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Tuesday's Afternoon Update
What You Need to Know About Florida Today
Goodyear Sticks with a Classic: the Blimp
For advertising and marketing, the Goodyear Blimp could be viewed as an old-fashioned technique. It's been around since 1925, moves at a slow 30 mph on average, and there are only three in the United States. But, Doug Grassian, spokesman for Goodyear in Pompano Beach, says that's what makes the blimp so effective. Even though advertisers and marketers often look to social media these days, Grassian says the blimp is just as good of a tool, if not better. There is only one blimp in all the Southeast, based in Pompano Beach. The other U.S. blimps are based in California and Ohio. There is also a blimp based in China. Pompano's is 192-feet-long, 50-feet-wide and almost 60-feet-high. The gondola attached to the bottom of the balloon cozily seats six passengers. The blimp can fly 300 miles a day and goes basically anywhere in the southeast but also has had trips to New York and Philadelphia. The three U.S. blimps cover 100 national sporting events a year, Grassian said. Because sports has such a large presence in Florida - college football and basketball, major league baseball, professional tennis - the Pompano blimp is the busiest. [Source: Palm Beach Post]MUST-KNOW FLORIDIAN
Meet Miami Heat President & Head Coach Pat Riley. He has served as the head coach of five NBA championship teams and last year he pulled off what has been called "the greatest free-agent coup in NBA history." |
UF Led Team Sequences First Citrus Genomes
A University of Florida-led group of international scientists has assembled the genome sequences for two citrus varieties — sweet orange and Clementine mandarin — marking a first for citrus.
The Clementine mandarin sequence is the higher quality of the two, but both are expected to help scientists unravel the secrets behind citrus diseases such as greening, a deadly threat to the state’s $9 billion citrus industry, as well as aiding those working to improve fruit flavor and quality.
Florida citrus industry officials said they were thrilled, and relieved, by the news.
“The publication of the sweet orange and tangerine genomes will accelerate the discovery of innovative solutions to a myriad of pest and disease problems that threaten citrus production,” said Dan Gunter, chief operating officer of the Citrus Research and Development Foundation Inc.
Michael W. Sparks, executive vice president and CEO of Florida Citrus Mutual, a trade organization comprised of 8,000 members, called genomics “the future of not only Florida citrus, but the entire global citrus industry.” [Source: UF News]
Orange Launches Online Foreclosure Auctions
Today, the Orange County Clerk of the Court will launch a long-awaited online foreclosure auction service that allows bidders to purchase properties on the Internet rather than in the courthouse.
The clerk's office planned on getting the service last year but delayed plans as it negotiated with the vendor — realauction.com, which handles foreclosure and tax-deed auctions for about two dozen counties in the state.
The firm, which gets a flat fee per sale, will offer Orange County's auctions in real time. Other counties update their auction files daily, said Leesa Bainbridge, a spokeswoman for the clerk's office.
Orange County now auctions as many as 400 to 500 foreclosures in a day, with bidders researching properties before they sit in an auction room and bid on properties by raising their hands.
The new system allows bidders from anywhere in the world to search properties by address, city, zip code and date of final judgment, before electronically setting their maximum bid amounts. The program also provides links to property-appraisal information, which includes photos and estimates of property values.
[Source: Orlando Sentinel]
Disney to Unveil New Fantasyland Expansion Details
Walt Disney World executives are expected tonight to unveil additional details about the resort's Fantasyland expansion project, during an evening presentation to travel press inside the Magic Kingdom.
The event will mark Disney's first extended comments about the Fantasyland project since company executives acknowledged last summer that they were redrawing significant elements of a plan that was first unveiled in September 2009.
Walt Disney Parks and Resorts Chairman Tom Staggs, the former Walt Disney Co. chief financial officer who took over Disney's theme-park division at the start of 2010, said at the time that he wanted to "broaden" the appeal of the project, which focused heavily on Disney's girl-oriented princess and fairy franchises.
Though Disney has since declined to discuss project specifics, rumors have been circulating for months on various online Disney fan forums that the revised plans will include a moderate, indoor roller coaster themed around Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.
Disney has said the Fantasyland project, which it has billed as the largest expansion in the Magic Kingdom's history, will open in phases beginning in 2012.
[Source: Orlando Sentinel]
Business at a Bargain: Palm Beach County's Costs Alluring
When Richard Weissman shopped for a new headquarters for his New Jersey-based company, he considered northern Virginia and Atlanta but chose Palm Beach County.
The combination of Florida's falling home prices, low taxes and warm weather sealed the deal, said Weissman, president of The Learning Experience, a chain of child-care centers. He moved the company and about 25 employees to Boca Raton in mid-2009.
"It was definitely an economic decision," said Weissman, whose company now employs 70.
During the real estate frenzy of 2004 to 2007, few would have called Palm Beach County a bargain destination for business relocations. But in a ?recession-driven reversal, the area has emerged as an affordable place to run a business.
A new report by The Boyd Co. of Princeton, N.J., says it's cheaper to operate a corporate headquarters here than in most U.S. cities.
[Source: Palm Beach Post]
Out of the Box |
Business Beat - Week of May 3rd
