HOW2
HEALTH CARE REFORM MADE EASY
THE VOICE of FLORIDA’S SUPER REGION ™
IN PARTNERSHIP
REGIONAL SYNERGY’S INSIDE STORY TRANSIT
EMERGING INFLUENCE: BUS TOLL LANES
ISSUE 2 • 2013
WELLNESS
AROMA THERAPY
ECONOMIC UPDATES FOR 23 COUNTIES
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UNIVERSITIES + LOCAL SUPPORT = TARGETED HIGH TECH SUCCESS “If we build it, they will come.” CAROL CRAIG
CRAIG TECHNOLOGIES
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LEGISLATIVE SCORECARD
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SMART AND SAVVY ENTREPRENEURSHIP
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BEST RELIABILITY IN FLORIDA 15 YEARS IN A ROW – Based on 2012 data from the Florida Public Service Commission
Orlando — one of the fastest-growing cities in the U.S. — trusts us for reliable power. That’s why for the 15th year in a row, OUC—The Reliable One has lived up to its name by providing the most reliable electric service in Florida and finishing well ahead of the state’s investor-owned utilities in key performance areas that measure overall electric distribution reliability.
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CONNECT YOUR BUSINESS TO THE WORLD
Some of the strongest companies in your area count on our industry-leading fiber network, including top institutions in Healthcare, Hospitality, Education and Government. We own and operate our network end-to-end, and it’s supported by our local team of management and engineers. From Dedicated Fiber Access to Metro Ethernet to Enterprise-class Voice services we provide scalable solutions with guaranteed service levels.
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To learn more, call 1-855-245-4434 or visit brighthouse.com/business Š2013 Bright House Networks. Some restrictions apply. Serviceable areas only. Service provided at the discretion of Bright House Networks.
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CONTENTS DEPARTMENTS
10 COPY DESK
NEWS, NOTES AND COMMENTARY
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BY 16 COUNTY COUNTY
SPANNING 23 COUNTIES AT A GLANCE
22 PERSPECTIVES 50 PARTING SHOT
LEADING POINTS OF VIEW
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38 LEGISLATIVE UPDATE
UNDER REVIEW
40 TRANSIT
PREMIUM CORRIDORS
POLICY MAKING IN ACTION
PEOPLE AND PLACES ACROSS THE SUPER REGION
From immigration reform and the 2013 Farm Bill to Florida’s budget, the spotlight is on federal and state legislators. Who is doing what?
SECTIONS
24 HOW2
EXPERT TIPS AND ADVICE
RACE TO PATENT Under the newly implemented Leahy-Smith America Invents Act, filing a patent application first can trump actually making the invention, especially in the life sciences.
25 EXPONENTIAL GROWTH
Looking to gain more customers is only one way to bolster your business. Also consider increasing their average purchase, as well as the average number of times they buy.
FINANCIAL 44 REFORM’S IMPACT
Business owners, beware: New fees and penalties related to employee health insurance could injure your bottom line.
FROM A TO B AND BACK
Bus toll lanes could be a win for commuters, public transit and toll agencies.
26 INNOVATIONS
GROWING IDEAS INTO ENTERPRISES
TAKING FLIGHT
A history-making grant paves the way for UCF to become the first Florida university to lead a NASA mission. Plus: UCF Business Incubation garners global award, and good growth is recognized.
46 WELLNESS
YOUR PERSONAL BOTTOM LINE
DO YOU SMELL? Advice: Stop and smell the roses. It will make you feel better.
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PARTNERSHIP 42 INREGIONAL COLLABORATION TECHNOLOGY AND AUTOMATION
Jacob V. Stuart and Stuart Rogel take the TV stage to talk cross-county cohesion, global competitiveness and the need to move forward in unison.
Some of the freight we carry isn’t moved with a forklift. Whether it ends up in the cupboard, living room or driveway, CSX moves the essentials in life from manufacturer to you. Learn more at csx.com/florida.
How tomorrow moves Š2013 CSX Corporation
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FEATURES
ABOUT US
/ who we are
FLORIDA HIGH TECH CORRIDOR AND SUPER REGION As the lines separating traditional industries have blurred, so too have the geographic borders inside the 23-county Florida High Tech Corridor region. Drawn together by partnerships in industry, education, workforce and economic development, the organizations of Florida’s Super Region are collaborating across county lines to drive Florida’s new economy—one based on high tech sectors and innovative jobs of the future. Stretching across the center of the state from Tampa Bay, through Metro Orlando to the Space Coast and up to Gainesville, the Florida High Tech Corridor makes up the 10th largest economy in the U.S., with a technology workforce of more than 230,000 people. Also driving its growth are three world-renowned research universities: the University of Central Florida, University of South Florida and University of Florida. Florida’s Super Region makes up the 40th largest metropolitan economy in the world, with the potential to successfully compete not only nationally, but also across the globe.
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COVER
LASER FOCUS Seeking to help emerging companies advance, the Super Region has locked on to leveraging the collective strengths of its universities and their supportive business communities. The result: targeted success. Cover Photo by MacBethPhoto.com
FORWARD Florida Magazine is the definitive resource for and about economic development and the emerging growth companies of Florida’s Super Region.
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The bi-monthly business magazine is published in cooperation with the Central Florida Partnership, Florida High Tech Corridor Council and Tampa Bay Partnership. Including Tampa Bay and Metro Orlando—two regions that alone account for a $269 billion gross regional product—the magazine covers 23 counties, an area promoted 20 13 M ED IA G U ID E as Florida’s Super Region. The magazine is pro-business, pro-entrepreneurship and pro-economic development, with an emphasis on business, technology, education and legislative issues. PUBLISHING
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BY THE NUMBERS ECONOMIC IMPACT OF HOSPITALS Did you know that 132 hospitals operated across the 23-county Super Region in 2011? Also that year, total hospital employment across the Super Region equaled 468,439. And more.
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The mission of FORWARD Florida is to promote the existing business and community strengths and assets of the Super Region, and to foster effective growth, strategic alliances and general economic development. The magazine showcases the region’s vibrant business environment while providing its own blueprint for success. As part of that mission to be the “Voice of Florida’s Super Region,” FORWARD Florida regularly devotes coverage to topics that mirror the region’s chief industries while also addressing topics and issues that resonate among key stakeholders. Distribution of the magazine includes direct mail to high C-level executives, along with civic and community leaders and policy makers across the 23 counties, Tallahassee and Washington, D.C. Out-of-market distribution also includes prominent site selectors throughout the U.S. Additionally, there is bonus distribution at a number of major business events.
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Thursday-Saturday, Thursday-Saturday, October October 24-26, 24-26, 2013 2013 Roy Roy E. E. Crummer Crummer Graduate Graduate School School of of Business Business at at Rollins Rollins College College
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AD Bloomberg Businessweek acclaims Florida Tech as “Best College for Return on Investment in Florida.”
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The Chronicle of Higher Education Almanac 2012 lists Florida Tech as #3 out of the 20 fastest-growing campuses in the nation. Florida Tech is recognized for graduates’ salaries by PayScale.com • Ranked in first place among Florida universities for mid-career median salaries. • Ranked among the top 20 universities in the South—both public and private.
(321) 674-8000 | www.fit.edu 150 W. University Blvd. , Melbourne, FL 32901-6975 Florida Institute of Technology is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges to award associate, baccalaureate, master’s, education specialist and doctoral degrees. Contact the Commission on Colleges at 1866 Southern Lane, Decatur, Georgia 30033-4097 or call 404-679-4500 for questions about the accreditation of Florida Institute of Technology. Florida Institute of Technology does not discriminate on the basis of race, gender, color, religion, creed, national origin, ancestry, marital status, age, disability, sexual orientation, Vietnam-era veterans status or any other discrimination prohibited by law in the admission of students, administration of its educational policies, scholarship and loan programs, employment policies, and athletic or other university sponsored programs or activities. MK-229-313
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COPY DESK / news, notes and commentary Mobiquity seeks to leverage the engineering talent at UF and throughout Alachua County. Pictured, left to right: Bill Seibel, CEO/ founder of Mobiquity, and Andy Norman, Mobiquity’s senior vice president of service delivery.
Mobiquity Selects Gainesville INNOVATION SQUARE, THE LIVE/WORK/PLAY RESEARCH COMMUNITY BEING DEVELOPED near the University of Florida campus and downtown Gainesville, is about to get a bit busier. That’s where Mobiquity, a leading professional services firm, will locate its new office. In April, driven by significant company growth and industry demand for its mobile app development expertise, Mobiquity selected Gainesville as the site for expansion, a move that will add 260 jobs during the next three years, according to officials. The Council for Economic Outreach, the designated economic entity for Alachua County, had been working to recruit Mobiquity since last December, when the company first decided to expand from its Boston headquarters. Mobiquity joins others
like SumTotal Systems, Silver Airways, Mindtree Ltd. and Sears Holdings as companies that have either relocated or expanded to Gainesville in recent years. Aside from the Council for Economic Outreach, Mobiquity worked with local and state partners, including representatives from UF, Santa Fe College, Innovation Square, FloridaWorks, the City of Gainesville, Alachua County and Enterprise Florida Inc. Mobiquity plans to replicate the successful model already implemented in Boston, leveraging proven agile processes to keep efficiency and quality high and costs competitively low. In turn, Mobiquity hopes to benefit from its new location. “The unique combination of highly educated students, graduates and professionals, and an ideal location brought us to Gainesville,” comments Bill Seibel, founder and CEO of Mobiquity, which specializes in enterprise-class mobile solutions and apps.
Sweet Deal for Florida Citrus Growers
COCA-COLA CO. IS PROVIDING A BIG BOOST TO THE SUNSHINE STATE’S CITRUS industry—in the form of $2 billion to support the planting of 25,000 acres of new orange groves in Polk, DeSoto and Hendry counties. Roughly 5 million new trees will be planted, reportedly Florida’s largest citrus addition in nearly two decades; the new groves and resulting juice production could add as many as 4,100 jobs to the state’s economy. Many of the new trees will be planted on land that once held citrus groves or on lands that are currently idle. According to Florida Citrus Mutual, an information clearinghouse for citrus growers and packers, the additions help to slow a steady decline in acreage that’s devoted to citrus production. Since 1997, total citrus acreage has fallen by 25 percent, from 600,000 acres to 450,000 acres. Preliminary data from the Florida Citrus Commission shows that the expansion will add more than $10.5 billion—or $422 million per year—over the next 25 years to Florida’s economy. The citrus industry directly and indirectly contributes about 76,000 jobs statewide, cites the Florida Citrus Manual. About 90 percent of Florida’s oranges are used for juice. Call it a sweet deal for both.
More Healthy Activity Emerges at Lake Nona LAKE NONA’S UNOFFICIAL MONIKER IS “MEDICAL CITY.” APPARENTLY, THOUGH, THE retail and residential markets haven’t been neglected, either. In April, officials announced leases on a dozen new businesses at their Lake Nona Village and Lake Nona Plaza shopping centers in south Orlando. The additions bring the total to 16 new businesses that will arrive by year-end. In addition, Lake Nona turned out to be one of the best-selling new-home communities in Orlando in 2012 and also was recognized as the 14th best-selling community in the country, with more than 450 homes sold last year.
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Meanwhile, the medical city continues to rise. Most recently, plans were announced to construct the Lake Nona Gateway Building, a 100,000-square-foot medical office building. Florida Hospital and UCF’s Pegasus Health will become anchor tenants in the building. Florida Hospital expects to establish a combination of services that will include a
The 100,000 square-foot Lake Nona Gateway Building is designed to complement the array of medical services offered at Lake Nona.
CentraCare urgent care center, an outpatient surgery center, imaging and diagnostics and certain specialist services. UCF’s College of Medicine will expand Pegasus Health, the College’s primary and multispecialty practice.
COPY DESK / news, notes and commentary Speedy HiPerGator Scores Big
MEET THE “STATE’S MOST POWERFUL SUPERCOMPUTER”: HIPERGATOR. While HiPerGator can’t leap tall buildings in a single bound, it can help researchers find life-saving drugs, make decades-long weather forecasts and improve armor for troops. And, in doing so, the HiPerGator supercomputer, along with the recent tenfold increase in the size of the university’s data pipeline, makes UF one of the nation’s leading public universities in research computing, officials contend. The Dell machine has a peak speed of 150 trillion calculations per second. Put another way, if each calculation were a word in a book, HiPerGator could read the millions of volumes in UF libraries several hundred times per second. HiPerGator’s computing power spreads over multiple simultaneous jobs instead of focusing on a single task at warp speed. As for the details (if you can understand them), HiPerGator features the latest in high-performance computing technology from Dell and AMD, with 16,384 processing cores; a Dell|Terascala HPC Storage Solution (DT-HSS 4.5), with the industry’s fastest opensource parallel file system; and Mellanox’s FDR 56Gb/s InfiniBand interconnects that provide the highest bandwidth and lowest latency. In terms of applications, consider that UF immunologist David Ostrov will be able to slash a months-long test to identify safe drugs to a single eight-hour work day, essentially helping drugs get from the computer to the clinic more quickly.
Talk about fast: This Dell machine has a peak speed of 150 trillion calculations per second— delivering more research and less computing.
USF Facilitates Global Urban Initiative
In a quest to solve real-world problems, USF’s Patel College of Global Sustainability hosted 40 delegates from 23 countries.
THE UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH FLORIDA IS HELPING TO IDENTIFY SUSTAINABLE solutions to issues that are crippling growing cities in the developing world. In May, USF’s Patel College of Global Sustainability hosted 40 delegates from 23 countries, as they collaborated on challenges facing developing countries in the wake of rapid urbanization. The UN-Habitat Partner University Initiative, established in 2011, seeks to bring together top urban research universities. Its vision is to grow the next generation of urban leaders and researchers, while also promoting the global exchange of information. The initiative currently has 136 institutional members and more than 1,200 individual members. UN-Habitat focuses on urban issues such as informal housing, urban planning,
transport and the provision of basic services like food, water, energy and waste management. The initiative is establishing global research hubs to serve as collaborations of academia joined together under a specific theme. The themed hubs provide opportunities for both institutional and individual partners to share knowledge. The meeting at USF served as a platform from which to finalize and launch key pieces of the program. At the end of the meeting, five hubs were officially established: Urban Futures, Urban Governance, Informal Urbanism, Food Security and Climate Change. In the next 12 months, UN-Habitat participants hope to have concrete projects on the ground, combining university knowledge with UN-Habitat experience to solve real-world problems.
Cruise (Cargo) Control at Port Canaveral ONE CAN EASILY USE THE WORDS “ROBUST” AND “ECONOMIC ENGINE” TO DESCRIBE business activity at Port Canaveral. The impact tally for 2012: $2 billion and 17,000 jobs for the local community—up 73 percent in business revenues since the last analysis three years ago. Industry consulting firm Martin Associates of Lancaster, Pa., was commissioned to analyze cruise, cargo, real estate and marina activity at Port Canaveral, which is the world’s second busiest cruise port. The survey of 294 tenants and service providers found that Port Canaveral business activities generated a 30 percent increase in job growth, personal income of $808 million and $248 million in local purchases. State and local taxes paid totaled
Port Canaveral is proving its worth as both a cruise port and busy outlet for cargo.
