Spring Events in Avalon Park Wesley Chapel
Mark your calendars for these exciting spring events presented by Avalon Park Wesley Chapel and our community partners!
Jazz Nights
First up is Jazz Unplugged, a new jazz series presented by Coffee Speaks ‘N Tea Talks Entertainment. The event will take place on Saturday, March 18th from 7 to 10 pm at the Center for The Arts in Wesley Chapel featuring Kim Waters. This event is the perfect opportunity to come together with friends and enjoy smooth jazz, soulful blues, and melodic R&B. Visit JazzUnplugged. com to learn more and get your tickets today!
Next is Jazz Under the Starz, which returns on Saturday, April 8th from 7 to 9 pm at the Avalon Park Wesley Chapel Amenity Center. Come enjoy a lovely evening under the stars with live jazz musicians, art, live painting, food trucks, and more!
Pasco Arts
Are you an art lover? Join our friends and partners at the Pasco Fine Arts Council in celebrating the arts in New Port Richey through live music, art activities, and of course, shopping local art! Stroll down Main Street to experience it all for yourself every fourth Friday of the month from 6 to 9 pm.
Upcoming Art Walk dates:
- Friday, March 24, 6-9
- Friday, April 28, 6-9
- Friday, May 26, 6-9
Additionally, Pasco fine Arts Council is hosting a Benefit for the Arts & Silent Auction on Saturday, March 25th
starting at 6 pm at their Pasco Fine Arts Center. Wine and appetizers will be served. To learn more about this and other PFAC events, visit pascoarts.org
Avalon Park
Finally, don’t miss Avalon Park’s annual multi-cultural celebration, Absolutely Avalon, taking place on Saturday, April 15th. This event is free and open to the public and will feature international food and music, local vendors, a kids bounce and play area, community performances, and a spectacular laser light show to close out the night. A special thank you to our friends at ensolar for sponsoring this event!
We want to provide opportunities for you to participate in our community. Do you offer a product or service that would be a great fit for an upcoming event? Apply to be a vendor and share your products with thousands of attendees. Vendor opportunities are available for all upcoming events! Check out all opportunities at Vendors | Avalon Park Wesley Chapel
For a full list of family-friendly events, visit us at AvalonParkWesleyChapel.com and follow us on social media @AvalonParkWesleyChapel.
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that make up our community. This event has always been a favorite one for me.
As an immigrant who came to America from Switzerland almost 30 years ago, and I am deeply thankful for all the opportunities this land of the free continues to give me.
Over the years I have truly became a “global citizen.” I am writing this column on a flight from Zurich, Switzerland to Bangkok, Thailand, where I will connect to Taipei, Taiwan. From there, a quick visit to our offices in Osaka, Japan and then come back to the US next week via San Francisco, hence traveling around the world in a little over a week!
Our diversity is not just visible when I travel the world. When asked what the strength of Avalon Park Group “APG” is, I always say our diversity and internationality. Even back in Orlando, a typical day will start with picking up 2 coffees from Karen at Marketplace (she was born in South Korea). One of the coffees is for Marybel, APG‘s CFO and my co-captain, she is Dominican / Lebanese and was born and raised in Puerto Rico. Upon getting to the 4th floor in my office I will see Cynthia and Alba both born in Peru. On any single morning I will be in touch with team members in Asia, Europe, and America.
working between Singapore and Switzerland. I truly believe once people from all over the world live, learn, work and play together great things can be accomplished. Different cultures bring different knowledge, ideas, and experience. Almost every political, business, and personal problem is the result of weak or non-communication. Once people from all over the world have the ability to meet colleagues with vastly different backgrounds and work together, the benefits from each other’s knowledge and strengths help “global problems” get solved much easier.
Immigrants made the US the greatest county in the world. They left their home country and came to the promised land. Many became very successful in culture, art or business. By leaving their native land, they demonstrated risk tolerance and adventurism.
It is getting dark as my plane leaves the Turkey air zone, approaching Iraq, then Iran and via Pakistan, India. I will land in Bangkok early in the morning local time, late in the night Switzerland time.
My journey will bring me together with people from all over the world, and it is deeply refreshing, and I always learn a lot from other cultures.
This is why I love the celebration of the diversity in our community in events like Absolutely Avalon. I hope to see you all there next month, where we can share our experiences together!
PUBLISHER Beat Kahli EDITOR Stephanie Lerret MANAGING EDITOR Marielle Fernandez ART DIRECTOR Kenzie Farrish The Avalon Park Sun is published by Avalon Park Group. Interested in Advertising with us? Email Marketing@AvalonParkGroup.com or call 407.658.6565. 3801 Avalon Park East Blvd. #400 Orlando, FL 32828 www.AvalonParkSun.com
Update from Pasco County Commissioner Seth Weightman
I hope you had lovely February!
I’m appreciative of the opportunity to provide these updates to you about what is happening around Pasco County.
