MEDIA RELEASE

Philadelphia International Flower Show

The Hawai`i Tropical Flowers Council (HTFC) is now soliciting local vendors who want to participate at the Philadelphia International Flower Show (PIFS), held from March 3 to 11, 2012. The theme of the flower show this year is “Hawai‘i, Islands of Aloha.”

The HTFC will be offering qualified companies a booth space and/or an assistance package to help defray costs. Hawai‘i Tourism Authority and the Hawai‘i Island Visitor’s Bureau will also be participating in the show to promote Hawai‘i and Hawai‘i County.

This show is the largest fresh flower & products show in North America, with over 250,000 people attending the nine-day event. The flower show will feature a “Hawai‘i Market Place”, which will be designed to showcase local Hawai‘i made products and cultural crafts.

Qualified products and crafts must be Hawai‘i Island made: food products, cultural crafts, Hawaiian music CD’s, fresh flowers or packaged nursery products, value added soaps & lotions, fresh produce, packaged coffee, macadamia nuts, etc. A diverse group of vendors will be selected that have large quantity of product that will be ready to ship to Philadelphia in March. The participating company must have a website with an active shopping cart. “The purpose of promoting our companies to these new mainland buyers is to entice them to re-order from our companies’ shopping carts in the future and allows participating businesses to gain future business from this endeavor,” said Mike Inouye, HTFC President and PIFS Coordinator.

A special informational meeting is scheduled for November 30, 2011, 5:30 p.m. at the Aupuni Center Conference Room, (located across the American Savings Bank and at the corner of Pauahi and Aupuni Street), Hilo. Interested companies are urged to attend this meeting as the vendors must be selected in December.