“We have been working on this product for a few years and launched it nationally in June,” commented Kelly Pounds, VP of IDEAS Learning. “We are extremely happy with the response thus far from the education community and thrilled to be recognized for this prestigious award so early in our development.”

TeacherStudio® provides a robust online resource for professional educators to collaborate by sharing best-practices via user-generated content, “templated” planning documents and communication tools. Content is universally searchable and organized into “channels” that are important to a teacher’s success in increasing student achievement – instructional strategies, classroom management tips, lesson plans, and technology how-to’s.

TeacherStudio® has already been adopted by a number of counties throughout the country including Seminole County Public Schools in Central Florida. Diane Lewis, Director of Instructional Technology in Seminole County Public Schools recently commented, “TeacherStudio® allows us to develop a common vision for teaching and learning in the 21^st century.” TeacherStudio® is also the exclusive online home of a collection of multi-media content based on the extraordinary book The Power of Teaching. Written by veteran educator Dr. Joseph Wise, Power of Teaching uses six “power sources” to demonstrate in a practical way HOW teaching can be improved.

“TeacherStudio is a truly innovative tool that is protected, school-district moderated, and user driven,” noted Brett Fadeley, CEO of eSchool Solutions. “This professional learning community is a big part of our integrated portfolio of absentee and workforce management solutions that focuses on performance enhancing products designed to improve administrative efficiencies and professional learning.”

As TeacherStudio® begins to create meaningful change in education the platform can be used for a scalable network-of-networks, creating professional communities of practice in healthcare, homeland security, and other critical enterprise and government sectors. The entire system has been designed and developed with an audience-centric, story-based protocol making it instantly intuitive. Its web based, software-as-a-service structure allows it to be offered at a low entry cost to end users with no impact on their IT backbone.

“We are deeply committed to helping educators in their day-to-day lives,” Shirley Decker, EVP, Business Development for IDEAS said. “When you can create a product that helps such an important industry and be recognized for innovative thinking that our company strives to practice every day, that’s a winning combination.”

About eSchool Solutions (http://www.eschoolsolutions.com/): Located in Orlando FL, eSchool Solutions is a leading supplier of administrative and professional development software , complete staffing and performance improvement solutions to school districts throughout the US and Canada.

About the William C. Schwartz Awards: Bill Schwartz, founder and CEO of Schwartz Electro-Optics, was a visionary whose innovative ideas pioneered change. In his spirit, the Metro Orlando EDC annually celebrates innovation and entrepreneurship with the William C. Schwartz Industry Innovation Awards. Past award recipients include Adacel Systems, CESSNA/Citation, Channel Intelligence, City of Oviedo, .decimal, Disney Shared Services, Gaylord Palms Resort & Convention Center, Indra Systems, G&T Conveyor, JetBlue University, Kissimmee Utility Authority, Lake-Sumter Emergency Medical Services, Mitsubishi Power Systems, Nursery Supplies, Ocean Optics, Planet Digital, Senninger Irrigation, Inc., Siemens Energy, Superchips, and U.S. Nutra.

Let’s start with the Mind. Your mind will either get energized or tired by the things your see and by the things you hear. Your mind is addicted to many things. The reason your mind is addicted to things is because you’ve adjusted yourself to see and hear those things in your life routine. Things that tire your mind are much more addicting than things that energize it. Here are some examples that tire your mind: Excuses or listening to excuses, drama, complaining and listening to complainers, television, especially reality shows, negative news, soap operas. Watching television thinking real life is like that will destroy your energy of mind. Associating yourself with tired personalities, etc. You get the picture. If you are surrounding yourself with these examples, you are addicting your mind to things that bring its energy down.

Examples that energize your mind: Reading a good book, networking and visiting friends, music, laughing, playing with your kids, spending a pleasant time with your spouse, loving people and over all, making people feel good. Every time you make someone feel good, the payment is double. I can’t explain it. I like calling it magic. Make the first step in re-adjusting your addiction to the examples that energize your mind.

Let’s talk about the Body. Once you have energized your mind, then you can focus on your body. Your body is the vehicle that gives you the tour of life. Is it a Ferrari, or is it a Dodge Neon? See, you already think you don’t have the energy to exercise, but that’s because you haven’t given yourself enough time to re-adjust and addict yourself to something that will bring your body energy to the next level. A Ferrari will rot if you leave it in a garage for 2 years without driving it and giving it the care it needs. It will be tough the first couple of months, but when you reach that point, you will start discovering a new you. Bottom line… your body needs to exercise and eat the right food to energize it. This doesn’t mean dieting or becoming a body builder. You don’t have to be as in shape as George Saint Pierre, but be health conscious. It means moderation in what you eat and move your butt every single day. Eating to feel good is not to diet. Enjoy eating what makes you feel good.

