The 2010 Hot Concepts! Awards will be presented during Nation's Restaurant News' 51st Annual Multi-Unit Foodservice Operators Conference at the Gaylord Palms Resort  from October 3-5, 2010. Pizza Fusion, the all-natural and eco-friendly restaurant franchise has been selected as one of Nation’s Restaurant News Hot Concepts of 2010. The rapidly growing franchise is continuing its expansion on a two-pronged front. First is by raising equity financing for a corporate store expansion program and secondly through aggressive area developer, multi-unit operator and franchising opportunities

New Tradeshow for Environmental Management Slated for Gaylord

    Waste & Recycling News, the leading news source for environmental management, is launching a new world-class business conference. The 2011 Corporate Recycling & Waste Conference (CRWC) is scheduled for Sept. 27-29, 2011, at the Gaylord Palms Resort. 

    The Corporate Recycling & Waste Conference will feature speakers from general businesses, the environmental management sector and government.The conference focuses on how business executives can advance their organizations’ sustainability issues while controlling expenses and maximizing profits.
      The Corporate Recycling & Waste Conference will bring together environmental executives from Fortune 1000 firms, procurement managers, sustainability officers, business owners, policymakers, commodity managers, waste handlers, recyclers, equipment manufacturers, operations managers at recycling and waste facilities, regulators, packaging experts, attorneys, consultants, educators and advocates.

Florida ranked 3rd in Cleantech Businesses

Florida is on the leading edge of cleantech innovation. Check out the new Florida Cleantech Market brief here.

Amateur Sports Capital

Based on a variety of events, Osceola County is the Amateur Sports Capital of the World. "Youth sports in general is one of the fastest growing industries around and softball in particular is growing worldwide,” says Pete Rodriguez, sports facility manager of Osceola County. “We’ve made it our goal to create the best facilities around to serve that industry.” Read more.

FCA Convention comes to Kissimmee

    The Florida Chiropractic Association's National Convention and Expo starts Thursday in Kissimmee at Gaylord Palms. The FCA has brought back and enhanced the new Plenary Session Saturday morning this year to get attendees not only a taste of what’s being offered class-wise throughout the convention, but to get everyone excited for the future of the profession. This year full courses are offered for DCs, CCPAs and CAs, CRTs and LMTs. This year’s expo will have some 400 vendor booths with products and services. Read more.

Florida among Smart Grid Leaders

    As smart grid initiatives advance in the U.S., key states -- including Florida -- are emerging as policy leaders, according to GreenTech Media. Bolstered by US$4.5 billion in federal smart-grid stimulus funding, these states are laying the groundwork for market development and shining light on the economic, technological and regulatory issues associated with smart grid’s nascent integration.
    GTM Research's latest report, United States Smart Grid Policy 2010: In-Depth Analysis of Ten Key States Driving Deployment, has identified 10 states that, in addition to leading in stimulus funding, are diversified in terms of their smart grid policy prescriptions and geography: California, Colorado, Florida, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Texas.
    Within these states are projects planned or underway by 43 grid-operating entities. Their scope ranges from multimillion-meter projects in Texas to Western Massachusetts Electric's pilot program to install 1,750 advanced meters. With such variation from one state to the next, these 10 markets can be viewed as smart-grid "case studies" for more specific, large-scale approaches in the future.

Back blogging

After a brief vacation respite, we're blogging about a little bit of everything. :)