$74.3 million. Also, the study found that 40 percent of cruise passengers stay in local hotels at least one night before their cruise, and each passenger spends at least $100 while in Brevard County. Crew members were found to spend $385 per visit in the area, mostly on retail purchases.
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COPY DESK / news, notes and commentary
Goodwill Industries of Central Florida touts “Made in America.”
Goodwill Makes AllAmerican Effort
With Karen Hagan at the helm, the American Red Cross Mid-Florida Region now offers five free apps to assist in disaster preparation and information delivery before, during and after a disaster.
Warning: Hurricane Danger Ahead WITH HURRICANE SEASON HERE, “BE PREPARED.” Those are the words of Karen Hagan, new regional CEO of the American Red Cross Mid-Florida Region. Hagan, who has been with the Red Cross 28 years and most recently served as State Disaster Officer, sees communication as key to keeping Central Floridians safe. In turn, Red Cross now offers five free apps to aid in preparation before, during and after a hurricane or other disaster.
Municipal Optimism
THE SURVEY SAYS: THINGS ARE LOOKING UP, A LITTLE AT LEAST, FOR FLORIDA MUNICIPALITIES. Cities have experienced a “slight improvement” in their overall financial state, and, as a result, more than half of them are now able to implement written policies to budget reserves for emergencies. Also, most Florida cities now say they offer some type of economic development incentive—most often, expedited permitting—in a bid to attract even greater economic growth. Those are among the findings of the inaugural “State of the Cities” report issued by the Florida League of Cities Center for Municipal Research and Innovation, based on statewide data from the League’s 2012
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Simply call **REDCROSS from a smartphone to receive a link to download the apps. Hagan’s personal message: “People everywhere are reminded, especially with hurricane season here in Florida, to get prepared now to build a disaster kit; make a plan for themselves, their families and their places of business; and be able to survive for three to five days with the necessary supplies and plans.” Since 1917 the American Red Cross Mid-Florida Region has been serving 13 counties, from Flagler south to Highlands and from Citrus east to Brevard. Increasingly, Florida cities like Tampa use incentives to attract new employers.
CityStats Survey. The report focuses on trends and key issues related to municipal governments in Florida. Among the trends highlighted in the report is an increase in economic development incentives to attract new employers. The most common incentives were expedited permitting (35 percent), followed by favorable land development regulations (24 percent) and tax breaks (20 percent).
IN MAY, GOODWILL INDUSTRIES OF CENTRAL FLORIDA OFFICIALLY OPENED ITS FIRST “American-made” retail store and Job Connection Center, located in Clermont. From the doorframes to the plumbing to the roof, 98 percent of the materials used were sourced from American vendors and manufacturers—a total of 43 products from 20 different states, including 11 from Florida. Media reports cite that today more than 60 percent of building products are from foreign imports; by contrast, 8 percent of goods were purchased overseas in 1960. At the same time, if every builder used 5 percent more American-made products, 220,000 jobs would be created. Thus, the effort was made by Goodwill to go American, even if it cost more. According to Chris Rollins, COO of the Winter Park-based construction firm Williams Co., which partnered with Goodwill on the project, using American-made products costs about 1 percent more than using products made overseas. “Our mission is to help those with barriers to employment find meaningful work,” comments Goodwill CEO Bill Oakley. “This ‘Made in America’ partnership with Williams Company gives us a chance to further that mission and to support homegrown businesses at the same time.” Goodwill’s Job Connection Center offers a variety of job training and placement services, such as résumé building, networking and mentoring to people with barriers to employment. The programs are offered at no cost to the community and are funded by proceeds from sales of donated items at the nonprofit’s 26 area retail stores. Since the beginning of 2013, Goodwill has served 11,251 people at its Job Connection Centers, with 2,684 of them finding jobs. With 27 retail locations in Orange, Seminole, Osceola, Brevard, Lake and Volusia counties, Goodwill directly channels more than 90 percent of its annual revenue into programs that enable individuals to secure long-term employment and become self-sufficient.
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/ news, notes and commentary CITRUS PARK CROSSINGS GETS LIFE S TOURISM BOASTS BIG NUMBERS
are looking to donate breast milk to help other babies receive crucial nutrition, especially at-risk preemies in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. The opening of the Milk Depot is part of Florida Hospital’s continued commitment to providing women and babies with the most comprehensive medical resources. In 2012, Florida Hospital required the use of nearly 10,000 ounces of donor milk. Since there are only 11 Milk Banks in the United States and none in Florida, Florida Hospital is affiliated with the Mother’s Milk Bank in Denver.
To the delight of tourism stakeholders, such as the Hyatt Regency Grand Cypress in Orlando, first quarter 2013 was the best ever for state visitation, according to industry data. CITRUS PARK CROSSINGS , one of Tampa’s first speculative developments in five years, is on the rise. A three-story, 75,000-squarefoot, $16 million office complex is being built to serve as the headquarters for Invest Financial Corp., a financial advisory firm, and parent company Jackson National Life, an insurance agency. Roughly 300,000 square feet of mixed-use commercial space is available at the development, which had been delayed. The project is under development by Ryan Companies US.
More craft brewing is on the way to Lakeland, thanks to St. Louis-based BREW HUB LLC , which allows brewers to partner with the company and brew their beer onsite. The beer then is packaged and
Lakeland is gaining a crafty concept in the form of Brew Hub LLC, which offers craft beer makers a place to brew along with business services.
distributed using the Brew Hub distribution system. In effect, craft brewers can expand their distribution networks without related overhead costs. The company also offers craft brewers business services in sales, marketing and logistics, among others. The Lakeland site will have an initial brewing capacity of one million cases annually. Good news for the state’s tourism industry. Bolstered by metro Orlando and complemented throughout the Super Region, Florida tourism enjoyed its highest single-quarter visitation ever during January through March. And, not surprisingly, tourism-related employment led the state in job growth for the 36th consecutive month. According to preliminary estimates by VISIT FLORIDA , the state’s official tourism marketing corporation, 26 million visitors came to Florida in first quarter 2013, the most ever and an increase of 4.7 percent over the same period in 2012. Direct travelrelated employment in Q1 2013 was also a record high, with 1,087,700 Floridians employed in the tourism industry—35,700 more jobs than one year ago. In an effort to help women and babies, FLORIDA HOSPITAL has opened the first Milk Depot in Central Florida. The Florida Hospital Milk Depot serves as a convenient drop-off location to mothers who
DICAPTA CORP., a provider of high-tech services for people with hearing and/or visual limitations, and SEMINOLE COUNTY HABITAT FOR HUMANITY were both named Seminole County’s 2013 Small Business of the Year. The vote was a tie. A chamber committee selected the winners after ranking 35 nominations independently. Dicapta, a client company of the University of Central Florida Business Incubation Program, also earned the Small Business Award in the Minority Business category. Dicapta was the first company to provide Spanishlanguage video description in the U.S. MOFFITT CANCER CENTER and the UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH FLORIDA have collaborated with researchers in China, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and Germany to devise a new computational method for assessing lung cancer tumors using CT, PET or MRI diagnostic technologies. The method, called single-click ensemble segmentation, uses a new computer algorithm developed by the researchers to help segment and extract features of a tumor. The new approach not only improves diagnosis and prognosis assessments, but also saves time and health-care dollars. Lung cancer is the deadliest cancer in men and women. According to the National Institutes of Health, the five-year survival rate (16.3 percent) is worse than many other cancers, such as colon (65.2 percent), breast (90 percent) and prostate (99.9 percent). More accurate tumor imaging, in terms of tumor feature extraction, could improve diagnostic and predictive accuracy. ROLLINS COLLEGE Assistant Professor of International Business Tonia Warnecke was awarded a Fulbright grant to research economic and global development. This
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/ news, notes and commentary MORE TAMPA BAY INNOVATION S FLORIDA TECH'S SUMMER EXPLORATION
fall, she will study at McGill University in Montreal, where she’ll hold the Fulbright Visiting Research Chair in International Development Studies. Warnecke has spent years researching female entrepreneurship in Asia—specifically, women who work for survival, such as street vendors or artisan craftspeople. Warnecke hopes to bridge the gap between this informal type of entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial programs geared toward wealthier and educated women. Earlier this year, Rollins College was named one of the top producers of Fulbright Scholars among master’s institutions across the nation. Sponsored by the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs of the U.S. Department of State, the Fulbright program is the largest international exchange program in the country. SAINT LEO UNIVERSITY and SYKES ENTERPRISES have signed an agreement that paves the way for the private, regionally accredited Catholic university to open an education center with classroom space at the SYKES contact center in Lakeland. The arrangement makes college degree programs available to the SYKES workforce onsite, as well as to local residents who can pursue associate or bachelor’s degrees. Saint Leo, founded in Pasco County, operates teaching locations in seven states, including military bases and community colleges. Also, its Center for Online Learning permits students to earn part or all of their degrees online. SYKES executives cited a desire to offer employees and their neighbors educational opportunities. They also sought a way to invest in the workforce and assist the local economy.
Chief Executive Magazine has announced that FLORIDA is the No. 2 state in the nation “to do business,” edging closer to Texas for the top spot. More than 730 CEOs nationwide voted in the survey, which asked them to rank the best states for business based on a wide range of criteria, from taxation and regulation to workforce quality and living environment. The survey gave Florida high marks in all areas important for business creation and highlighted the state’s living environment, as well as taxation and regulation. According to CEOs, Florida now beats Texas in living environment and is closing the gap in taxation and regulation. For good measure, Fast
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Saint Leo University President Arthur F. Kirk Jr., left, and SYKES Enterprises President/CEO Chuck Sykes sign an agreement that enables Pasco County-based Saint Leo to open a center at SYKES’ location in Polk County.
Company named Florida the No. 1 state for innovation in its May 2013 magazine. The TAMPA BAY INNOVATION CENTER , an innovation and entrepreneurship center for technology businesses, has launched StartUp Studio 2.0, featuring the Kauffman Foundation’s FastTrac program. FastTrac TechVenture takes an analytical look at the business concept to help aspiring and existing entrepreneurs discover what they need to consider in starting, operating, funding, or growing a technology or life sciences-based business, according to Tonya Elmore, president of the Tampa Bay Innovation Center. Leslie Eckert, owner of the SIMPLY DECADENT DESSERT CATERING CO. in Clearwater and culinary instructor at The Art Institute of Tampa, was awarded the American Culinary Federation’s Southeast Region Chef Educator of the Year. The award, established in 1998, honors an active culinary educator who also provides guidance and direction to students seeking careers in the culinary arts. Eckert will now vie for the national title against her three regional counterparts at the 2013 ACF National Convention in late July. H2 IT SOLUTIONS INC. , an eight-yearold technology firm in Orlando, earned a
coveted first-place award in the U.S. Army Research Laboratory’s international 2013 Federal Virtual Challenge competition. The honor came in the Critical Thinking/ Adaptability category for H2 IT’s virtual team-building game, called Compound. H2 IT Solutions provides innovative business and technology solutions designed to manage, interpret and distribute an organization’s valuable information to decision makers. It’s a client company of the University of Central Florida Business Incubation Program. Affordable Colleges Online has ranked PASCO-HERNANDO COMMUNITY COLLEGE as one of the top 100 Most Affordable Large Community Colleges in 2013. Affordable Colleges Online, a provider of information to prospective college students, reviewed data sets from the National Center for Education Statistics, along with the center’s Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System and the Carnegie Foundation. Specific criteria for list inclusion were two-year, public nonprofit schools serving between 15,000 and 92,000 students, with tuition less than $3,000. A National Science Foundation grant of $405,000 will fund FLORIDA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY Professor of Biological Sciences Mark Bush and Florida Tech
ETC. ... / news, notes and commentary ELITE ONCOLOGY CERTIFICATION
FIND YOUR “ FINANCIALLY” EVER AFTER. What does success mean to you? At Cross, Fernandez & Riley, LLP, we work hard to make sure each of our clients has the ability to achieve their desired results. Our professionals are experienced and committed to meeting the individual goals of our clients. Through our strong work ethic and commitment to high-quality, timely professional service, we can help lead the way to your business’ future successes. To read a few of our clients’ success stories, please visit our website at www.cfrcpa.com. “Success is seeing clients prosper and grow, knowing that I made a difference in their business. It’s building a relationship beyond accounting and being the first phone call when they need professional advice.”
Pasco-Hernando Community College scores high marks for low costs, ranking as one of the top 100 Most Affordable Large Community Colleges in 2013. Shown: the Spring Hill campus.
graduate students on summer field research explorations to Brazil, Peru and Panama over the next three years. They will investigate the cause of the largest mass extinction of megafauna, or large mammals. The extinction event occurred between 15,000 and 9,000 years ago—a time of rapid warming at the end of the last Ice Age and the arrival of humans in the Americas. Rapid climate change and over-exploitation by hunters vie as competing explanations for the loss of more than 50 genera of large mammals, such as saber-toothed cats, mastodons and giant ground sloths. Understanding the vulnerability of large mammal populations to sudden warming has relevance to conserving modern mammal-rich areas such as the American West, Alaska and the Serengeti. MD ANDERSON CANCER CENTER ORLANDO has received a prestigious national certification from the Quality Oncology Practice Initiative Certification Program, an affiliate of the American Society of Clinical Oncology. The program certifies oncology practices that meet the highest quality standards for cancer care. MD Anderson – Orlando joins an elite group of cancer hospitals around the nation. To become certified, MD Anderson – Orlando submitted to an
– Jennifer Spooner Partner, Director of Tax Services
evaluation of its entire clinical practice and documentation standards. Areas included treatment planning; staff training and education; chemotherapy orders and drug preparation; patient consent and education; safe chemotherapy administration; and monitoring and assessment of patient well being. The certification is valid for three years. The American Society of Clinical Oncology is the world’s leading professional organization representing physicians who care for people with cancer. The Orlando chapter of the ASSOCIATION FOR CORPORATE GROWTH , a global organization focused on driving middle-market growth, garnered Chapter of the Year honors for its membership size. Two other winners were ACG New York and ACG Nebraska. According to GrowthEconomy.org, Orlando-based private capital-backed companies grew jobs by 1,965.1 percent from 1995 to 2010, compared to 57.7 percent by all other U.S. companies. ACG Orlando serves those entities with an array of programs and social media campaigns on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. Excellent membership retention, solid finances and a strategic board working with a professional staff were also cited as reasons for the award.
