An international microwave symposium that begins tomorrow and runs through Friday is scheduled to bring 10,000 delegates to the Hawai'i Convention Center, which officials said is the largest attendance of any meeting at the center this year.

The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers' 2007 International Microwave Symposium is the premier conference of the IEEE Microwave Theory and Techniques Society, and will feature a large trade show, presentations of technical papers, and workshops.

A convention center spokes-man said the projected total statewide spending figure for a convention of this size is $23.6 million, with projected tax revenue of $2.3 million.

The international symposium is being billed among engineers as the centerpiece of Microwave Week 2007. The participants include a large contingency from Japan, Korea and China. This also will be the first time in its 50-year history that this symposium is being held outside the North American continent.

Convention center officials point to the size of the group as evidence of the facility's success at building attendance at events that are scheduled here.

The state-built facility has faced criticism over the years that it's not living up to expectations of luring larger numbers of out-of-state conventions.

Wayne Shiroma, the symposium's chairman, said the group chose the Hawai'i Convention Center to capitalize on Hawai'i's geographic position as the central point between North America and Asia.

"The most rapid growth in the microwave industry is occurring in Asia. So, yes, Hawai'i's central location was seen as a plus for attracting that segment," Shiroma said.

He said the number of papers being submitted from participants from Asian countries have been "neck-and-neck" with the number of papers submitted from the United States — 30 percent — with the balance coming from Europe, Canada, and other Western countries.

Hawai'i has seen a 50 percent increase in exhibitors from Asia, including those from China, Korea, Japan, and Taiwan over the past two years, when the symposium was held in California,

Convention center officials said they have marked China and Korea as untapped new markets and worked with the engineers' group to customize and promote the convention in Asia.

Reach Robbie Dingeman at rdingeman@honoluluadvertiser.com.