February brought an exciting new attraction to our community in PopStroke. Founded by Greg Bartoli, the mini-golf course is designed by Tiger Woods’ design company to feel like a real golf course, but for putting. They also have a playground, restaurant and all ages and skill levels are welcome. Pasco County’s tourism office, Florida’s Sports Coast, welcomed PopStroke with a ribbon cutting ceremony. I’m grateful the PopStroke Team chose to invest in Pasco County!
This column is a summary of what happens in a month, but there are always two County Commission meetings, an MPO meeting, committee meetings and much more. There is always something going on policy wise. You can view these meetings on Pasco County’s YouTube page, search Pasco County, Florida Government.
March will bring the start of the Florida Legislature’s annual session. This year, I’m looking forward to working with our delegation on a couple of key projects to improve safety for kids walking to school. Pasco County is fortunate to have a great delegation in Tallahassee. The Avalon Park area has two great members in Representative Randy Maggard and Senator Danny Burgess.
Thank you again for taking the time to read these updates. Remember, you can always catch up on the latest happenings on the Pasco County website at MyPasco.net
On February 17th, I was honored to participate in the opening ceremony for the Cricket Council of USA and Tampa Cricket League President Cup Tournament at Wesley Chapel District Park. I was able to take a ceremonial at-bat. There were teams from Bermuda, Arkansas, Miami and elsewhere playing in the tournament. I welcomed them to our community and wished them the best of luck.
About: Commissioner Seth Weightman represents District 2 on the Pasco County Commission. He lives in San Antonio with his wife and two children.
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SMARTstart Member to Launch Flagship FinTech Product at Synapse Summit
Šóta Signal AnalyticsTM, a product of Fraud Doctor®, is now LIVE with its flagship offeringPressure Risk Šóta Scores.
Pasco EDC SMARTstart incubator member, Fraud Doctor, will launch their new Šóta Signal Analytics product at the Synapse Summit at Amalie Arena on February 14, 2023. Šóta Signal Analytics helps organizations that value transparency in company financial statements by providing an early warning system of otherwise hidden risks of material financial misstatements and potential corporate fraud. The FinTech’s founders will be exhibiting Šóta at a booth with live demonstrations of the product Pressure Risk Šóta ScoresTM.
The company’s leaders, Alexis C. Bell and Paul Dunlop, joined SMARTstart with their existing professional services business, Fraud Doctor, in August of 2021. This followed successful prototyping of their analytics innovations at the United Kingdom’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and City of London Corporation (CoLC) Pilot Digital Sandbox earlier that year. The founders are based at the SMARTstart at the Grove Entrepreneur Center in Wesley Chapel. SMARTstart is a Pasco EDC program, funded through the Penny for Pasco, which helps entrepreneurs start and grow their ideas and businesses. Bell and Dunlop are supported by Dan Mitchell, SMARTstart Program Director, through business coaching and connectivity to the Florida tech ecosystem.
“This is an exciting time for
Pasco County, and Florida as a whole, as more tech companies and innovative creators choose to start their firms here,” says Dan Mitchell, SMARTstart Program Director. “I have enjoyed watching Alexis and Paul nurture and develop their products and am confident they will do many more great things in this field.”
The Šóta products are unique in the SaaS, AltData marketplace. They currently have Pressure Risk scored over 91,000 publicly-traded companies, covering 175 stock exchanges, in over 100 countries. Diverse use cases include market regulation supervisory tech, regulatory tech, and academic research. There are specific use cases for accountants, auditors, attorneys, and other professionals engaged in governance, risk & compliance (GRC). Šóta offers new insights in the due diligence for mergers & acquisitions; investment professionals in capital markets; and insurance professionals where transparency into a company’s true financial condition is critical.
“With the support and encouragement of the Pasco EDC team, we are pulling off something quite unique and remarkable,” said Alexis C. Bell, Founder & CEO. “Our Šóta Scores support what we call reporting veracity; discovering the risk of inauthentic financial reporting. Stakeholders no longer need to wait to hear about major risk issues as a surprise in the news, after the fact. We designed the solution to be flexible to empower those organizations that need to have better risk insights for
the financial condition of their corporate clients, vendors, and investment portfolios. They can see risk scores at the individual company level, by peer groupings, and even across a country’s entire market.”
Šóta Signal Analytics is a B2B, software-as-a-service (SaaS) that produces Šóta Scores on a given organization, providing an early warning for the risk of material misstatements due to possible fraud (intentional) or mismanagement (typically unintentional). For more information, go to https:// sotascores.com.
About Pasco Economic Development Council
The Pasco Economic Development Council is committed to developing Florida’s most competitive climate for business growth by providing businesses that seek to start, move, or grow in the North Tampa Bay area, a comprehensive suite of programs that can help them to reach their full economic potential. Since 1987, Pasco EDC has fostered a strong partnership funded by corporate and public investors focused on the economic vitality of Pasco County. Discover more at www.pascoedc.com.
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