The other day I had an interesting thread on Facebook regarding eating behaviors and I had to put my guard down and let it go because wasting your time on things you can’t change will also tire your mind. But a Facebook member commented that he doesn’t want to look back and say he never enjoyed eating because he wanted to be in shape or take care of his body. I had to move on, but I would’ve loved to make that person see it the other way. “I would hate to look back and not been able to eat and exercise in a way for my body to perform and feel at its best”. He’ll miss out on having a strong performing vehicle. I’m not missing out on food.

Now for your Will. This will bring out energy from where you thought it never existed. Where is your heart at? What is your dream? And… WILL you go get it to make it real? If you think you have a strong Will, imagine how much more powerful it will be with a strong mind and a strong body. Those without a dream and without a WILL to get it, live a life without drive. Re-adjust your life and addict yourself with things that bring your inner super hero. It all starts by getting away from your comfort zone. Don’t start later. Don’t start tomorrow. Start RIGHT NOW! Go…

So now it’s the moment of truth….Yes IDEAS very own Doris Shepherd, VP of Finance & Controller, will be competing at the 2010 NPC Florida State Master Bodybuilding, Fitness, Figure and Bikini Championship on Saturday August 21st at the Rosen Center Hotel. I will be entering the female bodybuilding competition category in both the light weight and the masters over 40…after all I’m proud to say I’m 50 years old and can still give the younger females a run for their money. I took first place two months ago at the 2010 NPC Mid Florida classics.

It’s a lot of hard work, but it’s a great experience whether you win or lose. This is it for me in 2010. I’ll let you know how it goes….stay tuned and wish me luck. I’m so looking forward to being able to have my occasional wine, pizza, ice cream, cake etc. but always….back to the gym.

 For more details go to www.npcfloridastate.com

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Film Florida is a not-for-profit corporation that provides a leadership role in Florida’s film and entertainment industries by representing a coalition of interests, including private industry, local film commissions, industry associations and labor organizations.

Last Thursday Duncan was traveling from Greensboro, NC to upstate New York for a presentation that was Friday at 1pm. He was scheduled to leave in the early afternoon from Greensboro, land in Philadelphia, then go from Philadelphia to upstate New York. Because of storms, his flight leaving Greensboro was going to leave late and he would miss his connecting flight in Philadelphia. So Duncan is on the phone with Becci back here in Orlando trying to find another flight from Philadelphia to New York that he can get on after his flight from Greensboro lands in Philadelphia later than scheduled, none. Then they decide to have Duncan fly to Philadelphia, then get a 1-way car rental and drive from Philadelphia to upstate NY. Duncan understandably didn’t like that option because it would get him to his end destination really late Thursday night (after midnight) and would mean driving by himself in a location he’s not completely familiar with at night. As it turns out, he couldn’t get a car to do that from Philadelphia anyway. On to the next option, which would be to find a 1-way car rental in Greensboro and start driving north. Duncan would get as far as he could Thursday night, stop off at a hotel, get a few hours of sleep and get up early Friday morning and drive the rest of the way to get to Upstate NY by the 1pm presentation. He didn’t like that idea more than the previous one because it’s more driving in less than familiar territory with less sleep. At that time though, it was the best option so Duncan was about to head out on his road trip. Just as Becci was making those arrangements for Duncan, he found a flight from Philadelphia that, because people on other connecting flights were going to be late and miss that flight, seats opened up for him. So he was delayed in Greensboro, eventually got to Philadelphia, got on his later connecting flight and ended up in his hotel room in upstate NY after midnight but at least he didn’t have to drive. He woke up in the morning, worked with Shirley, who had much better luck getting there, and they presented after lunch, presentation went very well and then it was off to the airport again.

Duncan had issues getting there, getting home went smoothly for him. Shirley, on the other hand, had issues getting back from New York. There was not much time between the end of the presentation and Shirley’s flight back to Orlando so as soon as the presentation was over and everyone shook hands and it was a sprint to the airport. Once she got there she found out he flight was delayed. That info would have been nice to have as she was sprinting back to the airport. Anyway, 3 hours later, her flight left, got back to Orlando just before midnight and was thankfully in bed by 1am.

