sell the products or services they have, but they're also looking for feedback from the marketplace as to what's needed. So there is an exchange process going on. But when we started the show, we didn't have a real handle on exactly what the show was going to be. We knew we wanted to focus on existing structures. What we found out is probably the maintenance of all the different types of buildings and facilities and structures in Hawaii is probably a larger industry than any other industry. It's just not identified as an industry in any traditional way. We have tourism, we have construction, but the maintenance and operation of the existing infrastructure is huge. And you see, I hate to say it, but you see representatives of government coming down to the city and the county and the state because the state's got a huge infrastructure issues. We invite everyone at the city, state, and federal level in Hawaii who has any responsibility for maintaining facilities or addressing issues and statutes. And we get them, it's difficult at the legislative level because we're in March and everything's going on, but we do get representatives from government and we get representatives from the bureaucracy that have responsibility from building maintenance for the roads, for the electrical system. Hawaiian Electric is one of our exhibitors. They've been with us quite a while and says Hawaii and Tel is a utility. So everything is for the continued operation of our broad infrastructure. Now, from my experience, one thing I like about this show is that when you're looking at a particular, should I say windows, you get to talk to three or four vendors about the problem. So you're not getting a single marketing presentation. You're getting to see different people's take on a particular issue and how they might recommend you solve it without any pressure of a sales and making a deal. You get a chance to get a lot of education without much pressure being put on you. Well, you also get a more focused exchange because people who are in the exhibits are there to talk to the individuals who have responsibilities for maintaining buildings and facilities of all kinds, not necessarily just single family homeowners. So it's a more detailed, more intense discussion and they're going to be as interested in hearing from the attendees about what their needs are as the attendees are trying to get information out of them. It's like they want to go to the show. He says it's free. Can they go on both days, by the way? Can they go both days? Are they limited to one day? No, the show opens the seminars again. We have 26 seminars. They start at 8 a.m. in the morning, run all day. They're free. We do have a few meal functions where there is a charge to attend, but they're also excellent educational sessions. At 9 a.m. each morning on Wednesday and Thursday next week, we open the exhibit hall and it's open until 4 p.m. And it's open to anyone interested in coming, anyone who has a responsibility for a building such as a condo board or maintenance people or resident managers or the engineers and the maintenance people, which we feel are the ones on the front line of keeping the buildings going. And it's free. You can get a badge when you arrive. And we also give away six trips for two to Las Vegas and a number of free trips to the neighbor islands. So there's a lot of activity going on, a lot of excitement. And some people spend the whole day there. Well, I want to ask you some more questions about that, but we're going to take a short break for a minute. And we'll be right back with Condom Insider talking about Hawaii's largest property management expo. Good afternoon. My name is Howard Wigg. I am the proud host of Code Green, a program on Think Tech Hawaii. We show at 3 o'clock in the afternoon every other Monday. My guests are specialists both from here and the mainland on energy efficiency, which means you do more for less electricity and you're generally safer and more comfortable while you're keeping dollars in your pocket. Hey, aloha, Stan Energyman here on Think Tech Hawaii where community matters. This is the place to come to think about all things energy. We talk about energy for the grid, energy for vehicles, energy and transportation, energy and maritime, energy and aviation. We have all kinds of things on our show, but we always focus on hydrogen here in Hawaii because it's my favorite thing. That's what I like to do. So we talk about things that make a difference here in Hawaii, things that should be a big changer for Hawaii. And we hope that you'll join us every Friday at noon on Stan Energyman and take a look with us at new technologies and new thoughts on how we can get clean and green in Hawaii, aloha. Welcome back to Code Insider. We're talking with Ken Cantor, Exposition Director of Next Week's Property Management Expo. It has a longer name than that, but I'm gonna keep it a property management expo because it's way too long for my senior years to remember all that. But let's just review briefly. We were talking about it's a free show, parking six bucks at the Blaisdell. It's next week, Wednesday and Thursday. Seminars begin at eight, the exhibition booth's open at nine, is that correct? And we have lots of exhibitors. But they can come down without any registration. Register at the show. They don't have to go through some preliminary thing. If they just wanna, I got time in my schedule today, bop on down there and I can do that. You can go to our website, douglastradshows.com and see all the seminars. You can even register for a badge, but it's not mandatory. We do require