Hawaii’s Big Island recently hosted the 13th annual Pacific Rim Incentives & Meeting Exchange (PRIME), a conference that invites 100 event planners to meet with sales and marketing executives from local Hawaiian tourism bureaus, resort hotels and group service providers for two days of appointments, plus networking events, site visits and familiarization trips.

The conference was the brainchild of Priscilla Texeira, PRIME’s managing director. “Having attended numerous industry trade shows, I saw the need for an event that was more business-focused than one of the normal meetings-industry trade show,” said Texeira, who designed the program so that planners could discuss business face-to-face with suppliers.

The Waikoloa Beach Marriott Resort & Spa, on the island’s Kohala Coast, served as the headquarters for the business exchange portion of this year’s conference, which ran September 21–24. Additional networking events were held at the nearby Fairmont Orchid and at the Anna Ranch Heritage Center, a historic property in Waimea available for group meetings. Some of the meeting planners also toured the Hilo side of the Big Island, with trips to the Imiloa Astronomy Center, Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, KapohoKine Adventures and the Hawaii Vanilla Company.

According to Texeira, the 100 meeting planners who participated were culled from more than 1,000 potential candidates that Texeira and her colleagues determined are most likely to take events to Hawaii. Next year’s PRIME conference is slated for Honolulu June 9–13. For more information on PRIME, visit prime-aloha.com.