Hawaii officials have long said that APEC will present a huge opportunity for the state, and that the global economic conference will elevate Honolulu to the world stage.

DC808 caught up with Monica Hardy Whaley, president of the National Center for APEC in Seattle, to find out what lasting effects the conference had on her city when it was hosted there in 1993. 

Hardy Whaley said that APEC is “so different” than it was 18 years ago, but also says that Honolulu can learn from what Seattle experienced. 

“I think that’s a huge opportunity for Honolulu to showcase Honolulu and Hawaii more broadly as a place where businesses can come and do business, have business-related events,” Hardy Whaley said. “At APEC, there are many, many hours where the governments are just meeting or there’s nothing that’s open (to the press), so we got to show off some industries that are important in Seattle, not just tourist things but really educate people about what kinds of things were going on in Seattle.”

Hardy Whaley describes evidence that APEC helped Seattle form a business-destination reputation as “anecdotal” but compelling. 

“After APEC, (former Russia) President Boris Yeltsin came to Seattle,” Hardy Whaley said. “There was another big meeting scheduled that was a really big deal. We started getting chosen for those kinds of meetings, and it has continued since then. I think it really put us — Seattle was on the map already, but in a different way after we hosted APEC.”