Lakeland 114 North Tennessee Ave, Suite 2A Lakeland, Florida 33801 863-937-9520 Orlando 201 South Orange Avenue, Suite 800 Orlando, FL 32801 407-841-6930 Tampa 511 West Bay Street, Suite 350 Tampa, FL 33606 813-321-6869 Winter Haven 525 Pope Avenue, NW Winter Haven, FL 33881 863-299-5638
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• SUPER REGION AT A GLANCE • MANATEE
T
he Bradenton Area Convention & Visitors Bureau and the University of Central Florida’s Dick Pope Senior Institute for Tourism Studies joined forces to create the Bradenton, Anna Maria Island and Longboat Key Certified Destination Ambassador Program, the first of its kind in Florida. The institute is housed in UCF’s Rosen College of Hospitality Management. The bureau worked closely with the research arm of Rosen to develop the professional development program. Steps to becoming a Certified Destination Ambassador include attending Ambassador summits, recruiting other ambassadors within industries and creating personal plans to influence return visitation to the area. In addition, ambassadors are asked to support the bureau and the Ambassador Program by using social media to promote the area, along with displaying the Ambassador identification at business locations and actively representing the area.
Officials of Manatee’s new Certified Destination Ambassador Program hope to attract visitors to county hot spots such as Anna Maria Island.
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COUNTY BY COUNTY / regional news ALACHUA
The Board of County Commissioners finished obtaining public input on the county’s future transportation system, including an online survey for residents. The purpose of the survey was to identify the characteristics of, and steps toward building, the county’s future transportation system. According to Jeff Hays, the county’s transportation planning manager, soliciting feedback was a “positive community-wide dialogue on developing a transportation system that makes Alachua County a community where people like to live and work.” Presentation of the survey findings to commissioners, along with comments from the community-wide transportation summit, was scheduled in early June.
BREVARD
RESIDENTS OF MELBOURNE are now able to ride
Route 24 for free. The route joins the free fares offered on Route 21 and Route 1 (within the city of Melbourne). Melbourne and Space Coast Area Transit have a long-standing relationship in providing funding for public transportation in the city. Proof of residency is required when boarding the bus. Route 24 (Melbourne) operates from Melbourne Square Mall and travels along sections of major roads, including Hibiscus Boulevard, Airport Boulevard, Apollo Boulevard, Sarno Road, Croton Road, Eau Gallie Boulevard, Wickham Road, Aurora Road and John Rodes Boulevard. Space Coast Area Transit, a department of Brevard County Board of County Commissioners, operates 24 buses on 16 fixed routes from Mims to Malabar. In fiscal year 2011-2012, Space Coast Area Transit carried slightly more than 2 million passengers, with the count expected to exceed 2.2 million in fiscal year 2012-2013.
CITRUS
COUNTY OFFICIALS ARE PREPARING a study
for a segment of North Lecanto Highway. The segment, designated as the CR-491 Corridor Planning Study, extends from State Road 44 north to County Road 486. The study will identify needed improvements in order to provide a strategic planning approach, which will guide development along the corridor, including a widening. The study will provide information on travel necessities, public water and sewer amenities, comprehensive stormwater management systems, and other essential utility services. As part of the process, a second citizens’ workshop took place in mid May, with the focus on infrastructure issues, challenges and opportunities.
DESOTO
THE DESOTO COUNTY ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT Office has identified cleantech, life
sciences and information technology as its primary targeted industries. Home of the nation’s largest solar plant, DeSoto offers the best location under the sun for green energy, according to DeSoto EDO website, which notes: “There’s no better time than now and no better place than DeSoto, a community endowed with the needed natural and human resources to fulfill the promise of green energy.” Regarding life sciences, DeSoto officials are hoping to make their mark as Florida continues a coordinated effort to become a hub for that sector. In Florida, there are approximately 1,000 biotech, pharmaceutical and medical device companies, along with more than 44,000 health care establishments, cite DeSoto officials. As for IT, DeSoto County is at the heart of a project to build a new Middle Mile broadband infrastructure, which will link providers of vital public sector commercial services with private-sector nonprofit entities. Currently nearing the end of a three-year build-out, the project will deliver up to 1,000 times the existing capacity within the coverage area.
FLAGLER
MATANZAS AND FLAGLER PALM COAST HIGH SCHOOLS have been identified as two
of the most outstanding high schools in the country. U.S. News and World Report released its annual Best High Schools rankings after analyzing 21,035 public schools nationwide. Of 777 high schools in Florida, only 119 met the student performance and college readiness criteria that enabled them to be included in the national rankings. Both Matanzas and Flagler Palm Coast are among the elite group. Matanzas ranked No. 72 in Florida and No. 1,523 nationwide; Flagler Palm Coast was No. 87 in Florida and No. 2,242 nationwide. The rankings put Matanzas in the top 7 percent and Flagler Palm Coast in the top 11 percent of U.S. high schools. According to the report, a three-step process determined the rankings. The initial two steps ensured that the schools serve all of their students well, using performance on state proficiency tests as the benchmark. For those schools that made it past the first two steps, a third step assessed the degree to which schools prepare students for college-level work.
HARDEE
WITH AN EYE ON ANTICIPATED CHANGES IN TECHNOLOGY and the rapid growth
in demand for high-speed Internet or data transfer capacity, Hardee County will deploy Motorola’s fixed wireless broadband solutions to create a new infrastructure. The Hardee Broadband Project will result in a “compelling alternative to the outdated dial-up or DSL options currently available,” says Bill Lambert, director of the Hardee County Economic Development Authority. Today, Internet service/data volume and speed in Hardee are limited to capacities available through conventional telephone technologies, with much of the county’s rural areas limited to dial-up speeds and more urbanized communities having access to low-end DSL service. The project emerged as a result of the federal stimulus focus on bringing broadband services to rural communities. The Hardee County Economic Development Authority provided a grant to fund the project.
HERNANDO
LEADERSHIP HERNANDO, THE LARGEST COMMUNITY leadership program in
Hernando County and a development program of the Greater Hernando County Chamber of Commerce, commences its Class of 2013 in June, with graduation set for November. The program is intended to create opportunities to observe, interact and learn from public, private and civic leaders across the county. The idea is that “to be the best in your chosen profession—whether in the military, government, health care, public service or the private sector—it is essential to witness firsthand the powerful examples set by acknowledged experts for those who follow.” Since 1992, Leadership Hernando has graduated more than 500 people, with approximately 25 individuals participating in this year’s class.
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COUNTY BY COUNTY / regional news Regional Library, respectively, at total costs of about $130,000. All of the construction, expansions and renovations were funded with ad valorem tax dollars through the library district tax.
LAKE
businesses and those that locate into the Zone may qualify for incentives, including job tax credits and sales refunds on building materials and business equipment. The Enterprise Zone also gives priority to businesses seeking other incentives, such as grants from the state.
THE COUNTY’S NEW EMERGENCY
Highlands’ “Viva 500” Time Capsule, an effort of the Historic Preservation Commission of Highlands County, serves as a snapshot of today across the county.
HIGHLANDS
THE HIGHLANDS COUNTY “VIVA 500” time
capsule was officially dedicated with a ceremony hosted by the Board of County Commissioners at the Government Center in Sebring. The Department of State’s Division of Library and Information Services provided a time capsule to the county as part of a commemoration of the 500th anniversary of the landing of Juan Ponce de Leon on Florida’s east coast in 1513. Viva 500 is a yearlong statewide celebration of that anniversary. The Historic Preservation Commission of Highlands County was tasked with assembling items for the time capsule, with the items serving as a snapshot of the county today. After being on display throughout May, the time capsule was scheduled for placement in the floor of the Government Center lobby in early June where it will remain for the next 50 years.
Communications and Operations Center officially opened in Tavares. The multifunction, 28,495-square-foot building has an adjacent Communications Center, which is a “24-7” 911 call center for the Lake County Sheriff’s Office and Lake Emergency Medical Services Inc. Twenty-two of the 27 EMS, fire and law enforcement agencies in Lake County are dispatched from the building. The facility also features an Emergency Operations Center and offices for the Lake County Public Safety Department. Planning for the project began in 2002, ground broke in 2012 and the building was completed this year, on schedule. Expected to be the most utilized government building in the county, the facility was made possible by a combination of federal and state grants, as well as local funds. In addition, the center is intended to create significant long-term savings in operational costs, data storage, lease space and energy efficiencies.
HILLSBOROUGH
HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY GOVERNMENT
is renovating and expanding six public libraries in 2013 or, as officials contend, “building the power of knowledge one brick at a time.” New construction includes the two-story, 22,000-squarefoot Seminole Heights Branch Library, at a cost of nearly $3.9 million. Expansions are in the works at Upper Tampa Bay Regional Public Library (roughly 12,000 square feet at a cost of nearly $2.2 million); at Bloomingdale Regional Public Library (roughly 10,000 square feet, $2.1 million); and at Jimmie B. Keel Regional Library (approximately 10,000 square feet, nearly $2.1 million). The renovations encompass restroom and parking improvements at Austin Davis Public Library and Brandon
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Lake’s new Emergency Communications and Operations Center is expected to be the county’s most utilized government building.
LEVY
THE NATURE COAST BUSINESS
Development Council Inc., intent on distinguishing Levy, is increasingly touting its “Rural County” designation by the state of Florida. With that designation, combined with having parts of the county designated an Enterprise Zone, special incentives are available to businesses looking to locate to the area. The Enterprise Zone is 15.09 square miles within that county, where existing
Marion County’s Communications Center earns globally high marks for both fire and medical accreditation—a difficult double feat.
MARION
MARION COUNTY PUBLIC SAFETY
Communications earned fire and medical reaccreditation from the National Academy of Emergency Dispatch, reaffirming the belief that Marion calltakers and dispatchers are among the best in the world, according to county officials. While many dispatch centers are accredited in fire or medical call-taking procedures, the Marion communications center is one of only a dozen facilities across the world that is dual-certified. All call-takers and dispatchers at the center are trained to handle fire, medical and law enforcement calls. Obtaining the recertification is a process that takes several months and requires the communications center to score a 95 percent or better in 20 categories. The National Academy of Emergency Dispatch determines various scores by reviewing 911 calls and reports at random.
ORANGE
AS PART OF A CONTINUING EFFORT to
improve public safety, the City of Orlando poured the last segment of concrete to complete phase one of a sidewalk project called ORLANDO WALKS. The focus had been on installing new sidewalks in Orlando neighborhoods,
COUNTY BY COUNTY / regional news with that final segment culminating in more than 17 miles of new sidewalks constructed in 32 neighborhoods. The new sidewalk locations were determined based on proximity to schools, parks, bus routes, retail locations and SunRail stations. Currently, the city of Orlando is developing and evaluating locations for phase two of the project. Construction on that phase is expected to start in the fall and last approximately 18 months.
OSCEOLA
COUNTY COMMISSION CHAIRMAN Frank
Attkisson delivered the inaugural State of Osceola address, highlighting that “Osceola County is back with a vengeance.” Building permits are on the rise, he cited, and the county achieved a 10-year high in overnight visitors in 2012. “Osceola is open for business,” Attkisson said. “Today should not be a day of asking, ‘Is the recession over?’ but a day of us realizing that we are making Osceola number one for you, your family and future residents.” The event served as a community status report and focused on district-by-district reports by county commissioners, as well as actions the county has taken in the last year and the resulting positive impact on residents and businesses.
PASCO
THE COUNTY’S ENVIRONMENTAL LANDS
division features a new 1,500-foot boardwalk at the Upper Pithlachascotee River Preserve, thanks to a grant from the Florida Department of Environmental Protection. The boardwalk meanders
Along with the Governor's Sterling Award, Pinellas Tax Collector Diane Nelson and her budget and finance department received an honor for best financial practices from the Florida Tax Collector’s Association.
through a Bottomland hardwood forest and leads to a historic cypress tree. Along with the boardwalk, the division also added several other amenities to the Preserve, such as a parking lot, a nature themed playground and interpretive trail signs. The Preserve is dominated by 69 acres of Bottomland forest associated with the Pithlachascotee River and a small tributary, Ryals Branch that crosses the site. Protected wildlife species documented, or likely to exist, include the gopher tortoise, Florida mouse, gopher frog, little blue heron and snowy egret. The Preserve also offers 1.5 miles of trails.
PINELLAS
THE PINELLAS COUNTY TAX COLLECTOR
A lengthy new boardwalk at the Upper Pithlachascotee River Preserve arrived courtesy of Pasco’s Environmental Lands division.
received the Governor’s Sterling Award for 2013, the highest award an organization can receive for performance excellence in Florida, according to Gov. Rick Scott. The Pinellas tax office, serving more than 917,000 residents of Pinellas, is responsible for the collection and distribution of property taxes, sales taxes and tourist development taxes, as well as providing motor vehicle and licensing services on behalf of the state through six branch offices. As an independently elected Constitutional Officer that acts as the county’s chief revenue officer, the
Pinellas County Tax Collector collects more than $2 billion in taxes each year, and feeds and distributes that revenue among 64 taxing authorities to fund services. Transaction accuracy was measured at 99 percent in fiscal year 2012.
POLK
AS PART OF ITS ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
restructuring process, the Board of County Commissioners and the Central Florida Development Council Inc. created a new name for the Polk County Small Business Assistance Center—one that better fits the center’s expanding services, they say. The center provides professional and confidential consultation to start-up business owners, as well as existing businesses that want to grow but need help with financing and marketing strategies. Aside from oneon-one consultations, staffers conduct workshops throughout the county. The center will operate on an annual budget of $209,000, funded from the county’s occupational license fees. Under the previous model, the organization was also funded through a federal small business development grant. The new plan, however, allows the program to re-brand and operate as a county-run agency.
PUTNAM
AS PART OF A WAY TO HELP revitalize
downtown Palatka, Riverfront Park is receiving approximately $1.2 million in improvements to the south end, including new floating docks, a marine fueling
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facility, more restrooms, new facilities for water taxi ticketing and concessions, increased parking and additional boat launch ramps. Most of the funding is coming from state agency grants. The hope, according to city officials, is to attract more people downtown, which would spur new business development, primarily small businesses. Already, some business activity is heating up. In late May, two local businesses were vying for the opportunity to run marine operations at Palatka’s city dock upon completion of the improvements.
Seminole’s new handson STEM program is an extension of traditional classroom education and targets students in middle school and high school.
SARASOTA
TWO COUNTY CAPITAL IMPROVEMENT
projects garnered statewide awards for excellence and a third project won a national award. The Honore Avenue improvements project and the Siesta Keyto-Casey Key water main interconnect project each won statewide American Public Works Association Project of the Year awards. Meanwhile, the Celery Fields Regional Stormwater Facility Phase 3 project won an Environmental Excellence Award in the Conservation category from the National Association of Environmental Professionals. The approximately $18 million design-build Honore Avenue project involved a 2.7-mile-long extension of Honore Avenue, which is a critical missing link in one of the major northsouth county thoroughfares. The $1.1 million Casey Key project replaced a leaking water main serving the two barrier islands of Siesta Key and Casey Key. The $7.2 million Celery Fields project provides flood protection, floodplain storage, water quality improvements and wetland restoration habitat.
