“Go make friends. Now.”

That’s Pono Shim’s simple advice for Hawaii businesses to get the most out of the upcoming Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meetings in November.

Shim, president and CEO of Enterprise Honolulu, said he studied previous APEC host countries to figure out what Hawaii could do to gain lasting benefits from the prestigious event.

His basic takeaway: APEC won’t do anything for Hawaii unless we take action now.

“Everyone treated APEC like a science fair, showcasing certain industries they felt could create opportunities for exporting or investments,” Shim said, describing past host countries. “And when it ended, it ended.”

Vietnam was an anomaly. Shim said the country beefed up its internet bandwidth when it hosted APEC in 2006 — important infrastructure it didn’t have before. The investment continued to provide longer-term benefits once the conference was over.

“That made me ask, what can we put in as infrastructure?” said Shim, whose organization serves as the Oahu Economic Development Board. “Relationships should be the infrastructure. In that, we’ll have long-term success because when APEC is over, we’ll have those relationships in place.”

He translated the idea of building lasting relationships into a grant proposal and Enterprise Honolulu was awarded $250,000 from the U.S. Department of Commerce. The grant required matching funds, which will mostly come from Enterprise Honolulu.

The money will be used to build a website to facilitate business opportunities with APEC’s 21 member economies. Essentially, Shim wants people to connect now — months before the conference.

The APEC 2011 Hawaii Host Committee has estimated the November meeting, expected to draw 20,000 delegates, will generate $120 million in revenue for the state.

“Hawaii’s cultural diversity means our stories are interconnected and linked to each of these 21 member economies,” Shim said. “We want people to have the opportunity to connect outside of the four-day window, identify who they want to engage with and who their business counterparts are.”

Enterprise Honolulu will issue a request for proposal April 1 for a contractor to build the free-standing site (which doesn’t have an official name yet) as well as hold training sessions on Oahu and the neighbor islands for anyone interested in learning how to get involved. Shim said he plans to award a contract by April 16.

“This won’t be a social networking site,” he said. “I want people to pick up the phone or send emails. Once people connect, then there’s trust and opportunities for friendships to develop.”

He said training sessions will mostly focus on “what APEC is and what APEC isn’t.”

“This focuses on our responsibility to reach out,” Shim said. “We have the audience, we just need to build the connections.”