MEDIA RELEASE

Hilo, HI—May, 4 2009—The Hawai`i Island Chamber of Commerce (HICC) was fortunate to present the Emmy Award-winning journalist Bill Dorman as the guest speaker at the Third General Membership Meeting luncheon on May 4th at the `Imiloa Astronomy Center of Hawai`i Sky Garden Restaurant. Dorman, who has covered stories from more than a dozen countries and has interviewed corporate and political leaders around the Asia Pacific region, spoke about how to get media attention in a recession.

 

Bill Dorman

Dorman offered his advice to HICC members on how to bring value to your business through positive stories to get attention from the media. Dorman suggested that businesses should be sincere and brief to get the “nugget” of the story across in 15 seconds or less. Dorman advised, “the more you are able to define your standpoint, the better off you are because the controversy will not go away,” when asked how to handle media if controversial issues arise.

 

Dorman worked as a reporter, producer and executive producer at CNN for more than 20 years and most recently was Managing Editor of Asia Pacific Broadcast for Bloomberg Television. He has a Master’s Degree in Journalism from Columbia University and a Bachelor’s Degree in English from Dartmouth College. He currently lives in Tokyo and teaches at Temple University, Japan. He is married to Noriko Namiki, his former producer.

In addition to hearing Dorman’s presentation, Chamber members elected the following Officers and Board of Directors for 2009-2010:

Officers: Barbara Hastings (Immediate Past President), Mary Begier (President), Mike Gleason (President Elect), Jon Miyata (1st Vice President), Vaughn Cook (Treasurer). Two year Directors: Howard Ainsley, Charles Erskine, Judith Fox-Goldstein, Marco Mangelsdorf, Eugene Nishimura, Glen Santos, Margaret Shiba, Alice Sledge, Mele Spencer, Art Taniguchi, Ron Terry. One year Directors: Jeanine Atebara, Kurt Corbin, Charles Ensey, Stan Fortuna, Jr., Stewart Hussey, Randy Kurohara, Karina Leasure, Linda Levine, Spencer Oliver, Robert C. Porter, Marcia Sakai, Steve Ueda, Jere Usui. The Officers and Directors will be installed on Monday, June 29th at Hilo Hawaiian Hotel Moku`ola Room. The ceremony will begin at 5 p.m.

Established in 1898, the Hawai`i Island Chamber of Commerce is an organization comprised of businesses and professionals who work together to provide leadership via services and advocacy for the business community while promoting the economic well-being of Hawai`i Island as a whole. The HICC represents more than 700 members and 360 businesses.