SEMINOLE
THE CITY OF ALTAMONTE SPRINGS, in
partnership with Seminole County Public Schools, Seminole State College and the Seminole County Regional Chamber of Commerce, launched an academic outreach program that promotes career readiness in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM). According to officials, the AS2I program serves as an extension of the traditional classroom, fosters curiosity and expands knowledge in the sciences by providing real-world, hands-on activities and experiences for more than 6,000 Seminole County middle and high school students. The practical STEM education was created through diverse collaborations among educators, professionals, volunteers and corporate partners to provide ongoing science outreach opportunities for students in K-12, teachers and the community. The program, for example, helps young people understand their connection to the environment and a sustainable community while also offering internships to extend that exposure.
SUMTER
THE GOVERNMENT FINANCE OFFICERS
The award-winning Casey Key project replaced a leaking water main serving Siesta Key and Casey Key.
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Association of the United States and Canada awarded the Sumter County Board of County Commissioners its Distinguished Budget Presentation Award for the county’s 2013 budget. The award reflects the commitment of the
governing body and staff to meet the highest principles of governmental budgeting. To receive the award, an entity must satisfy nationally recognized guidelines for effective budget presentation. Those guidelines are designed to assess how well the entity’s budget serves as a policy document, a financial plan, an operations guide and a communications device. Budget documents must be rated “proficient” in all four categories, and the 14 mandatory criteria within those categories, to receive the award. According to the Government Finance Officers Association, it is rare for new applicants, such as the Sumter County Board of County Commissioners, to earn awards out of the starting gate.
VOLUSIA
A. RYAN WILLIAMS, OPERATIONS
manager for Volusia County Emergency Management, was appointed to the Florida Division of Emergency Management’s Advisory Working Group. Williams fills the Region 5 seat that covers nine Central Florida counties. The working group addresses emergent challenges to disaster management by convening some of the state’s top professionals in the field. Williams joined the Volusia staff in July 2008, having worked in the emergency management field in Florida since 2001, where he is certified as a Florida Professional Emergency Manager.
“If I knew then what I know now, it would have taken much less time to grow my business to where it is today.�
ENTREPRENEURS ACADEMY
APPLY ! Y A D O T
Building Strong CEOs Envisioned by the Board of Directors of Orlando, Inc., composed of advanced entrepreneurs and those who serve entrepreneurs, the Entrepreneurs Academy was created to help entrepreneurs accelerate their connections to the critical resources needed to innovate and grow their businesses. Two Entrepreneurs Academies are scheduled for 2013: Wednesday and Thursday, September 25 and 26, 2013; Wednesday and Thursday, October 9 and 10, 2013. These exclusive, two-day, interactive sessions will be
held at Rollins College in Winter Park, Florida. If you are an entrepreneur with 2-25 employees and are looking for this type of dynamic learning environment, apply today! Tuition for the Entrepreneurs Academy is $395 for non-members and $195 for members of Orlando, Inc., and for business owners/residents of the City of Orlando. Visit www.orlando.org for details or call Vilma Quintana, Executive Vice President, Orlando, Inc., at 407.835.2520.
Sponsored in part by:
Q PERSPECTIVES LEADING POINTS OF VIEW
CAPITAL IDEAS By
Jack Sullivan
GOOD NEWS, BAD NEWS: WHILE PATENTS REFLECT THE IMPACT OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY ON THE MARKETPLACE, INVENTION ALONE WON’T GUARANTEE THE GROWTH OF AN INNOVATION-BASED ECONOMY.
A
s one of the state’s roaming innovation evangelists, I’m in the position of preaching about a Florida economy of the future supported by three
pillars: people, ideas and capital. Innovative economies thrive where high performance on these pillars occurs in equal measure. Here in Florida’s Super Region, there is no lack of companies and organizations that are realizing the value of this trilogy in advancing tomorrow’s innovation economy. While a prime example of an idea (research) “realized” came back in 1965, when a University of Florida scientist helped improve the athletic performance of the football team (and thus invented Gatorade), there are other life-changing inventions emerging from research institutions every day. And the proof is in the patents. In 2011 alone, 294 patents were awarded to 13 universities conducting research in Florida, with the universities in Florida’s High Tech Corridor specifically garnering further recognition for their patenting power. In 2012, IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) named the University of Central Florida one of the top 20 universities for powerful patents, and the Intellectual Property Owners Association ranked the University of South Florida 10th among all universities worldwide for the number of
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patents filed. In 2011, the University of Florida ranked 10th in the number of U.S. patents issued. As just one measure of innovation, patents tell a story of how scientific discovery influences the marketplace and inspires further breakthroughs. But ideas alone won’t guarantee the growth of an innovation-based economy. That requires investment—in both talent and funding—to take those ideas from concepts to marketable products. As it stands, Florida’s investment in talent doesn’t measure up to that of other states like Michigan, Pennsylvania, Colorado, North Carolina and Washington, all of which are aggressively competing with us for everything from biotech and energy to digital media, simulation and aerospace business. Those states have committed to investing heavily in advanced degree-holders who are driving research at highly ranked universities and educating the next generation of scientists and engineers. Not only is the average studentfaculty ratio at Florida universities double that of other states, but we also only employ two people per 1,000 who are conducting research, which is near the bottom rung of U.S. states, where the standard is five. Florida is fourth in population and Gross State Product, yet 15th in research. As Florida Trend Editor Mark Howard wrote in his June editorial, “In terms of scientific and technical punching power, Florida is a Mike Tyson-sized contender who hits like Pee-wee Herman.” Florida’s investment of capital isn’t at the level it needs to be, either. When comparing our share of the top five southern states’ venture funding today, we capture only half the amount generated from 1995-1999. We dropped from 20 percent to 9.4 percent of the total by 2010-2012. Likewise, the amount of Florida seed funding decreased from 14 percent to 7.5 percent. New seed funding will create more Florida companies attractive to investors, based on Florida research. In turn, they will hire Floridians, many with advanced degrees from our state universities. Seed funding becomes the cornerstone of a three-pronged strategy to thrive! Our state needs a bold commitment to innovation, and it starts with investing in ideas, people and capital. That’s the key to the future knowledge-based economy that will benefit Floridians for generations to come. editor’s note: jack sullivan serves as president and ceo of the florida research consortium, a statwewide industry and education alliance. [floridaresearch.org]
THIS IS A MAP OF TAMPA BAY.
reporting for duty: an agile talent pool. Tampa Bay’s qualified talent force is at the ready. Software developers, manufacturing technicians, biotech engineers and more make up a growing, competitive workforce that’s ready to get down to business — your business.
TRAINING THE RIGHT PEOPLE, THE RIGHT WAY.
Tampa Bay is home to 80 post-secondary schools, including technical and two-year colleges and the University of South Florida, a global research institution. Every semester, the area’s best and brightest STEM scholars enter our workforce equipped with the skills and training that give our super-region a super-competitive edge.
TIME TO Put your business on our map.
Doing business in Tampa Bay means you’ve got the power of an educated workforce behind you — and countless economic opportunities in front of you. Let us show you just how hard we work.
Call Jennifer Taylor at 813.872.2809 or visit us at TampaBay.org today.
We are all Tampa Bay. The metro areas of Tampa/St. Petersburg/Clearwater | Lakeland/WinterHaven | North Port/Sarasota/Bradenton | Homosassa Springs The counties of Citrus | Hernando | Hillsborough | Manatee | Pasco | Pinellas | Polk | Sarasota
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HOW2
/ expert tips and advice
LAW RACE TO PATENT Under the newly implemented Leahy-Smith America Invents Act, filing a patent application first can trump actually making the invention, especially in the life sciences. by GENE A. LANG
Businesses and universities involved in the life sciences face significant challenges as they seek to protect and enforce their intellectual properties under the new Leahy-Smith America Invents Act (AIA). It is important to keep a few things in mind as research begins, collaborations form and publications are written. PUBLISH FIRST OR PATENT FIRST?
With the implementation of the AIA, researchers should seriously think about the possible ramifications of public disclosure of their research prior to any patent filings. Under the old patent laws, a patent was awarded to the first person to invent the subject matter, even if that person was not necessarily the first one to file a patent application for the same subject with the Patent Office. In contrast, under the new laws, the person who invents first may lose the ability to patent an invention if someone else files a patent application first. Therefore, it is very important to file a patent application as soon after conception of the invention as possible, and before public disclosure. Under the old patent laws, inventors also had a one-year grace period after public disclosure to file a patent application for their invention. Within the one-year period, the invention remained patentable to the inventor, regardless of who made the public disclosure. Under the new system, the one-year grace period only protects disclosures made by, or derived from, the actual inventor(s). Any other disclosures by unrelated third parties (for example, a competing
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research group) can destroy patentability of the invention. Research institutions and businesses, particularly universities, should pay attention to the rules involving the new “first-inventor-to-file” rules and the applicable grace period. As is common, there can be several research teams working in the same area, often with the same goals. As a result, it is not uncommon for multiple, independent research groups to develop the same inventive concept at similar times. And with the new patent laws, it does not matter which of these groups conceived of the invention first. It is basically a race to the Patent Office. Also, if one of the groups publicly discloses its work (for example, giving a lecture, submitting an abstract to a conference or publishing), and even though the group still gets a one-year grace period to file a patent application, it could very well put a competing group with the same inventive concept on notice, and it could then publicly disclose its invention and potentially prevent either party from being able to patent the invention. COLLABORATION: KNOW THE RISKS
The research-intensive life science industry often involves many collaborative efforts, which pose a few important considerations when it comes to the development and commercialization of inventions. For instance, it is imperative that everyone involved understands what makes someone a “co-inventor” versus a “co-owner” of an invention and also what implications each has on intellectual property rights. Furthermore, inventorship or ownership can become less and less clear as the number of collaborators increases, possibly resulting in future disputes or improper
chain of title. Well drafted contractual agreements, including non-disclosure agreements, assignments and licenses, are particularly important in delineating proper rights and ownership. It is imperative that the proper individuals are the ones attempting to license and commercialize the invention, as the receiving party is likely to perform a thorough due diligence analysis. Also, researchers must consider how the AIA’s new treatment of third-party disclosures on patentability will affect their relationships with collaborators. Since “first-toinvent” is no longer the applicable standard, researchers should carefully consider any disclosures with collaborators before they are made. If a collaborator discloses an invention that does not belong to him/ her, an inventor must be able to prove the invention was derived from his or her own work. As such, it is important for inventors to keep good records of all conversations, meetings and experimentation performed with collaborators. Historically, the research-oriented, collaborative environment of the life sciences catered to presenting one’s research to peers and publishing articles. In view of the AIA, however, researchers need to seriously think about filing a patent application before making any presentations or publishing any articles, as the subsequent acts of unrelated parties, and even collaborators, can destroy the inventor's ability to patent the invention. editor’s note: gene a. lang, ph.d., is a registered patent attorney at allen, dyer, doppelt, milbrath & gilchrist, p.a, in orlando. he specializes in the preparation, filing and prosecution of certain international and domestic patent applications. [ addmg.com ]
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HOW2
/ expert tips and advice
ENTREPRENEURSHIP
EXPONENTIAL
GROWTH Looking to gain more customers is only one way to bolster your business. Also consider increasing their average purchase, as well as the average number of times they buy. by ED ALEXANDER MOST BUSINESS OWNERS FOCUS ONLY on
one way to grow their businesses: get more customers. Usually, this means expensive advertising campaigns that yield questionable results. They don’t do anything with the two other ways to grow a business, even though those ways are less expensive than getting new customers. And, by focusing on all of the three ways to grow a business, owners can achieve exponential results. Let’s say you have 100 customers, who each purchase $1,000 on average from you every year. Your annual gross revenue would then be $100,000. If you only focus on growing the number of customers by 10 percent—for example, by additional advertising or other marketing campaigns—you’ll gross $110,000 the next year. That’s a 10 percent increase. Not bad. But you can do better. How? Well, what if you also grew the average amount each customer purchased? Growing the average purchase by 10 percent to $1,100 means your 110 customers purchase an average of $1,100, for total gross revenue of $121,000, or a 21 percent increase. Getting better. There's more. Now, what if you could also increase the average number of times each customer purchased by 10 percent? Then, your 110 customers would be buying an average of $1,100 of products or services 1.1 times per year from you. The result: You’ve increased your sales to $133,100, or a 33.1 percent total increase. Plus, the increase of the average purchase and the number of purchases are usually much easier than getting new customers in the first place.
Increasing the amount purchased and the number of purchases are based on the types of customers you have, what you offer to them and how you maintain your relationship with them. First you must have the “right” customers. You’ll probably notice that most of your profit (about 80 percent) comes from very few of your customers (probably around 20 to 30 percent). Interestingly, these customers are usually the ones who value what you sell and willingly pay your price for it. Call these “A” customers. Keeping “A” customers, getting rid of the bad customers and getting more “A” customers will both increase the average purchase of each customer and reduce the need to get additional customers. Such effort also makes your business more enjoyable and easier to work. Your “A” customers are much likelier to buy more and buy longer. Getting rid of non-”A” customers can be tough. Many business owners are reluctant to send customers with money packing. But doing so will free up time for your new “A” customers and result in business and profit growth. Yes, it is counterintuitive, but it’s true. One way to do this, if you already have too much business, is to increase your prices. You’ll have fallout of the not-so-good customers. The increased revenue from those who remain, however, will make up for the customers you lost. Also, because you now know what “A” customers are like, it’ll be easier to find and keep them, and the new higher rates will create an overall gain. Increasing the amount of each purchase can be accomplished a number of ways. Consider packaging a product or service with additional services that might not
normally be purchased at once. Arrange for a good, better, best product or service structure. Offer larger units of products or services. Or, arrange with a third party to provide complementary products or services to your customers, with you receiving part of the purchase price (sort of like a commission). Increasing the number of purchases is about keeping in touch with your “A” customers on a regular and consistent basis (marketing). You might think most customers no longer frequent a business because they were treated poorly or were dissatisfied. That’s often not the case. Many leave because they were neglected. Make sure your “A” customers hear from you at least quarterly. You don’t have to be fancy with the communication; a simple letter will do. Give them useful information or a valuable outcome, preferential treatment, free gifts or special deals. Make it worthwhile for them to keep doing business with you and make sure they remember you. Don’t forget the other benefit of keeping in communication with your “A” customers. They hang around with other people who are like them and who could become new “A” customers for you. Focusing on all three ways to grow a business will yield exponential results. Continuing and strengthening your relationship with existing customers will pay off for you and them. editor’s note: ed alexander is founder of the entrepreneurship law firm in orlando and author of the book “10 common and costly business killing legal mistakes and how to avoid them.” he works regularly with the university of central florida’s business incubation program, among other regional business clients. [orlandobusinesslawyer.com]
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INNOVATIONS / growing ideas into enterprises
TECHNOLOGY
TAKING FLIGHT A HISTORY-MAKING GRANT PAVES THE WAY FOR UCF TO BECOME THE FIRST FLORIDA UNIVERSITY TO LEAD A NASA MISSION. Quite literally, $55 million will go a long way—all the way into space, as part of NASA’s grant to the University of Central Florida to build and launch an instrument the size of a microwave oven that will provide unprecedented imaging of the Earth’s upper atmosphere. This is the largest single grant in UCF’s history, and UCF will become the first Florida university to lead a NASA mission. The five-year project will begin immediately. Once the design is finished and checked, rechecked and rechecked again, construction will begin. Following launch in 2017, the instruments will provide data to the team, and other scientists throughout the world, for at least two years. And it’s likely, officials say, that the instruments will continue to function for an additional three to five years. The information collected by the Globalscale Observations of the Limb and Disk (GOLD) mission will have a direct impact on learning more about space weather, such as solar wind, and its impact on communication and navigation satellites, which are relied upon for everything from television programming to cell-phone coverage and GPS in vehicles. The information may also lead to advances in directing airline traffic more safely by providing a greater understanding of how space elements impact communication signals. “It’s great to see something that my team and I have worked on for years selected for funding,” says Richard Eastes, a research scientist with UCF’s Florida Space Institute. “It shows that other scientists think what we’re planning to do is some of
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Richard Eastes, a research scientist with UCF’s Florida Space Institute: “It’s great to see something that my team and I have worked on for years selected for funding. It shows that other scientists think what we’re planning to do is some of the most important science in the world.”
