While in Hawaii last year, visiting Shane and Roxanne in Kailua, Eliza and I found this orchid Bird of Paradise flower behind a few garbage cans near a burger joint we were having dinner at. It just shows you that beauty runs deep in Hawaii.

Update: I stand corrected. Mike Cohen commented that this is actually a Bird of Paradise flower. I had original marked this as an orchid. I don’t mind being corrected and I very much appreciate Mike taking the time to let me know. Thanks Mike.

Example: Want to know what is going on in the music scene tonight in Hawaii? Check out the music category. By doing so I found out via Dr. Trey that tonight, from 6 to 9 at Jimmy Buffet’s I could have listened to Mailani Makainai.

Too bad I’m not on Oahu at the moment.

As more Twitter users that are in Hawaii added to the site its value is sure to skyrocket. I think the real time searches of the entire Twitterverse add even more value. Such as anyone that has recently mentioned Hawaii on Twitter. I’d love to see more geographic areas and keyword searches added to the list. This way when you’re out and about you can find on what is going on in the area you are, rather than just in Hawaii in general. With a little hacking of the URL you can do this yourself. I did a quick hack for Hanauma Bay (one of my favorite places on the planet). But imagine if you could quickly find out where everyone was surfing today. Valuable, marketable, and useful stuff.

I’m sure Barefeet Studios has many more ideas for InHawaiiNow. I’m glad Hawaii has a service like this and I think many travel destinations should definitely consider doing something similar – perhaps somehow even on their official sites for their area.

A more geeky reason that I like this site is because Shane used Code Igniter, a PHP MVC framework, that I rather adore. More on this later.

While at Podcamp Hawai’i Eliza and I met a lot of interesting people from all over the globe. One man, Richard Alexander, had a pretty exciting story to tell. You see, he’s into origami. He and his partner, Michael LaFosse, own a studio for working with handmade paper to create stunning works of art.

Richard Alexander, Origamido Studio. International Market Place Waikiki, Oahu, Hawaii.

Many of the works by the Origamido team are made with single sheets of paper made from materials that they’ve gotten from all over the globe. A remote desert, materials from Japan, and wood from a rain forest, are only some of the examples I heard Richard speak of. The two photos I’ve included in this post show how realistic their work turns out. Each of these examples, the bat and goldfish, are made from a single sheet of paper. Amazing.

The exciting part of Richard’s story is that they are moving from Haverhill, Massachusetts to Waikiki, Oahu, Hawai’i. Richard’s reason for being at Podcamp was so that he could learn a little bit about New Media, and how he could leverage it to promote their new 2,000 sq. ft. space in the International Market Place in downtown Waikiki.

While Eliza and I (more Eliza than I) were doing laundry at one of the local laundromats, of all things, Richard Alexander walked by. He had just signed the lease on his new space and the laundromat was directly in-between the location of the new space and his apartment. I was eating a Puka dog. Richard, walking by, says: “Colin?”. We were both surprised that we bumped into each other again. He immediately offered to take us over to see the new, completely empty space that he had just signed the lease on. I’m looking forward to returning to see what he and his team end up creating there.

If you get a chance, and are in Waikiki, head down to the International Market Place and visit Origamido on the second-floor. I think you’ll be more than impressed with what they do.

During our stay on Oahu for the Social Media Club Workshop, Podcamp and Wordcamp Hawai’i, and a little leisure time – Eliza and I stayed at the Wyland Waikiki hotel.

This modern hotel showcases some of Wyland’s (whose name is Robert Wyland, by the way) artwork on nearly every surface available. Wall-sized paintings, sculptures, surf boards, and even tile works on the bottom one of the hotel’s pools all show off the creativity of Wyland.

The rooms are a decent size with all of the amenities that you’d come to expect nowadays. Beautiful flat-panel televisions, high beds, and nice bathrooms. Eliza and I had a room with a fridge and a sink (no range to cook on). We both really enjoyed our stay here.

Not that you spend a lot of time in your hotel when you are in Hawai’i, but I still think it is important to find one that suits your lifestyle. The Xbox-filled gaming room suits my lifestyle, though I admit I didn’t end up using it. The bar in the lobby with some of the better tenders I’ve come across, suits my lifestyle. The free wifi throughout the property, does as well.  Though, I must say that only having wired access in the rooms was a bit disappointing.  But Eliza and I quickly took care of that with Mac OS X’s internet connection sharing which is drop dead simple to set up.

Why am I writing about this hotel? Because they were extremely accommodating. They helped out the Podcamp attendees and speakers and also were always on hand when we wanted to chat about the hotel. Something I have never, ever heard of with any other hotel.

And, in the very near future, if you head down to one of the lobby’s two iMacs – you may see Viddler sitting on the desktop ready for you to record your video testimonial for this excellent hotel.

Me, speaking at Podcamp Hawai’i. Credit: Eliza Devroe

I have an awful lot of writing to do. I figured one of the easiest things to start off with, and hopefully get the ball rolling with everything else that I need to write about, would be the photos, videos, tweets, and much more from both Podcamp and Wordcamp Hawai’i.

Oh, did I mention that I learned how to properly spell Hawai’i while I was there?

If you’ve been following the pch08 tag on Flickr, on Twitter, on Viddler, and pretty much everywhere else, you’ll probably have seen these already.  If not… than I just did you a favor.

The visuals tell only part of the story. You’ll have to be there next year ((There will be a next year, right?)) to experience what type of conference the outstanding people in Hawai’i are able to put together.

Source: Podcamp Hawaii: Session: Using video to build community.

In October Eliza and I will be heading to Oahu, Hawaii for a Social Media Summit in Waikiki. Shortly after that we’ll be attending both Podcamp Hawaii and Wordcamp Hawaii.

I don’t think it needs to be said that we’re both looking forward to attending these events.

In November, shortly after our return, I’ll be heading to New York City for Carsonified‘s Future of Web Design conference. I will have some exciting things to talk to developers about, regarding Viddler‘s new Developer Partner Program, and I think FOWD is the perfect venue for these discussions.