badges to be worn when you get into the exhibit hall, but they can pick up a badge at the onsite registration counter when they arrive. It's free of charge. Now I've seen you remember, you're giving me a whole bunch of little coupons that I go around and drop them in these different colored boxes. Different colored boxes. Might win a trip to Vegas or Neighbor Islands or... People do win and there are six trips for two that we give away to Las Vegas. Vacations Hawaii provides though, we're very happy that they're involved. And it encourages people to walk the show floor, deposit a entry, they're personalized, so they have their names on them and they can also visit the exhibitors around them. I'm very forgetful. As soon as I get in the show, I run around, do all the boxes first, and then I go take my leisurely time around. Otherwise, I'm gonna forget and I wanna make sure I have a chance to win, although I haven't won yet, but I guess odds are one in three or four thousand, yes. Well, they're not too bad considering we have, what, 3,400 people and six chances to win. So I wouldn't say those are great Vegas odds, but people do win. Well, I do know. I see you're always announcing and awarding them and that's great, but you know, one of the things I think that shouldn't be overlooked about your show and I'm very prejudice about this point is you have some outstanding, incredible, dynamic speakers in your seminars. Yes, we do. We have one in particular that we're very proud of. He does seminars on reserve studies. Oh, I guess that's you, Richard, sorry. I don't know how we figured that out, you know? And this year we're doing, as I said, 26 seminars. Everything from fire safety, obviously, that issue is a critical issue that's come to everybody's attention this year. We have them on the issues of condo boards, responsibilities for finances. We have a gentleman from Morgan Stanley who's gonna be talking about the statutes, the state statutes that relate to how condo boards can invest their funds, which is fairly limited, but there are some options. We have two seminars, one on security systems, the technology of security systems, which is changing every day. There's no way to keep up and then another one on the new controls for parking lot revenue control, how the control systems is doing it. And that's getting sophisticated as well, where you can go on your cell phone and find a parking space anywhere downtown without having to drive around, but that has to be managed and controlled, especially if those parking stalls are also part of the use of the tenants in the building. And that kind of technology is just changing every day. Well, I think if people went into the website or got your brochure and they looked at the 26 seminars you have, they had some incredible topics. I happen to know, I think his name is Travis, who's doing the one on the financial. A lot of boards don't know besides the traditional bank CDs, you have something called CDARs, ICS. There's different ways you can legally invest with well-protected instruments. And a lot of time you don't think about it, but a difference between 2% and 1% in your investments makes a big difference with respect to your earnings and your reserve study. So I find some of the seminars are absolutely really interesting depending on what your issues are as your association. So tell me about some other seminars. Well, I try and pick subjects by talking to professionals in the industry, seeing what's relevant. And we're doing one on what's referred to as arc flash hazard control where the electrical system in a building could put out an electrical arc flash that, and I found this very difficult to believe, as hot as 30,000 degrees Fahrenheit in less than a microsecond, and it can vaporize everything in the room. And this is the, in the top 10 dangerous types of accidents that OSHA tracks in the United States. And in buildings like we're seeing today, huge buildings where the electrical power system is very complex, it's a serious problem and it has to be watched. And what we're finding, what's interesting to find is who's coming to these seminars. They find them and then we realize we're reaching a crowd we had no idea we're reaching. So you have the insurance market is attending it, the condo boards are attending it, the maintenance and resident manager people are attending it because they all have the responsibility of understanding the problem. Well this is, I can put my own little commercial message in on this, that you know, because I'm in the association management industry, I see lots of board members and owners of associations at these seminars. I know Community Association Institute actually does a lunch in there one day. Tell us a little about that. This year they're doing one on the whole issue of fire safety, but they're bringing in not only experts in the safety issues, but the fire department. And it's really a panel discussion that is going to bring everybody up to date on what the statutes are and what's going through the legislature right now. So it's real time and that's on Thursday, it's a lunch and on Thursday starts at 1130 a.m. You do not have to be a CAI member to attend. There is a fee however, but it's an hour and a half session with a full lunch. Well I would encourage people to go to that. I was on one of the subcommittees of the residential fire safety advisory committee. I know this month there's a couple of bills before the city council with respect to providing some financing or tax relief for homeowners and condos, but I think the March session has the, I call it the big dog in