the most important science in the world. And, for UCF, it’s a chance to demonstrate that the university can play a more significant role in space research.” The project is a collaboration among UCF, the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP) at the University of Colorado and SES Government Solutions, a commercial satellite company. UCF will oversee the project and build the data center that will collect, process and distribute the data for the mission. LASP will build the compact instrument, which will operate in a geostationary orbit, and SES is scheduled to launch it on one of its communications satellites in four years. Other members of the GOLD team that will be supporting the mission include
the National Center for Atmospheric Research, the University of California at Berkeley, Computational Physics Inc. and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. “It’s clear that NASA is interested in flying more instruments on commercial satellites,” Eastes cites. “With today’s budgets, most science missions that need a geostationary orbit aren’t affordable unless they fly on a commercial satellite.” GOLD’s collaborative approach may lead the way for similar projects at UCF and other universities nationwide. “Building upon the success of the Commercially Hosted Infrared Payload and innovative partnerships like the one we have with GOLD, we are extremely
INNOVATIONS / growing ideas into enterprises eager to blaze a new trail, providing lowcost and timely opportunities for small- to medium-sized science payloads,” observes Rich Pang, senior director for hosted payloads at SES Government Solutions. “The selection of GOLD by NASA is a testament to the importance of the mission and the hard work and innovation of the entire GOLD team. We are excited and proud to be selected as a mission partner.” The scientific goals of the GOLD mission are to determine how geomagnetic storms alter the temperature and composition of the Earth’s atmosphere; analyze the global response of the thermosphere to extreme ultraviolet variability; investigate the significance of atmospheric waves and tides propagating below the thermosphere; and resolve how the structure of the equatorial ionosphere influences the formation and
evolution of plasma-density irregularities. The thermosphere is the layer of the atmosphere that begins about 56 miles above the Earth’s surface and extends to outer space. Given the sophistication of the measurements needed, Eastes and his team turned to LASP to build the GOLD instrumentation. The lab enjoys an international reputation for excellence and had been in business prior to NASA’s formation. Scientists at LASP are eager to start. “GOLD’s imaging represents a new paradigm for observing the boundary between Earth and space,” notes Bill McClintock, senior research scientist at LASP working on the project. “It will revolutionize our understanding of how the sun and the space environment affect our upper atmosphere.”
Dr. Tom O'Neal (at center) leads UCF’s award-winning Business Incubation Program. Others on the team, from left, are Chait Rendu, Gordon Hogan, Esther Vargas-Davis, Connie Bernal, Henriette Schoen and Essa Batarseh. The program was founded in 1999.
UCF BUSINESS INCUBATION GARNERS GLOBAL AWARD The National Business Incubation Association has named the University of Central Florida Business Incubation Program—a university-driven community partnership that includes nine business incubators in Central Florida— the 2013 Incubator Network of the Year. With a mission of advancing business incubation and entrepreneurship, the NBIA serves more than 1,900 members in more than 60 nations. Each year, the NBIA Incubation Awards honor the business incubation programs, graduates and client companies that exemplify the best of the industry. Business incubation programs like those in the UCF network catalyze the process of starting and growing companies by providing entrepreneurs with the expertise, networks and tools they
need to make their ventures successful. NBIA estimates that in 2011 North American incubators assisted about 49,000 start-up companies that provided full-time employment for nearly 200,000 workers and generated annual revenue of almost $15 billion. Approximately 7,000 business incubators operate worldwide. Since its founding in 1999, the UCF Business Incubation Program has helped more than 300 companies that generate more than $500 million in annual revenue and pay an average wage that is 45 percent above the region’s wage. The program is a collaboration among UCF; the Florida High Tech Corridor Council; Orange, Seminole, Osceola and Volusia counties; and the cities of Orlando, Apopka, Winter Springs, Sanford, Kissimmee and St. Cloud.
Aside from the winners noted below, Christine Franklin of Cherokee Enterprises Inc. in Miami Lakes is a GrowFL client who has received recognition. Based on 2012 revenue and leadership, Franklin was listed on the Top 50 Women-Led For-Profit Organizations in Florida by The Commonwealth Institute South Florida.
HONORING GOOD GROWTH
During its pilot program from 2009 to 2011, GrowFL helped more than 400 companies create 1,400 new jobs and yielded an annual economic impact of $510.4 million. At the beginning of 2013, that number grew to nearly 700 companies supported by GrowFL. So, how are things going these days? Pretty well, judging from recent recognition of client companies’ leadership, product innovation and community outreach. By supporting companies with strategic research and peer-to-peer CEO mentoring, GrowFL helps companies overcome obstacles to growth and leads them toward prosperity. Based on the philosophy of Economic Gardening—to grow existing businesses in a community, region or state— the program is operated by the Florida Economic Gardening Institute at UCF and is an important component of the state’s economic development strategy and Florida’s entrepreneurial ecosystem. Case in point is Orlando-based Advanced IT Concepts Inc, a provider of information technology solutions and services to the federal government, as well as civilian agencies and commercial customers. DiversityBusiness.com selected AITC as a “2013 Top Business in the U.S.” AMWAT Moving Warehousing Storage, located in Tallahassee, was honored with the Mover of the Year award from Move for Hunger, a nationwide hunger relief organization that works with moving companies across the U.S. and Canada to collect non-perishable food items from customers during a move. In addition, Bit-Wizards of Fort Walton Beach was honored for the third consecutive year, adding six ADDY awards, including the Best of Show award. The American Advertising Federation presents the ADDY Awards for excellence locally and nationally.
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Laser FOCUS
SEEKING TO HELP emerging companies advance, the Super Region has locked on to leveraging the collective strengths of its universities and their supportive business communities. The result: targeted success. BY SUSAN REVELLO
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ONE COMPANY has taken the aerospace and defense industry sector by storm, using the power of proximity within the region as a weapon to battle tough competition. ANOTHER company exemplifies the essence of entrepreneurial resourcefulness, enabling a nearby university and the local community to light the way. Similarly, A THIRD shines as a beacon of academic and industrial collaboration, where incubation has breathed life into what are, literally, cutting-edge innovations. And A FOURTH company is beginning to make a real killing, successfully sowing seeds laid from agri-tech despair. Across the SUPER REGION, each has found answers and, ultimately, a way to move from high-tech startup to thriving standout. Such triumph surely is cause for celebration by the 30 or so people who originally represented the organizations that were founding partners of the FLORIDA HIGH TECH CORRIDOR COUNCIL. In brief terms, as those business leaders came together in the mid-1990s, it becomes evident that marketing the region through the power of universities—at first, the UNIVERSITY OF CENTRAL FLORIDA and the UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH FLORIDA and later the UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA—made great economic development sense. The idea, in other words, was to use research partnerships and academic prowess to help companies develop new technologies. Industry stakeholders, in concert with academicians, strategically identified targeted high-tech sectors to ensure that university programs neatly matched business needs. Today, the Florida High Tech Corridor Council is a regional economic development initiative of UCF, USF and UF whose mission is to “grow high-tech industry and innovation through partnerships that support research, marketing, workforce and entrepreneurship.” The targeted high-tech sectors: Agritechnology; Aviation/ Aerospace; Digital Media/Interactive Entertainment; Financial Services; IT; Life Sciences/Medical Technology; Microelectronics/Nanotechnology; Modeling, Simulation and Technology; Optics/Photonics; and Sustainable Energy. The plan worked. And, as evidenced by the enterprises cited above and profiled below, the vision steadily moves forward.
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A familiar sight: Carol Craig, CEO of Craig Technologies, on the move in her new 161,000-squarefoot headquarters in Cape Canaveral. The firm specializes in software design and development, along with systems engineering and integration, among several other areas.
SETTING NEW BOUNDARIES Craig Technologies / Brevard County
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arol Craig is Technology’s “It Girl.” Chances are you have seen or read about Craig in any number of publications or on the Internet. She is the recipient of numerous corporate and entrepreneurial awards, and her Cape Canaveral-based engineering and advanced manufacturing firm, Craig Technologies (CT), is a finalist for a prestigious award in the TechAmerica Foundation’s Aerospace & Defense category, presented June 20 as part of the 11th annual Technology and Government Dinner at the Ronald Reagan Building in Washington.
Behind all the exciting business trappings that Craig currently enjoys is a very smart, highly motivated businessperson with a strategy for success. “If we build it, they will come,” she says of the new 161,000-square-foot headquarters the company moved into last October, the site of the former NASA Shuttle Logistics Depot. In June 2012, Craig negotiated a Space Act Agreement with the Kennedy Space Center to maintain and operate an inventory of more than 1,600 pieces of specialty equipment once used to repair orbiters during NASA’s 30-year Space Shuttle Program; the pieces are now located throughout her office building on aptly named Astronaut Boulevard . The CT Aerospace & Defense Manufac-
turing Center contains both a Clean Room and Clean Work Area, which are used to keep components in a clean environment prior to use or installation. The clean work area is where astronauts practiced working on components to familiarize themselves with those components prior to on-orbit installation or repairs. Craig’s business philosophy is to have the infrastructure in place before actively growing the business. And, with the company on track this year for revenues in excess of $40 million, her clients have indeed come to her company. Today, CT is supported by 340 associates around the country, with offices in Huntsville, Ala., and Orlando. The firm specializes in software design and development; systems engineering and integration; interdisciplinary engineering;
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The obvious reasons are taxes, cost of living, beautiful weather. But it’s a really entrepreneurial state, at least from my perspective. For a company to really succeed, you have to be surrounded by people with that same kind of passion for business and growing a business and doing cool things, keeping up with the latest technology, that kind of stuff. We have a culture here, a culture that is established. Even in tough times we have a positive attitude.” • CAROL CRAIG, CRAIG TECHNOLOGIES
training and courseware development; modeling and simulation; and a variety of custom technical services. It has traveled light years from the early days. Founded in 1999, CT began simply with Craig incorporating her consulting business—just in case. To get started, she maxed out eight credit cards, much to her mother’s dismay. Having worked as a systems/software engineer, civil servant, support contractor and naval flight officer, her background essentially continues to set the foundation for the firm’s capabilities. Her executive team observes that Craig is involved in every aspect of the business. Start to finish. She is not only the founder, but also serves as CEO and CFO. Many of her employees have long-standing relationships with her, making it easy to understand why loyalty is a tenet in her company’s mission statement. Not surprisingly, they, also exhibit extreme energy and motivation. Craig is loyal to the state, too. “I am a huge fan of Florida,” she says. She is involved coast to coast, participating in a variety of community activities in Brevard, in addition to Orlando Inc. and the Florida High Tech Corridor Council. “This whole Super Region I know and I love,” she adds. Craig would really like to work with other Florida-based companies, both in terms of pinch
hitting to help overloaded businesses and utilizing other companies when she needs additional resources. “We don’t need to be competitors. There are enough customers out there,” she says. Specifically, she cites the strength of Florida’s manufacturing sector: “It’s almost like a best-kept secret. You go down the east side of the state and you see Piper [Aircraft Inc.], Sikorsky [Aircraft Corp.] and all of these companies that are aviation manufacturers. There are also a lot of machine shops. I don’t think people realize how much there is here.” Given the potential synergy, when it comes to economic development, she would like to see even more support, collaboration and better communications to get Florida squarely on the national map. The advantages of doing business here are numerous, she contends: “The obvious reasons are taxes, cost of living, beautiful weather. But it’s a really entrepreneurial state, at least from my perspective. For a company to really succeed, you have to be surrounded by people with that same kind of passion for business and growing a business and doing cool things, keeping up with the latest technology, that kind of stuff. We have a culture here, a culture that is established. Even in tough times we have a positive attitude.”
The same can be said about her family. Family is the first word in her corporate mission statement, followed by integrity, loyalty, passion and community. Craig is a devoted wife and mother to her son and daughter and is committed to raising awareness for Prader-Willi Syndrome, the rare genetic disorder that affects son Danny. She is involved in the Foundation for Prader-Willi Research – Canada and started The Danny Craig Foundation in 2010 to identify, screen and administer funding to organizations that help children and their families cope with medical challenges. “There are a couple of other parents that have the same mentality: ‘We’re going to figure this out. We’re not going to cure it, but we’re going to figure out what’s going to work,’” she says about her personal mission. “I’ve got to tackle this with Danny because that’s more important than anything else.” Craig embraces challenges. From a fear of flying to becoming a naval aviator, to succeeding in the male-dominated world of government contracts, to helping her child and others, she is always engaged. She is in perpetual motion, continually reaching for the stars in keeping with her NASA setting. Craig even rehearsed with the Brevard Symphony Orchestra, playing classical piano. In typical style, she laughs it off saying, “But I wasn’t that good.” Hardly.
Craig Technologies' headquarters and Aerospace & Defense Manufacturing Center (ADMC) houses 1,600 pieces of specialized manufacturing and test equipment once used for Shuttle activities and provides end-to-end production line services, including Custom Avionics, Precision Machining and Fabrication, Specialty Manufacturing, and Test and Evaluation.
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ECOSYSTEM NURTURING Heather Kenyon, president and CEO of the Tampa Bay Technology Forum, is fond of using the term “technology eco-system,” noting that her organization is dedicated to growing and promoting that network through events, education, networking, advocacy and philanthropy programs.
There is great reason to smile at LED International. The company engineered an LED light fixture that has UL approval in both the U.S. and Canada and can be custom manufactured to fit virtually any application. Shown from left: Ralph Mann, engineer; Helen Anglewicz, vice president; David Anglewicz, president; and Renee Millet, business development consultant.