But wait, it gets better. Rick Stone was scheduled to leave last night just after 6pm to go to Washington, DC. Just before 5pm Becci came to Christine and me and tells us Rick left one of his bags in his office and asked if one of us could run it to the airport. I rhetorically asked “how did he leave a bag in his office” but given the time restrictions I didn’t wasn’t really that concerned about the answer at that point. I left our office at 5:05pm and got to the airport as fast as legally possible. At 5:35pm I pulled up to the drop off area with Rick waiting, he opened the car door, took the bag and was off. Rick then proceeded to make his second trip through security, got on the monorail to the gate area, ran to the gate, got there at 5:50pm for his 6:05pm flight and saw the “Delayed” message on the board. After sitting at the gate for 30 minutes they announced that the flight was cancelled due to “mechanical problems with the plane”. So just as Duncan did last week, Rick scurried around trying to find a flight to DC last night so he could be at his 9am meeting this morning. He found one but instead of flying to Reagan he was now flying to Dulles (or maybe the other way around, I can’t keep it straight) so he needed to cancel his car rental from one airport and get one at the other. Another hour or so later, he was boarding his flight to DC, got there 2 hours later, got his car and arrived at the hotel after midnight.

Like I said, originally I thought people wouldn’t believe these stories but the more they kept happening it occurred to me that people do this all the time, this is nothing new. Thus, the joys of business travel.

-Elba Elizondo, Rasaland Development

To learn more about what we’re doing for Rasaland Development visit http://ideasorlando.com/projects/chala/#hospitality

We developed the creative backbone for both projects last September in a StoryJam and since have developed the concepts through our Experience Design process so that in a couple of weeks, the entire team will be meting with the master planners and architects to begin to give dimensional life to the work. In the meantime, we were asked by senior management at Rasaland to assist in building a brand charter for the parent company. This week, Kelly Pounds, our VP of Learning, and I are conducting a StoryJam Conference to adopt a full brand charter for the company and design a deployment strategy. Finally, as part of our creative work, we’re producing a video to help tell the story of the first of these two remarkable projects to the world so we’re shooting tonight a biologist who will talk about the steps being taken to protect the species that live on the properties. Thursday, we’ll do interviews with the CEO of Rasaland and a regional business leader. I love my job, especially when it touches all of the centers of excellence and involves so many of the great creative minds within IDEAS.

For more about this project visit http://ideasorlando.com/projects/chala/#hospitality 

The city of Orlando is seeking $70 million in federal funds for transit infrastructure. It would connect the downtown public bus station on Amelia Street with the planned 68-acre, $800 million-plus Creative Village project, about a mile away.

Creative Village is the city’s proposed zone that would be home to a cluster of creative and educational industries and their employees. It would be built on the site of the old Amway Arena as an urban, mixed-use development with residential, as well as educational and commercial uses. Construction on the village may begin in late 2011 at the earliest and take at least 10 years to complete.

The city applied for funds from the Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) II Discretionary Grant program, which is overseen by the U.S. Department of Transportation.

The final deadline for TIGER grant applications is Aug. 23, and a decision for the grants is expected to be made in October. If chosen, the city could get the funds by early 2011. If the city doesn’t get the funds, it will reapply next year.

Orlando wants to use the money for right-of-way improvements for the proposed Creative Village, including bus stations, traffic signals and hybrid electric vehicles, as well as new pedestrian and bike paths, greenways and open spaces.

Construction for the road improvements may begin as early as fall 2011, but it has yet to be determined when the project bid information will go out, said city officials. Industry experts estimate the project would create up to 700 temporary construction jobs. The road improvement phase of the project is expected to create hundreds of jobs.

“This infrastructure work is much more intensive than one might think,” said Brooke Bonnet, deputy director of economic development for the city of Orlando.

Besides connecting the bus station to the Creative Village, the infrastructure project also would tie the planned mixed-use development into SunRail, she said. SunRail is a 61-mile,

$615 million commuter rail project slated to connect Seminole, Orange and Osceola counties.

The idea of creating more efficient transportation between the Creative Village and Lynx, Orlando’s public bus service, makes sense, said a number of downtown Orlando businesses.

“It’s absolutely critical to put the necessary ligaments and tendons in place that will hold [the Creative Village] together,” so businesses can travel to do business with each other easily, said Bob Allen, principal executive for IDEAS, an Orlando-based marketing, entertainment and intellectual property developer. The firm’s 15,000-square-foot office is within walking distance of the proposed Creative Village.

Improved transportation infrastructure also has businesses in the ailing Church Street Station entertainment complex feeling upbeat.

Take John Paonessa, owner of Hamburger Mary’s restaurant. He’s game for any improvement to downtown Orlando’s transportation that could provide him with more business. “A transportation system people would take advantage of is a good thing.”

Patti Schmidt, owner of Dessert Lady, an upscale bakery at Church Street Station, agreed: “I love the idea of anything else that can further connect us to other places.”

rbilbao@bizjournals.com   (407) 241-2888