the room or whether it's gonna be mandatory sprinkler retrofitting. And I know the fire chief, I've talked to him many times, he's quite knowledgeable and well spoken about fire safety issues. But I do want to take a minute and promote my three seminars. Absolutely. Just because every year I've had to publish a doing this, I would tell people that they're quite popular to the extent I see two to 300 people in these seminars and not just mine, but seminars at the show because the quality of information is there generally speaking throughout the entire seminar. And I do my traditional seminars which is on Wednesday, I have eight a.m. And I am doing one on a legislative update where we stand this year in the legislature, but also the general direction on a strategic level or where the legislature is going, what kind of bills are being introduced, what kind of concerns the legislature have and where the industry is kind of going in future. Then at 10 o'clock that day, I have one which is ironic, it's called Peace and Harmony and Condominium. It talks about, how do you have a peaceful, harmonious living environment? It goes back to again, how we treat people and how we govern and what the current laws are, what the current thinking is to resolve disputes. And then on Thursday, I do one on modern thinking of reserve studies. And basically it's centered around the concept that if you think about it, and you have wastewater pipes and all the architectural reference manuals say they have a useful life of 50 to 100 years, well how do you pick in your reserve study 50 years or 100 years? Because the effect is very dramatic and how much money you have to put in. You have twice as much time to do it if it's 100 years versus 50 years. And so there's a whole lot of changing in the thinking of how you do reserve studies today and having the background of reserve studies and certifications nationally for doing reserve studies and also having written several laws here in Hawaii. I give a kind of a uptake on where this is going so that boards can better manage and plan this. But even though I promoted my own seminars in a way, I think in general I would say to you, your seminars are really high quality. They're really good speakers. Thank you. When you and I first met, we talked about education and how it would serve the market and serve especially the condo boards which have the responsibility to manage a multi-million dollar business. So everything related to the education that we try and provide and which you helped create some of it is to facilitate the condo boards, the volunteers, the ones that have to keep an eye on what's happening in the building to realize that they're running a multi-million dollar business and the ability to do it efficiently and effectively and creatively raises property values. And that's how it works. And the thing I want to emphasize about the seminars from my perspective, no one's trying to sell anybody anything, it's strictly educational on the issues, pros, cons, risk rewards, industry issues. It's not a sales pitch. We have a very strong policy to not be putting on infomercials. And if it goes in that direction, we change it. It should be information that everybody can share, that is helping everybody to move along. Yeah, I think that's generally well said because I've been involved in your seminar for several years now and not only as a speaker but as a helping through being a sponsor or a booth participant. And I found that to be one of the most meaningful chances for board members and owners to in a natural, relaxed, well-run environment, walk around, talk to people, get information where they have an interest, attend seminars that are very valuable to what they're trying to deal with. I'm frankly surprised at the end of my seminars, I typically have to hang around for 30 minutes or more answering questions that creates this interest in how they can run their home and their association better. It helps drive the show, but it also helps create the environment of coming down and spending a few hours, not just looking at products and services, but relating to people in the room that you may not have met before who have the same problems or trying to solve the same problems you are and gaining the education. So I really appreciate your doing it and you were very instrumental in giving us a focus on how to do that well. Well, we're at the end of the show, so I'm gonna ask you to remind everybody where it is, the dates and the times, how to register and how to show up and then we'll wrap it up. Okay, I think that's the camera right there. Hawaii Buildings Facilities and Property Management Expo is Wednesday, March 7th and Thursday, March 8th at the Blaisdale Center. It's free, produced by Douglas Trade Shows. You can come on down and attend the free seminars and see over 250 companies occupying 300 exhibit spaces with product services and equipment to help you manage and operate your building or facility. Well, thank you for being here and I would tell everybody, I encourage you to go, it's a great show and a lot of great seminars and hope to see some of you at my seminar. This wraps up this week's condo insider. Next week we're gonna have Jane Sugimura back and we're gonna be talking about a hot topic called priority of payment. As you know, when you pay maintenance fees, those are applied in a certain order and creates unintended consequences and problems and there's new laws being promoted this year. So next week we'll be back with Jane Sugimura talking about priority of payment issues and thank you for watching condo insider, aloha.