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BRIGHT FUTURE LED International Lighting, Inc. / Hernando County
avid Anglewicz had several “light bulb” moments in the creation of his Brooksville-based company, LED International Lighting, Inc. The first came while sitting at the kitchen table with his brother 12 years ago, discussing the lighting business. The second came while attending a national Light Fair four years ago, where an LED fixture caught his eye but was cost prohibitive. A year later, the price dropped dramatically. That’s when Anglewicz made his move and tasked an engineer to develop a prototype light fixture. “When I pointed it at a wall, it blew me away,” exclaims Anglewicz. Others shared his enthusiasm, especially the University of South Florida and the Hernando County business community. Anglewicz has existing businesses in Kansas, but he felt a distinct energy in Tampa Bay. “We met with representatives initially in the USF Small Business Development Center. They were phenomenal. I got help with market research, business plan development and even financial planning,” he notes. Anglewicz remembers Mike McHugh, director of Hernando County Office of Business Development, telling him his light fixture was so exciting it was better than “three cups of coffee” and he had to be based there. McHugh’s assistance was extensive, even helping him identify a building in the airport
industrial park. The rest is a history still unfolding. LED Lighting International moved into its home in Hernando in early 2011, where the company serves a variety of commercial and government clients. From agriculture (according to a University of Oklahoma study, cows produce 6 percent more milk with LED lighting) to airport runways to industrial warehouses, lighting requirements impact almost all industries and consumers. Utilizing a patentpending design, the company has engineered an LED light fixture that has UL approval in both the U.S. and Canada and can be custom manufactured to fit virtually any application Traditional lighting designs using incandescent, fluorescent and high-intensity discharge (HID) light sources are increasingly being replaced with LED lighting. First and foremost, LEDs use little energy while providing brilliant light, are weatherproof, have a service life of 60,000 hours, and can be powered by either AC or DC power. LED lights will play a major role in helping communities reach environmental goals by reducing kilowatt usage, resulting in fewer hydrocarbons released into the atmosphere by power plants. “Many companies are not aware of the huge cost savings they can benefit from with LED technology. Energy costs decrease nearly 70 percent, as our lights can be dimmed all the
What’s the technology ecosystem? Kenyon describes: “It’s the established tech companies; it’s the startups; it’s the entrepreneurs; it’s the high tech workforce; it’s service providers; it’s the sources of capital; universities and schools; the government economic development agencies; the Florida High Tech Corridor Council; the Tampa Bay Partnership; and other organizations. There’s a whole bunch of folks and organizations that are all trying to help buoy the technology industry.” From her perspective, as the leader of one of those groups, Kenyon talks Tampa Bay technology. In terms of strength and diversity, where does high tech stand in your area these days? “It’s exploding right now. From an economic standpoint, high tech in Tampa Bay is thriving, particularly in IT jobs. We’ve had about a 3 percent hike in the high-tech employment rate. And jobs are extremely plentiful for those with the right skills. And, in terms of diversity, aside from IT services, we have biotech, life sciences and health-care segments, which are booming as well. And a very vibrant start-up scene.” What is a high- tech sector void or maybe a blind spot in Tampa Bay? “Despite, for example, Fast Company recognizing Florida as the best place in the country to have a startup, we still lag in early-stage capital investment. The good news is that the funding laws are changing. … The ways that people are raising capital are changing. But I think we need to have more earlystage investment capital. There’s no question that a lot of entrepreneurial companies flounder because they don’t have that first round to kind of get them through that initial stage. … We would like to see a lot more venture capital and a lot more angels stepping up and investing in technology companies.” — Michael Candelaria
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We met with representatives initially in the USF Small Business Development Center. They were phenomenal. I got help with market research, business plan development and even financial planning.” • DAVID ANGLEWICZ, LED INTERNATIONAL
way down to 10 percent. And it can be as simple as motion sensors making it happen. You can’t dim industrial fluorescent or HID lights,” Anglewicz explains. In addition to the environmental benefits, through a partnership with a CPA firm, the company will help clients research local and state rebate offerings to maximize energy and financial savings, even provide assistance in how to properly handle the government paperwork. The Energy Policy Act of 2005 includes a Federal Tax deduction for installing energy efficient lighting. And more power companies are offering rebates, as well. As a new kid on the block in Hernando, LED International has been made to feel welcome. “The synergy here is fantastic with companies wanting to work together,” says Anglewicz. Two local companies, ICTC and Sparton Electronics, provide additional
components for his fixtures (73 percent of his products are made in Florida). And in early 2012, LED International partnered with Neubert Aero Corp., another local company, which is a leading supplier of airport safety products. Together, they replaced halogen bulbs with LEDs for the giant Xs that signal runway closures. “The technology for LEDs is getting better every day,” says Anglewicz. “Part of our challenge is to keep up with it.” All indicators point to the future of this company being a very bright one.
In addition to inherent environmental benefits, LED International helps clients research local and state rebate offerings to maximize energy and financial savings.
TEAMWORK APPROACH Casey Barnes is a big believer in regional teamwork. As vice president of business development for the Metro Orlando Ecomic Development Commission, Barnes is responsible for attracting, retaining and growing jobs throughout four counties. Prior to joining the EDC in 2013, he worked at Enterprise Florida, a statewide organization, for 10 years. In eight years there, he recruited and retained 101 companies across Florida, totaling 22,215 new and existing jobs and more than $1.8 billion in new capital investment.
doing great things with Verizon. A third major sector we focus on is more advanced technology. That’s more manufacturing, digital media and military simulations and training, where, of course, we possess much strength.. So, almost everything we do has a high-tech component. ”
So, when it comes to collaboration, Barnes should know.
Is there a recent example of success? “The Verizon project is kind of the poster child. Verizon was looking at more than 250 communities in the U.S.. They narrowed their search field down to a number of locations, and fortunately our region was among them. We did a lot of things right as we worked with that company. “Number one, we got in contact very early on with our educational providers:, the University of Central Florida, Seminole State College, Valencia College and Lake-Sumter State College, to validate the pipeline of talent that was coming through. [Verizon] wanted to understand the pipeline, and they wanted to know about the current structure of the employment here. … We validated what turned out to be the critical issue for Verizon. Also, those university partners— UCF, Seminole State, Valencia and Lake-Sumter State—offered in-state tuition for out-of-state relocation. When a company needs to relocate key personnel, sometimes the cost of sending their kids to school is a major decision factor. So, the schools “took a bite” in order to be a good partner and help make the project happen for Florida.”
He explains. In what ways does collaboration fit in with your EDC’s efforts to grow high tech in the region? “Collaboration is a huge deal. It’s everything for us. The EDC encompasses four counties: Orange, Seminole, Osceola and Lake. Our region is all about partnerships. We work very closely with each of the counties, as well as educational providers; we work very closely with inventory providers, such as brokers and owners; and pretty much anybody that has a role to play in economic development. We like to say that economic development is a team sport.” At present, are there one or two particular areas of emphasis in the high- tech recruiting process? “High tech is a really broad brush. You can find areas of high tech in just about anything we do. You look at biomed—at what they’re doing at Florida Hospital and Sanford Burnham and others. You look at business services, where they’re
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— Michael Candelaria
We have access to highly educated university graduates, and we employ eight people who hold doctorates. More than 50 percent of our employees came out of UCF.” • DR. ALEXEI GLEBOV, OPTIGRATE
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Dr. Alexei Glebov, CEO, with his father Dr. Leonid Glebov, UCF professor and founder of OptiGrate. The optics company holds more than 10 patents and has trademarked its BragGrate™ of high-efficiency VBGs.
SOMETHING TO BRAGG ABOUT
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OptiGrate / Seminole County
shining example of academic and industrial collaboration is OptiGrate Corp., an optics company that specializes in the volume Bragg grating (VBG) technology that its founder, Dr. Leonid Glebov, a UCF professor, perfected in the campus lab at CREOL (The College of Optics & Photonics). The cutting-edge technology for optical filters (BragGrate™) includes transmitting (TBG), reflecting (RBG) and chirped (CBG) volume Bragg gratings from special multicomponent silicate glass (BragGlass™). The Oviedo-based company was established in 1999 and is a major success story for the UCF Business Incubation Program, which provides a variety of business development services and resources to local start-up companies. Dr. Alexei Glebov, president and CEO of the company, comments: “CREOL is one of the best schools worldwide in photonics. There are very few schools that offer photonic programs.” As the company grew with federal funding and grants (NASA, U.S. Air Force and U.S. Navy, among others), it developed the technology for implementation in a number of high-end military systems and began converting the government-funded research into commercial products. Apparently, the world has taken notice. OptiGrate supplies customized and volume orders of holographic optical components to more than 400 customers on six continents in optoelectronic, analytical, medical, defense and semiconductor industries. In July 2012, the company moved into a new 10,000-square-foot facility, making it the only vertically integrated volume Bragg
grating production plant in the world. Also on site is a photosensitive glass production area, a holographic area and a laser development facility. The Glebovs are one of only two fatherand-son duos to receive the prestigious honor of being named Fellows by SPIE, The International Society for Optical Engineering. Fellows are members of distinction who have made significant scientific and technical contributions in the multidisciplinary fields of optics, photonics and imaging. It’s estimated that Fellows comprise 1 percent of the total global membership (hundreds of thousands) of SPIE. Alexei Glebov, who previously worked in Silicon Valley, feels the cost efficiencies of being in Central Florida are particularly beneficial to his company. In addition to the attractive economic costs of doing business here, the advantages of being in close proximity to UCF and other industry organizations are significant. “We have access to highly educated university graduates, and we employ eight people who hold doctorates. More than 50 percent of our employees came out of UCF,” he says. Glebov also cited the resources
available to his company through the Florida Photonics Cluster, a not-for-profit organization devoted to networking and educational support for his industry. “They provide an open forum that brings us together and creates a unified force,” he notes. With Alexei Glebov at the helm and his father serving as head of the research and development arm of the company, OptiGrate is well positioned for growth. Sales have increased 30 percent, and the company holds more than 10 patents. “The VBG technology provides a huge advantage in integration of this component in industrial laser products,” says Glebov. Last winter, OptiGrate received the Small Manufacturer of the Year Award from the Manufacturer’s Association of Central Florida. Glebov emphatically asserts that if someone told him he had to move his company, he would say, no: “Central Florida offers brain power and a very strong infrastructure that simplifies our lives tremendously.” Simplification for some very complex technology.
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BIOTECH INCUBATION
Pasteuria Bioscience's Dr. Kelly Smith and Tom Hewlett have attracted big industry attention by effectively battling microscopic worms with naturally occurring soil bacteria.
In April, UF’s Sid Martin Biotechnology Incubator took top honors worldwide when the National Business Incubation Association named it the 2013 Incubator of the Year. Statistics tell the story. Companies within the incubator have attracted more than $1 billion in funding, and successes include the acquisitions of incubated companies for $113 million, $98 million and $34 million. Since its inception in 1995, the incubator had 28 companies graduate out of the facility or be acquired by other companies. Patti Breedlove, associate director of the UF incubator, comments that the award caps “a cascade of really good news.” Here’s what else she had to say: What makes your incubator successful—what are the keys to success? “The incubation program, itself, has to be well run and well designed for the types of companies we’re trying to help. We are highly customized to help these bioscience companies. We have a 40,000-squarefoot lab office facility. We have green houses, animal facilities and $1 million of shared scientific equipment. And we have expertise in assisting start-up companies, with seminars and mentoring, and introductions to the right types of investors and service providers. That’s the short answer. But that’s incomplete. “If we were located in another community, we might fail, even with those elements in place. What makes us so successful is that the University of Florida has a massive amount of life science research and that it has a sophisticated tech-commercialization process that understands how to create start-up companies, how to introduce scientists to entrepreneurs, how to write the proper kinds of contracts to make business a success for all parties. All of these are essential elements.” For those start-up biotech companies, are there common denominators? “Bioscience companies are the most difficult companies to grow successfully, much harder than app-software IT companies. On average, they take hundreds of millions of dollars and more than 10 years to get products on the market.” — Michael Candelaria
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PAY DIRT
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PASTEURIA BIOSCIENCE Alachua County
asteuria Bioscience is a killer company. It kills nematodes, which are microscopic worms that target plants. And its scientists have become quite good at it. So good, in fact, that the company was acquired in November 2012 by Swiss global giant Syngenta for $113 million. Not bad for a homegrown Alachua-based biotechnology company currently living in the University of Florida’s Sid Martin Biotechnology Incubator. “Ag biotech is a huge industry and really growing,” says Dr. Kelly Smith, head of Pasteuria Bioscience, now a business unit of Syngenta. “That’s one of the reasons Syngenta left us here in Central Florida, still in the incubator. They want to have a larger presence in Florida and closer relationship with the universities.” According to Smith, nematodes attack “every crop known to humankind.” These microscopic worms are everywhere, looking for plant roots. The key to controlling them— and the $100 billion annual crop damage worldwide—was identifying a way to kill the organism. Enter Pasteuria, a group of naturally occurring soil bacteria that specifically target nematodes. Scientists discovered 50 years ago that this biologic agent could provide effective plantparasitic nematode control. The challenge was being able to replicate Pasteuria in the laboratory setting. “They are everywhere in nature, but we couldn’t grow them in the lab, couldn’t produce them commercially,” notes Smith. A big problem. John Gerber, former UF Institute of Food and Agriculture Sciences administrator, first developed a method to grow the bacteria inside the lab. Entomos Inc., the forerunner to Pasteuria Bioscience, licensed Gerber’s patented method from his company, CDG
Laboratories. Smith was hired to work at Entomos in 2001 as a fermentation engineer. Things began to move quickly. From there, it was Smith and two other scientists, Tom Hewlett and Susan Griswold, who became the founders of the new company, Pasteuria Bioscience, in 2003, when it landed in the UF Incubator. “We developed the technology over the next several years, getting the process working with Pasteuria growing in the laboratory to where it looked pretty promising to be able to scale it up to an industrial fermentation,” Smith describes. While the scientists were making great strides in gearing up for cost-effective commercial applications, another investor in the company brought in an industry veteran, Dave Duncan, a former Monsanto executive, as CEO to help them commercialize their first product. The product was Econem, used for turf control. Nematodes wreak havoc with golf courses. Duncan had the experience of actually bringing products to market. The germ of the idea was starting to bear fruit. “It was really important to demonstrate that we could get an EPA registration for this as a pesticide, [a product] that nobody else could grow, basically,” Smith cites. From that point on, the company began getting noticed by the Big Six in agriculture: Monsanto, Bayer, DuPont, BASF, Syngenta and Dow. Discussions started with Syngenta, leading to a research agreement with the Swiss company for an exclusive collaboration period that began in 2011. The culmination of that arrangement was Syngenta’s purchase of the company in fall 2012. The first commercial product in 2014 will be for soybeans, to control soybean cyst nematodes. “It’s a huge product, and the other thing that’s exciting about it is Pasteuria will be delivered directly on the seed,” Smith comments. “If you can put it all on the seed then you don’t have to go back through and spray over the top of the crop. This is very efficient for the grower, as it means they don’t have to run the tractor back and forth through the field a bunch of times.” Going forward, such seed treatment, a major trend in agriculture, will be a point of emphasis—helping farmers avoid aerial pesticide application, which may result in wind drift that can cause unintended harm. In 2015, Pasteuria Bioscience will be launching a second-generation turf product, and there are lots of crops lined up behind it to benefit, including sugar beets and cotton. Syngenta’s Pasteuria Bioscience has literally hit pay dirt.
