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Southwest Florida BUSINESS TODAY ®
E Awards recognize hospitality’s heroes
The Lee County Visitor & Convention Bureau held its 21st Annual Elaine McLaughlin Outstanding Hospitality Service Awards to honor tourism professionals and their extraordinary customer service and dedication. The “E Awards” ceremony, held at the Caloosa Sound Convention Center & Amphitheater in downtown Fort Myers included approximately 400 guests. Presented by the VCB and The News-Press Media Group, the E Awards recognize Lee County’s hospitality industry employees for going above and beyond to take care of visitors. Residents, visitors and colleagues wrote 627 nominations for 467 individual nominees. Awards were presented in seven categories. A new category, the Masked Hero award, recognizes a tourism employee who provided selfless acts of support for visitors and residents during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Honor of Distinction award goes to the overall nominee who exemplifies the best in cus-
tomer service and spotlights the hospitality professionals who love their jobs, love the destination but, more importantly, love people. Selected for their exemplary service, here are the top winners: • Other Services/Businesses: Christopher Comer, Tree West • Restaurants: Jennifer Kleckner, Casa Bacardi • Transportation: Jennis Phillips and Cherry Kletschka, Transportation Security Administration • Good Samaritan: Officer Jacob Brunick, Lee County Port Authority Police Department • Attractions: Jake Graddy, Holiday Water Sports • Accommodations: Jessica Mazza, Holiday Inn Edison at Midtown • Masked Hero: JoAnn Elardo, Wicked Dolphin Rum Distillery • Tourism Boss: Jeff Webb, Hampton Inn & Suites by Hilton Fort Myers-Colonial • Honor of Distinction: Marina Bloetz, South Seas Island Resort
Finalists announced for GrowFL Companies to Watch GrowFL announced 82 second-stage growth companies are now in the running to become the next class of GrowFL Florida Companies to Watch Honorees. That includes nine finalists from Southwest Florida. Now in its 11th year, the finalists will work to complete a second-round application and go through a final round of judging in the coming weeks. The finalists were selected from more than 600 nominations from throughout Florida and represent a diverse group of growing companies representing a variety of industries. Southwest Florida’s finalists include: Commercial Property Southwest Florida (Lee); CONRIC PR + Marketing (Lee); Creative World Schools Franchising (Lee); Elite Jets (Collier); Energy Harness (Lee); Green & Clean (Lee); Paragon Flight Training (Lee); Pro-Tec (Collier); and Trilogy Laboratories (Lee). Companies to Watch was developed by the Edward Lowe Foundation as a way to recognize and honor second-stage companies that demonstrate high
Don’t forget to post your in-person and virtual events on our B2B events calendar at www.swfloridabusinesstoday.com/calendar performance in the marketplace with innovative strategies and processes. In addition to evaluating past growth and projected success, applicant companies are judged according to their special strengths and impact in their markets, communities and within the state. To qualify for the award, companies must have between 6 and 150 employees and revenue between $750,000 and $100 million in 2020. Knowing these companies were reporting employment and revenue during the height of the pandemic, it is remarkable to note that in 2020, the companies reported a total of more than 2,200 jobs and generated close to $500 million in revenue. These companies anticipate growth of 64% in revenue and 39% in employment by the end of 2021.
OCTOBER 2021
SALUTE TO ENTREPRENEURS
Cape Coral student recognized internationally for invention
Serena Kasai-Hazekamp, a rising 9th Grader from Cape Coral, was honored recently for her ingenuity at the first ever Invention Convention Globals presented Raytheon Technologies. Serena’s invention, FLDORI Alert System: Don’t Forget Your Child, placed third in the 6th through 8th Grade category. She previously won the Innovation in Automotive Award, presented by Maxim Integrated and Third Place in the 8th Grade Category at Invention Convention U.S. Nationals held this June. Kasai“My invention is designed to reHazekamp mind parents of a child in the backseat,” she said. “When the parent walks away with the key fob, it communicates with the brain through Bluetooth Low Energy. Once the BLE signal reaches a certain point of weakness, it sounds an audible alert system, capturing the parent’s attention. This invention is free from a smartphone application, and can be installed without professional assistance.” Serena was among 185 students from participating Invention Convention Nationals programs in the United States, Mexico, Singapore and China who competed in the event. “Our hope with this first global competition was that students could gain inspiration from each other and see that the problems they are facing really aren’t that different, no matter where they live,” said Patricia Mooradian, president and CEO of The Henry Ford. “It has been an amazing experience to see these young people from around the world tackle important topics that we all are facing – from climate change and the environment to health and safety issues. Their perseverance and ingenuity should be an inspiration to us all.” Invention Convention Globals participation was by invitation only. To participate, students were required to submit a video presentation of their invention, a prototype, an inventor’s logbook showing the journey of their invention process and a display board highlighting key points of the invention process.
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