The Hawaiʻi Convention Center will reopen for conferences, meetings and other events starting in January 2022.
State agencies have used the center for nearly two years to meet increased workloads in response to the pandemic — such as contact tracing and unemployment assistance.
Those expanded efforts are winding down and restrictions for large managed events have eased, allowing the building to host conferences, conventions and meetings.
General Manager Teri Orton said the facility will follow state and county rules for large events — and maintain safety measures it had throughout the pandemic.
"Having hand sanitation stations throughout the building, we’ll still continue to keep. I think it’s a good practice. We’ve modified our housekeeping service in the building. All the high-touch point areas in the building: elevator buttons, handrails for the escalators and elevators – we clean them every hour on the hour," Orton said.
"Obviously, mask... and having some of the guidelines for us to host an event is everyone in attendance to a conference – or actually to enter our building – must be vaccinated. So we check for proof of vaccination upon entry to the building. You can’t get into our building without going through a temperature checkpoint," Orton told Hawaiʻi Public Radio.
Orton said the center will host its first conference in early January — and has several large events planned for 2022.
The first 2022 event with over 1,000 attendees is the TransPacific Volleyball Championships from Jan. 15 to Jan. 17, according to the convention calendar. CSI Honolulu’s annual trade show with 2,000 expected attendees is on Jan. 26. The much-delayed Kawaii Kon is also on the schedule for April 22 to 24, 2022.
Orton said the convention center is now booking large events three, five and ten years away.