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IN TALLAHASSEE
LEGISLATIVE REPORT
/ policy making in action
UNDER REVIEW
FROM IMMIGRATION REFORM AND THE 2013 FARM BILL TO FLORIDA’S BUDGET, THE SPOTLIGHT IS ON FEDERAL AND STATE LEGISLATORS. WHO IS DOING WHAT? editor’s note: the actions of our elected officials can have a significant impact on the super region, so we are introducing a new department designed to keep you informed about legislative and regulatory actions in washington and tallahassee.
WASHINGTON REPORT IMMIGRATION REFORM.
Florida Sen. Marco Rubio (R) grabbed a large slice of the national spotlight in May as the Senate Judiciary Committee began consideration of the comprehensive immigration reform bill written by Rubio and seven other senators. The so-called “Gang of Eight” bill has met with resistance from a diverse set of interest groups, but Rubio is downplaying concerns, especially from conservatives. Key components of the bill include: enhanced border security provisions with enforcement target deadlines; mandatory usage of the federal electronic employment verification system (E-Verify); a new
low-skilled visa category for workers in manufacturing; and, controversially, a 13-year “pathway to citizenship” for undocumented workers living in the U.S. Estimates from the Pew Hispanic Center indicate more than 800,000 illegal immigrants were living in Florida in 2010, making up 4.5 percent of the state’s total population. About 600,000 of those people were actively working, accounting for 6.6 percent of the Florida workforce. Senior Florida Sen. Bill Nelson (D) has expressed support for the principles behind the Gang of Eight bill but has not indicated how he will vote. The Senate Judiciary Committee approved the bill right before Congress’ Memorial Day recess. The full Senate is expected to begin debate in June. In the House, there is a working group similar to the Gang of Eight, but several key
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House leaders have indicated a preference for passing a series of smaller immigration reform bills. The Super Region’s representatives generally have been guarded in their comments, although a few (Reps. Corrine Brown, D-Jacksonville, and Alan Grayson, D-Orlando) have been outspoken in their support, while others (like Rep. John Mica, R-Winter Park) have taken strong stances against aspects of reform. Most have followed the examples of Reps. Ted Yoho, R-Gainesville and Bill Posey, R-Rockledge, who have spoken in favor of strong border security while also touting certain reforms. INTERNET SALES TAX. Florida’s senators split on the Internet sales tax bill that passed the Senate in early May, with Nelson supporting the measure and Rubio opposing it. The legislation would allow states to require most out-of-state vendors to collect sales taxes on behalf of the states in which the purchases are made. Estimates indicate that Florida is losing between $450 million and $800 million annually in potential e-commerce sales taxes. Nelson did not issue an official statement about the legislation, but Rubio called the measure “a
STATE BUDGET. Gov. Rick Scott (R) in late May used his line-item veto power to delete a proposed university and college tuition fee increase from the $74 billion budget approved by the Florida Legislature. In his official veto letter, Scott says, “It is my intent to maintain tuition and fees at current levels to ensure higher education and workforce development are affordable and accessible to all Florida families and students.” Overall, Scott vetoed $368 million in legislative projects. In the veto letter, the governor did tout many of his initiatives, including teacher pay raises, $45.5 million in economic development incentives, $18 million for Enterprise Florida (which encourages businesses to relocate to the state) and $63.5 million for VISIT Florida (the state tourism program). Not everyone in the Super Region was happy with his economic development priorities. Heather Kenyon, CEO of the Tampa Bay Technology Forum, in the May 24 edition of the Tampa Tribune criticized Scott’s decision to veto $332,000 for Tampa Bay Workforce Alliance grants. SUPER BOWL SNUB. The NFL’s May 21 decision to award the 2016 and 2017 Super Bowls to Santa Clara, Calif., and Houston doesn’t directly affect the Super Region, but leaders here may want to take note. In both cases, the league rejected a bid from South Florida’s Sun Life Stadium. Why would the NFL snub its favorite Super Bowl location (South Florida and New Orleans have hosted 10 games each)? League officials apparently are miffed that the Florida Legislature rejected a bill that would have provided state support for Sun Life Stadium renovations. Opened in 1987, the stadium is now considered “old” by NFL standards. Tampa Bay has hosted four Super Bowls.
LEGISLATIVE REPORT terrible idea that will crush small businesses.” Rubio believes the benefit of extra sales tax revenue is outweighed by the burden on Florida businesses, which will have to collect taxes on their sales to other states’ citizens. Nationwide, an estimated $11.4 billion in sales taxes go uncollected. The Super Region’s representatives ultimately may never have to vote on the legislation because the bill faces major roadblocks in the House. FARM BILL. High tech is in the spotlight these days, so it’s easy to forget the Super Region was founded on farming, which remains an economic force today. Florida is the nation’s No. 1 citrus producer (67 percent of oranges and 65 percent of grapefruits), and more than half of all the state’s citrus comes from four Super Region counties—Polk, Highlands, DeSoto and Hardee. The state also leads the nation in many vegetable crops, including fresh market tomatoes (44 percent of the U.S. total). That’s why the 2013 Farm Bill, passed in May by the House and Senate agriculture committees, isn’t just for Midwest farmers and policy wonks. The bill provides block
/ policy making in action grants to assist citrus and vegetable farmers and authorizes pest-eradication programs that are essential to protecting those crops. One Super Region representative, Tom Rooney, R-Okeechobee, is in a unique position of influence on the legislation. In 2012, he was a senior member of the House Agriculture Committee that wrote the draft on which this year’s legislation is based and now is a member of the House Appropriations Committee, serving on the Agriculture Subcommittee that will fund the Farm Bill’s provisions. LEGISLATIVE SCORECARD. High-school civics doesn’t provide a reality check about the average bill’s chances of ever becoming law. With government more divided than ever, slightly more than 10 percent of all bills introduced these days ever make it through Congress. Nonetheless, the Super Region’s representatives already have introduced a combined 62 bills and two proposed constitutional amendments. Grayson and Posey have been the most active so far, with 14 and 12 bills, respectively. Also, Rep. C.W. Bill Young, R-Indian Shores, chairs the House Defense
UCF Knights
Appropriations Subcommittee and is responsible for writing and passing the fiscal year 2014 Defense Appropriations Bill, an extremely complex measure. Things are the same in the Senate, where Florida’s senators have introduced a combined 21 bills. Remember that Rubio is playing a major role in the immigration bill, and Nelson chairs the Senate Aging Committee, which has jurisdiction over issues affecting Florida’s senior citizens. Here are some notable bills introduced by the Super Region’s congressional delegation during the past few months: H.R. 1757 (Posey)—requires the Department of Health and Human Services to conduct a comprehensive study of risks, including autism, in vaccinated and unvaccinated populations. The bipartisan bill stems in part from Posey’s unease with the government’s response at a hearing last fall about vaccine risks. H.R. 1820 (Young)—prohibits the federal government from issuing offshore drilling permits, unless a government-approved comprehensive oil-spill plan is in place. The bill does require the government to approve or reject a plan within 150 days of submission.
Bigger. Better. For more than 50 years! /ucfalumni
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Q TRANSIT
A TO B AND BACK
In the BTL concept, public transit and public toll agencies are partners in financing, operating and maintaining the express lanes.
PREMIUM CORRIDORS By
Joe Waggoner
BUS TOLL LANES COULD BE A WIN FOR COMMUTERS, PUBLIC TRANSIT AND TOLL AGENCIES.
I
magine a transportation solution that reduces traffic congestion, improves public transit finances and is sensibly and efficiently funded. That, in a nutshell, is the Bus Toll Lane (BTL) concept, a transportation innovation that is gaining traction around the U.S. and might soon be adopted in Tampa Bay. A recent study conducted by the Tampa Hillsborough Expressway Authority (THEA) and the Hillsborough Area Regional Transit Authority (HART) indicated that the BTL concept could benefit the region in a number of ways. BTL offers premium transit service to buses traveling on special corridors added to local freeways. Private vehicles could also travel along the corridors, with fees collected by electronic tolling. Construction of these “premium corridors” would be funded by a combination of publictransit sources (such as federal grants) and tolls collected from users. This method of financing, combining short-term public transit funding with long-term toll collection funding, is an innovation that creates a financially feasible and self-sustaining public transportation solution. In the BTL concept, public transit and public
40 W EDITION 2 / 2013 • FORWARDFLORIDA.COM
toll agencies are partners in financing, operating and maintaining the express lanes. Traffic capacity on the lanes would go first to public transit. Remaining capacity would then be sold to drivers of personal vehicles. Tolls on these lanes would be “price managed,” with rates varying by time of day. Price management is a proven way to assure high-speed operations at all times. In the THEA-HART study, for example, a price-managed BTL could move nearly twice the number of people than a congested highway. Another benefit of BTL is the increased public transit ridership that results from offering express bus service in highly congested urban areas. In one scenario studied by THEA and HART, transit ridership would increase by nearly 350 percent, as commuters were drawn by attractive travel times and reduced fare costs of the BTL express bus. The bottom line: The BTL model is an innovative solution to traffic congestion. It strengthens public transit by attracting more riders. And it makes public transit agencies and toll agencies partners in a financially healthy and sustainable transportation system. . editor’s note: joe waggoner is executive director of the tampa hillsborough expressway authority, a post he’s held since august 2007. he serves on the board of directors for the international bridge, tunnel and turnpike association, as well as on the executive council of the tampahillsborough economic development corp., and served on florida gov. rick scott’s transition team for transportation. also, he’s an active member of the central florida chapter for the conference of minority transportation officials and the metropolitan planning organization for hillsborough county. [tampa-xway.com]
FINANCIAL INDEPENDENCE With the TampaHillsborough Expressway Authority celebrating its golden anniversary in 2013, call this an achievement 50 years in the making. Through the sale of more than $455 million in bonds, THEA attained financial independence from the state of Florida last December. The action enabled THEA and the Florida Department of Transportation to terminate their lease-purchase agreement and confirm THEA’s absolute ownership of the Lee Roy Selmon Expressway and other assets. Additional local road construction projects will receive new funding, thanks to a bond sale, including part of the I-4 Connector, which will provide a toll link between Interstate 4 and the Selmon Expressway.
To commemorate its 50th anniversary, THEA created a this logo—and gained financial independence.
ENROLL TODAY! www.LeadershipOrlando.org
William G. Oakley, President & CEO Goodwill Industries of Central Florida, Inc. Chair, Leadership Orlando Class 86
I
IN PARTNERSHIP / regional leadership update
REGIONAL COLLABORATION JACOB V. STUART AND STUART ROGEL TAKE THE TV STAGE TO TALK CROSS-COUNTY COHESION, GLOBAL COMPETITIVENESS AND THE NEED TO MOVE FORWARD IN UNISON.
Appearing on WUCF-TV's "Metro Orlando Outllook," Jacob V. Stuart (left) and Stuart Rogel described the dynamics and importance of regionalism.
IS WORKING TOGETHER OFTEN THE BEST WAY TO AFFECT CHANGE?
In April, during WUCF-TV's local public affairs "Metro Center Outlook," that question was posed to Jacob V. Stuart and Stuart Rogel, presidents of the Central Florida Partnership and Tampa Bay Partnership, respectively. The inquiry, coming from show host Diane Trees, in turn, sparked roughly 24 minutes of discussion on topics ranging from regional economic development to general quality of life. The short answer was, yes. The long answer was filled with examples of collaboration, synergy and the enhanced global competitiveness that results—plus the need to do more. “Regionalism gives us a chance to compete on
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the global stage; it’s working together, not just as a city or county, but as a broader footprint,” says Stuart. “We are able to build off of the strengths we have,” says Rogel. A brief geography lesson: The Central Florida Partnership is made up of seven counties, including Orange and six neighboring counties (Brevard, Lake, Osceola, Polk, Seminole and Volusia). The Tampa Bay Partnership is comprised of Hillsborough and Pinellas counties, along with Hernando, Manatee, Pasco, Polk and Sarasota counties. Among other initiatives, each group works to promote economic development and overall quality of life.
From a strict geographic perspective, the common denominator is Polk, sometimes described as the “belt buckle,” connecting Tampa Bay and Central Florida. Yet, there are many more similarities. Or, as Rogel puts it, “The issues are the same, whether we’re sitting in Tampa Bay or Central Florida.” Lengthen that footprint to encompass the nine additional counties that are part of the Florida High Tech Corridor Council, which stretches up to Alachua, Marion and Palm counties and down to DeSoto, Hardee and Highlands counties, and you have an even greater economic force. While Stuart and Rogel are regional champions, Randy Berridge, head of the Corridor Council, is hailed as the pioneer. “Randy was regional before it was cool,” says Stuart. “In many ways, Randy really pioneered this opportunity for us. And now we find great opportunities for working together.” The key word in all of this: together. Consider the numbers. When it comes to Gross Regional Product, Tampa Bay has the 18th largest tally in the United States, and Central Florida ranks 19th. Combined, Florida's Super Region ranks as the 10th largest economy in the country. Tampa/ Orlando is the seventh most populous corridor nationwide (not counting the entire Corridor Council’s footprint). Workforce Florida reports that 65 percent of job creation in the state now comes from Florida's Super Region. And by 2050, there will be only 11 mega regions in the U.S. Substantial stakes, for sure. “This is the economic engine for the state, and we want to continue and grow that,” says Rogel. “The way we do that is by understanding how we can work together for common benefit to accelerate that economic engine.” Echoes Stuart: “Regions that figure this out the fastest will get to the finish line early and have a competitive advantage.” On the show, Trees, who is director of the Metropolitan Center for Regional Studies at the University of Central Florida, asks: How did the Partnership presidents come together? Stuart tells of a phone call he received from Rogel a few years ago, as the Tampa Bay Partnership was reaching out for help in attracting financing for transportation, primarily regarding Interstate 4. Dialogue began. “I will always be grateful for that call,” Stuart says. With the door opened to working together, the Partnerships commissioned a study, called “Connecting for Global Competitiveness,” to guide the process. Collective regional assets were identified, encompassing education; transportation; logistics; recreation; the environment and more,
with an eye on working in concert to maximize those assets. The study, for example, identified 92 institutions of higher learning in the Tampa/ Orlando corridor (again, not counting the entire footprint of the Florida High Tech Corridor Council). By contrast, metropolitan Boston, traditionally recognized as a center of academia, has 93. “We asked the question, ‘How do we capitalize on those assets, and how do we take advantage of the opportunities?” Stuart says. Today, the dialogue continues, and while many issues, areas and sectors have been engaged, much of the talk remains centered on transportation. “We are the last to introduce a train to move people around,” says Stuart. “That gives other regions a distinct advantage when it comes to attracting the ‘creative class’—young people want these assets in place.” He points to SunRail, which is scheduled to become operational next year, with a 31-mile first phase linking Orlando to DeBary in Volusia County. “SunRail is not just for the Central Florida region; it really is tip of sphere for the Super Region,” Stuart says. “We want to see that move all the way across the Central Florida-Tampa Bay corridor.” Rogel acknowledges that although the well-documented failure of high-speed rail was a “setback,” the commitment to regionalism hasn’t waned. “The real connection points for the Super Region are the business and commerce that is transacted every day,” he says. “The reality is that Tampa Bay and Central Florida are growing together, and we need to connect them more effectively with modern transit.” Trees inquires about the future “next steps.” The response: a sustained, unified front, particularly involving lawmakers. The Tampa-Orlando regional delegation represents more than half of the state Senate and House. “We’re stronger when we play together,” asserts Stuart, alluding to visits with legislators as a duo. “When we both show up, it gets people’s attention. “Congressmen and congresswomen come to power by district. But to really lead they have to be beyond the borders of their districts.” Clearly, the message is regionalism. “The Tampa Bay region and the Central Florida region are unique, and they complement each other,” Rogel concludes. “So it just makes sense to be able to work together.”
