Letter from the Editor

A couple of years ago, I briefly lived with an engineer whose social circle included a group of other engineers, along with a couple of doctors. After work in the evenings, her friends often would come over and we’d all sit in the living room and talk about what we did that day.

Granted, as a writer, some of what they said was considerably over my head. But in spite of that — or perhaps because of it — it was fascinating to hear about their work. That, I think, is the power of bringing together diverse groups of people: You get to learn about things you otherwise would have no idea about.

That is the type of power that TEDxHonolulu harnesses with its TED Talk-like events that it hosts throughout the year. Coming up for the group — which is comprised solely of volunteers who commit countless hours to putting on these events — is its annual conference. This year’s theme is Paradigm Shift, and the conference takes place at University of Hawaii at Manoa on March 28. You can get all the details and learn more about the speakers in our feature story on Page 10.

Also in that spirit of collaboration, we go inside Hawaii Shoots (Page 12), which seeks to unite the video production industry and foster cohesiveness among various fields.