Host Diane Trees, director of the Metropolitan Center for Regional Studies at UCF, asked about next steps. Stuart and Rogel cited the need for a sustained, unified front, particularly involving lawmakers.
About
“METRO CENTER OUTLOOK” WUCF-TV's local public affairs "Metro Center Outlook" serves as a forum for government leaders, business executives and academic experts to discuss Florida's major issues. Hosted by Diane Trees, director of the Metropolitan Center for Regional Studies at the University of Central Florida, the series gives viewers a frontrow seat to discussions about politics, the economy, education and more. The UCF Metropolitan Center for Regional Studies—more commonly known as the UCF Metro Center— was established in 2001 and serves as a bridge between the university campus and the community.
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HOW2
/ expert tips and advice
HEALTH CARE REFORM’S FINANCIAL IMPACT Business owners, beware: New fees and penalties related to employee health insurance could injure your bottom line. by KAREN THOMAS and MARNI SPENCE
As we begin to experience the effects of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), business owners need to be aware of the additional fees that will be assessed on employers that provide group health plans. FEES TO FUND RESEARCH ON PATIENTCENTERED OUTCOMES
PPACA created the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) to promote research that compares health outcomes and clinical effectiveness. PCORI is to be funded, in part, by fees assessed on health insurers and sponsors of self-insured group health plans. The PCORI fee will first be assessed with respect to plan or policy years ending after Sept. 30, 2012. It is equal to $1 multiplied by the average number of covered lives for the first plan or policy year ending on or after Oct. 1, 2012. The fee will be equal to $2 multiplied by the average number of covered lives for policy or plan years ending after Sept. 30, 2013. If a group health plan is funded, the health insurer is responsible for calculating and paying the fee. If the company sponsors a self-insured plan, the company is responsible for the fee. TRANSITIONAL REINSURANCE FEE
The transitional reinsurance program will require health insurance issuers, as well as certain plan administrators on behalf of self-insured group health plans, to make contributions to a transitional reinsurance program for the three-year period beginning Jan. 1, 2014. Reinsurance
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contributions will be used to make reinsurance payments to health insurance issuers that cover high-risk individuals in the individual market for the three-year period beginning Jan. 1, 2014. PAY-OR-PLAY PENALTIES
In 2014, large employers with 50 or more full-time equivalent employees could be subject to two potential penalties. The No Insurance Penalty subjects certain employers to a penalty of $2,000 per employee (excluding the first 30 full-time employees) under specific conditions. The Unaffordable Coverage Penalty applies if an employer offers its full-time employees the opportunity to enroll in coverage under an employer plan that either is unaffordable (relative to an employee’s W-2 income) or does not provide minimum value. This penalty is $3,000 for every employee who receives a subsidy for coverage in a state exchange. The factors that trigger additional costs are: 1. A HIGH NUMBER OF FULL-TIME EMPLOYEES CURRENTLY WAIVING HEALTH INSURANCE. If employer-sponsored
insurance becomes “affordable” for individuals who have foregone coverage in the past, this will increase employee participation and costs. 2. EMPLOYER CONTRIBUTIONS TO HEALTH INSURANCE PREMIUMS.
premiums. There is a break point at which it is more financially advantageous for a company to pay insurance premiums than penalties. Premiums are tax deductible; PPACA penalties are not. • Employers that contribute more than $3,000 annually toward employee premium costs will save money for every employee who goes to the exchange and receives subsidies. The employer has an incentive to not provide “affordable” coverage in this situation. 3. OVERALL PREMIUM COSTS AND AFFORDABILITY. Companies with employees
earning less than 400 percent of the Federal Poverty Level (FPL) will be disadvantaged in 2014 if they offer highpremium plans; the plans will not be affordable unless the companies cover most of the costs. THREE OTHER FACTORS TO CONSIDER:
1. If a company’s wages for each of its fulltime employees exceeds 400 percent FPL, it will pay no penalties but may see more employees enroll in the employeesponsored insurance. 2. Exchange subsidies vs. employer contributions to insurance. 3. Employers who drop health insurance coverage.
• Employers that pay all or a significant portion of the premium costs for their employees are less likely to have fulltime employees qualifying for exchange subsidies, since the premiums will be affordable (less than 9.5 percent of W-2 wages).
editor’s note: karen thomas, cpa, and marni spence, cpa, are partners at cliftonlarsonallen llp. thomas has more than 17 years of audit and tax experience in public accounting and works closely with businesses on their health care and retirement plans. spence has more than 20 years of tax experience in public accounting and works closely with privately held businesses on their tax planning and compliance issues. [cliftonlarsonallen.com]
• Companies benefit from deductibility of their contributions to employee
for more on this topic, go to forwardflorida.com.
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W
WELLNESS / your personal bottom line
DO YOU SMELL?
Advice: Stop and smell the roses. It will make you feel better. By
Smell
Kim Johnson
is a very powerful sense. It’s a wonderful gift that will hopefully enable us to experience many more uplifting odors than repulsive ones. The ability to smell is one of the key ways we are able to engage our environment. Understanding the basics of how the sense of smell works can help us appreciate it more deeply and inspire us to use it more extensively to explore the wide spectrum of aromas in the world. So, the question is: If exercise is that beneficial, why don’t more people do it?
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WELLNESS / your personal bottom line the kitchen or dining room. Bay leaves, rosemary, sage, lavender and bergamot smell particularly wonderful. Hang dried herbs in cupboards.” 5. Fill dishes with potpourri that include items like dried rose petals, violets, jasmine, lillies of the valley, marigolds, larkspur, pinks, sage, rosemary, bergamot, lavender, lemon verbena and chamomile. You can also add aromatic herbs, spices, wood shavings, pine cones, cinnamon sticks and other great smelling elements to scent the air. 6. Utilize scent warmers or reed diffusers. Reed diffusers are a certain kind of reed with one end in aromatic oil and the other sticking up out of a container. They require no flame. 7. Grow an indoor herb garden and raise pleasant smelling house plants. The connection between smells and emotion is why aromas can also significantly affect our moods. It’s a linkage that advertisers love to exploit. Real estate agents, for example, may tell a homeowner to have cookies baking in the oven during an open house. Many marketing companies try to figure out how smells can motivate people to buy everything from food to clothing. One savvy pastor used the smell-mood connection to make a sermon illustration come alive. As he spoke about popcorn, someone directed the odor of freshly cooked popcorn into the ventilation system, where it then wafted over the delighted congregation. Our noses are true marvels. Understanding and appreciating their intricacies can help us become more conscious of the aromas around us and can also motivate us to make better use of our noses to proactively seek out and experience new smells. We could even take our own “Aroma Safaris.” Since smells can be so enjoyable and uplifting, here are ways to turn your environment into an aroma haven: 1. Use scented candles. 2. Add scented oil to humidifiers.
8. Boil herbs to release wonderful scents. Boil water in a pan then remove from heat. Add a few whole cinnamon sticks, whole cloves and a small amount of nutmeg. Add fragrant oils as desired. Skins from citrus fruits also work well. 10. Display soaps in a basket. 11. Dilute fragrant oil with water and spray around your home. 12. Air out the house and let nature’s aromas in. Take the aroma of chocolate. The science of “sensomics” has broken down that intoxicating smell into its various chemical components. It turns out that the aroma we know as chocolate is made up of a combination of substances that individually smell like potato chips, cooked meat, peaches, raw beef fat, cooked cabbage, human sweat, earth, cucumber and honey. Put them all together and our brain says, “Chocolate!” The more we know about the gift of smell, the more we are able to appreciate it and use it gladly to inhale the wonderful aromas in our environment that can be every bit as delightful as the heady scent of chocolate itself.
ARTS EQUAL
WELLNESS Like or loathe the performing arts, you’ll enjoy wellness benefits just by showing up, recent research suggests. While previous studies have indicated a lower risk of dementia among those who engaged in active “brain exercise,” such as playing board games, doing puzzles or learning other languages, researchers of this study were interested in the impact of more “receptive” pursuits, such as watching a play or perusing new art exhibits. To investigate, Norwegian scientists looked at lifestyle data for roughly 50,000 men and women of all ages, comparing these to questionnaires aimed at gauging levels of anxiety, depression and life satisfaction, among other variables. Interestingly, those who favored more “receptive” activities reaped similar wellness rewards to those who engaged in more active pursuits, such as volunteering, joining clubs and doing outdoor activities. Men, in particular, lowered anxiety by enjoying the arts.
3. Display flowers in vases. 4. Hang up bunches of flowers or herbs. Jill Blake, author of “Healthy Home” (A Practical and Resourceful Guide to Making Your Own Home Fit for Body, Mind and Spirit), advises people to “hang sweetsmelling flowers or bunches of herbs in
editor’s note: kim johnson is a popular writer, speaker and fervent advocate for holistic living. as the author of three books, 11 lesson series and many articles, his writings focus on healthy living and spiritual connectedness. among his efforts is the creation health life guide series. content sponsored by florida hospital healthy100.org.
According to one study, "receptive" pursuits, including art appreciation, can improve wellness, especially among men.
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B
BY THE NUMBERS / figures and facts BIG IMPACT
HOSPITALS
The healthy contributions of hospitals served as a badly needed Rx to an ailing economy in recent years. This tally of 2011 (the most recent complete data) shows both strength and steady growth.
2,700,000,000 Florida's hospitals provided more than $2.7 billion in benefits to their communities in 2011. This included $1.4 billion in charity care; $745 million in Medicaid and other means-tested government programs; $348 million in health professionals’ education, research and workforce development; $209 million in community health improvement; and $41 million in community-building activities.
927,768
301
Florida hospitals were responsible for 927,768 jobs and contributed more than $120 billion in economic impact. For example, $56,437 was the average annual earnings for a hospital employee in the state.
In 2011, there were 301 hospitals (non federal, licensed) operating in Florida. Those hospitals operated in 59 of the state’s 67 counties and totaled 63,774 beds.
468,439 Total hospital employment (full-time and part-time jobs) across the Super Region equaled 468,439. This included 203,149 in Metro Orlando; 154,787 in Tampa-St. Petersburg; 74,364 in Sarasota-Bradenton; and 36,139 in Gainesville. (Metro Orlando also included Citrus, Hardee, Flagler and Marion counties.)
Florida hospitals experienced steady growth from 2009 to 2011. The number of hospitals increased by 3.4 percent, and hospital beds increased by 2.7 percent. Total revenue increased by 14.8 percent in inflation-adjusted terms; non-local revenue increased by 15.1 percent; and operating expenses increased by 1.6 percent. The number of full-time employees increased by 1.7 percent, while total employment impacts rose by 25.5 percent. Total output impacts increased by 22.2 percent (inflation adjusted); value-added increased by 29.3 percent; labor income by 24.8 percent; and other property income by 44.0 percent.
3.4
14,950,000,000 Among the largest value-added economic impacts statewide were recorded in Metro Orlando ($14.95 billion); Tampa-St. Petersburg ($12.61 billion); Sarasota-Bradenton ($5.86 billion); and Gainesville ($2.69 billion). Value-added encompasses all employee compensation, business profits, property income, capital consumption (depreciation) and indirect business taxes.
48 W EDITION 2 / 2013 • FORWARDFLORIDA.COM
74,898 Among the largest individual counties in terms of “total employment impacts,” including multiplier effects, were Hillsborough (74,898); Orange (64,990); Pinellas (58,422); Alachua (32,902); Polk (27,421); Brevard (23,491); and Volusia (22,967)
In 2011, a total of 132 hospitals operated across the 23-county Super Region.
132
SOURCES: FLORIDA HOSPITAL ASSOCIATION; UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA FOOD AND RESOURCE ECONOMICS DEPARTMENT; “ECONOMIC CONTRIBUTIONS OF FLORIDA HOSPITALS” (MARCH 2013)
CenterState Bank. Your
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Dale Dreyer
Community President West Polk County 863-688-5294
corridor. We are eager to earn your business, and we will make your success the center of our focus and attention.
Tim Pierson
President North Region Pasco/Lake/Sumter/Volusia Counties 813-783-8122
Jerry Ball
Community President Hillsborough County 813-689-1231
Paul Gerrard
Community President East Polk County 863-678-6627
David Donato
Community President Nature Coast 352-592-6868
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PARTING SHOT / people and places across the super region
NEW GROWTH CLINICAL AND TRANSLATIONAL RESEARCH BUILDING UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA
Count another major research facility on campus at the University of Florida. Scheduled to open this fall, the three-wing, 120,000-square-foot Clinical and Translational Research Building will house patient-oriented research venues for the Institute on Aging and the Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI). Construction costs are approximately $45 million, with $15 million coming from a National Institute of Health American Recovery and Reinvestment Act grant awarded to the Institute on Aging. The Institute on Aging will have a one-stop center in the building, making it easier for mobility-restricted older adults to participate in clinical trials; a geriatric medicine multispecialty clinic also will be located in the building. In addition, the Institute’s presence will strengthen connections among existing UF research centers, including the Claude D. Pepper Older Americans Independence Center, the CTSI and the Cognitive Aging and Memory Clinical Translational Research Program. The CTSI, to be headquartered in the building, serves as the hub of an expanding research network that connects all 16 UF colleges, as well as UF Health and the North Florida/South Georgia Veterans Health System. PHOTO COURTESY OF UF PHOTOGRAPHY/ERIC ZAMORA
50 W EDITION 2 / 2013 • FORWARDFLORIDA.COM
EVERY PHOTO IS WORTH A THOUSAND WORDS.
OURS IS WORTH A
BILLION DOLLARS.
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This region seen above by satellite looked a lot different in 1995 before our universities joined hands and created the Florida High Tech Corridor Council to grow high tech industry and employment. Today (at right) it shines brighter than ever before with high tech employment at an all-time high. In fact, a recent study showed the Florida High Tech Corridor ranked as the fourth largest tech hot spot for jobs. Thanks to the Corridor’s Matching Grants Research Program, Florida’s investment of $55 million has created 1,200 applied research project partnerships with 350 companies with a verified downstream impact of more than $1 billion generated from sales contracts, patents, federal and other grants … not to mention the jobs our partner companies are creating.
www.FloridaHighTech.com
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